Different Strokes?

Ad not as!

OP thinks it was a commercial or ad not a TV show. I’m thinking of that as, and it was in black and white, where the kid is in a really bad ghetto apartment, saying “Here, kitty, kitty,” and when the camera pans down, the animal is a rat. I don’t remember the actual point, but it was some type of public service commercial.

Sesame Street on a black and white tv. Bleak but everyone seemed so happy though everything looked grimy from the comfort of my immaculate suburban home with my dad working and my mom at home making me snacks.

united negro college fund, with the tagline 'a mind is a terrible thing to waste"??? I am thinking later 80's if it is that.

Hill Street Blues

I was thinking “Welcome Back, Kotter” too!!

Luca - Suzanne Vega

Anonymous wrote:In elementary school, I remember either commercials or ads or perhaps even something in school that revolved around inner city imagery, for lack of a better way to explain it. Graffiti, basketball courts, public housing. Usually in black and white. Does anyone have similar memories? What was this? I grew up in a regular old middle class Midwest town, so this is baffling to me.

Michael Jackson Bad video

In Jackson's 1988 autobiography Moonwalk, Jackson wrote:

"Bad" is a song about the street. It's about this kid from a bad neighborhood who gets to go away to a private school. He comes back to the old neighborhood when he's on a break from school and the kids from the neighborhood start giving him trouble. He sings, "I'm bad, you're bad, who's bad, who's the best?" He's saying when you're strong and good, then you're bad.
In a 1988 interview with Ebony and Jet magazines, Jackson said he was inspired by a true story that he had read about in either Time or Newsweek.Jackson stated that the story was about a student who went to school in upstate New York, who was "from the ghetto", had tried to make something of his life and planned to leave all of his friends behind when he returned from Thanksgiving break. He added that the student's friends' jealousy resulted in them killing the student; Jackson stated that the student's death was not included in the music video (Wikipedia)

‘The White Shaddow’?

Hope this works, OP. If not, it’s the intro and outdo of Welcome Back Kotter.

https://youtu.be/Mmm3KTa601s?si=-fwtkE6RlgXXyqBi

Could you be thinking of Sanford and Son? Good Times?

None of these shows were in black and white but all seemed gritty and depressing and stark for me as a young girl growing up in dcumlandia in the mid-70s. I’m now 55.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm thinking now it might have been posters. Could it have been Just Say No campaigns?

Agree it was probably anti drug related. Like the fried egg: ‘this is your brain on drugs’ or the ‘when I grow up’ ad.

Do a video search for ‘partnership for a drug free America’

Thanks - I think this had to be it. Some of those are BLEAK.

I learned from YOU, Dad…I learned it by watching you!

I thought that was for anti-smoking ^^

(Dh and I actually use that line as an inside joke between us).

Anonymous wrote:Honda commercials

“Honda… we make it simple”

To this day I only drive a honda vehicles

And you are very smart for doing so as these vehicles tend to be built very solid + reliable as well. 👍🏽👍🏽

Anonymous wrote:Sesame Street intro titles.

Yeesss‼️
I grew up in the eighties & this was the very first thing that popped in my head after reading this post.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm thinking now it might have been posters. Could it have been Just Say No campaigns?

Agree it was probably anti drug related. Like the fried egg: ‘this is your brain on drugs’ or the ‘when I grow up’ ad.

Do a video search for ‘partnership for a drug free America’

Thanks - I think this had to be it. Some of those are BLEAK.

I learned from YOU, Dad…I learned it by watching you!