Uploaded January 2011 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
1997 commercial plays up the usefulness of the Pac Bell (now AT&T) Yellow Pages by showing that you can find so many different things in there, including provisions for a sailing trip to Tonga in 24 hours.
Viewers from the 21st Century may assume the reason for the Yellow Pages advertising it's presence is to compete with business directories on the internet. This is the case in 2010, but in 1997 the concern was rival printed directories. Other companies were printing alternate directories and distributing them to doorsteps throughout the country hoping that people would always use the most recent directory thrown on their doorstep as they always had before. Because of this, the name of the Yellow Pages became rather long and convoluted (The Pacific Bell Smart Yellow Pages) so as to differentiate from the term Yellow Pages which was becoming genericized.
This local insert spot aired during an October 26th, 1997 showing of X-files. This was season premiere week for Fox, although X-Files did not premiere until the week after.
1997 commercial plays up the usefulness of the Pac Bell (now AT&T) Yellow Pages by showing that you can find so many different things in there, including provisions for a sailing trip to Tonga in 24 hours.
Viewers from the 21st Century may assume the reason for the Yellow Pages advertising it's presence is to compete with business directories on the internet. This is the case in 2010, but in 1997 the concern was rival printed directories. Other companies were printing alternate directories and distributing them to doorsteps throughout the country hoping that people would always use the most recent directory thrown on their doorstep as they always had before. Because of this, the name of the Yellow Pages became rather long and convoluted (The Pacific Bell Smart Yellow Pages) so as to differentiate from the term Yellow Pages which was becoming genericized.
This local insert spot aired during an October 26th, 1997 showing of X-files. This was season premiere week for Fox, although X-Files did not premiere until the week after.
