There’s nothing that unites pockets of Reddit faster than remembering the good ol’ days. This week, one Redditor asked the r/AussieCasual subreddit for “extra obscure” things that existed in Australia over the late ’90s and early ’00s. The people certainly delivered, unlocking some deeply hidden memories from the back recesses of my brain.
All the usual suspects were brought up — Happy/Healthy Harold, the Lube Mobile’s “firteen-firteen-firty-two” jingle, Round The Twist and everyone’s unhealthy Tazo collections.
But there were some that clicked on a light in the darkened corners of my mind, shocking me back into my childhood with such force I feared I got psychic whiplash.
Someone brought up the MS Read-A-Thon and the 40-Hour Famine, two challenges that were fundamentally different but equally as chaotic.
Either reading as many books as you can or spending a whole weekend eating nothing but barley sugars? Bonkers behaviour (and the latter was probably a bit ethically fucked, to be honest).
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by u/firenzey87 from discussion What are some obscurely Australian things from the late 90s/early 00s?
in AussieCasual
Or Jeans For Genes day, which I distinctly remember buying a very cool pair of silver thread baggy jeans for at one point in my life.
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by u/WinnerBackground4530 from discussion What are some obscurely Australian things from the late 90s/early 00s?
in AussieCasual
Gerringong’s Natural Necessity Surf Shop ads are burnt into my brain. It really is definitely worth the drive.
As someone who visits the south coast a lot, I can confirm these ads are still running and they have not changed one bit.
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by u/palmco5 from discussion What are some obscurely Australian things from the late 90s/early 00s?
in AussieCasual
May we never speak of scoobies ever again. Wretched things.
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by u/K0alaB3ar14 from discussion What are some obscurely Australian things from the late 90s/early 00s?
in AussieCasual
Another Redditor dug up the iconic old Paddle Pop Lick-A-Prize competition, which was something that absolutely resulted in me eating an ice cream nearly every day at school whenever the game was on. I still dream of winning a Nintendo Wii or an 8GB iPod Touch sometimes.
But the one thing that smacked me like a tonne of bricks was the Channel 7 “Adopt A Dot” campaign.
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by u/B4BYBLAZE from discussion What are some obscurely Australian things from the late 90s/early 00s?
in AussieCasual
Reading those words spurred something lurking in my memory and it wasn’t until I watched the old ad for it on YouTube that it all came rushing back to me.
Phwoar the heavy nostalgia that comes with this bloody dot thing. Christ knows what it was actually for — maybe ratings or viewer research?
Either way, it’s catapulted me right back to 2000 when I was begging my mum to pick up a dot from the servo on the way home from work.
