Resources
On this page, you can find a variety of resources for searching, archiving, and preserving.Tools
* Filmot - YouTube subtitle search. AMAZING resource and should be the first place to go if you can remember an exact phrase. Unfortunately it doesn't access every YT video (ones without subtitles notwithstanding), but with millions of videos available it's still incredibly powerful for this kind of thing. Filtering by video title is particularly helpful for commercial searches.* Internet Archive and Wayback Machine - should go without saying but there's so much stuff hidden away on here. Some websites on Wayback Machine can be frustrating since the demise of Flash, but extensions like Ruffle can restore some of this content. There's also this repackaged Firefox browser by u/Cifra85, which has even fewer limitations on Flash and I strongly recommend it as a Ruffle alternative. Also on Internet Archive is their TV news collection from 2009 onwards, which features searchable captions and many of the recordings have the commercial breaks intact.
* newspapers.com - subscription service but lets you do basic searches for free. Great for tracking down print ads or articles that relate to commercials. Some members of our Discord server subscribe to the paid version, and may be willing to help with your search if needed.
Searching Social Media
* Use operators to refine searches. The specifics can differ depending on the platform, but things like encasing an exact phrase in quotation marks can often mean the difference between a useful search and a fruitless one. For Google products, "before:year" and after:year" are also very helpful. YouTube search operator guide* YouTube is not the only video sharing platform! Many creatives put their work on Vimeo in particular, so that's also worth a try if you have a general idea of what you're looking for.
* Twitter is an amazing resource for anecdotal evidence of commercials. Trying different combinations of keywords can take time, but it's been the silver bullet in ID'ing many ads and can also help to narrow down when a specific commercial aired. Other social media platforms can be similarly useful, but Facebook and Reddit etc. are more finnicky to search.
* Google Groups are defunct, but public messages remain fully searchable.
Archives and Databases
* AdForum* AdsSpot
* Lürzer’s Archive - Austrian website, but ads from across the world
* D&AD
* CulturePub - French website, but ads from across the world
* iSpot - mainly North American ads from the late 2000s onwards
* Ads of the World
* History of Advertising Trust - UK archive
* Telly Ads - another UK site, mainly TV ads from the mid-2000s to present day. Unfortunately the search function seems to break regularly but it's great when it works (despite most of the ads being in low-quality)
* Radiocentre - yet another British site, mostly radio ads from the 2000s onwards
* Bumpworthy - large selection of Adult Swim bumpers and related media
* Japanese Lost Commercials Wiki
* List of Public Information Films accessed by the UK's National Archives - this is NOT a complete list of PIFs by any means but still contains hundreds of entries
* PSA Database
* Various TV Tropes pages - lots mentioned here, but be mindful of hyperbole and dead/missing links
* Lost Media Wiki and Lost Media Wiki Forums