Blockbuster Video Tape Label c.1990

This is a once ubiquitous blockbuster VHS rental sticker label, designed to wrap around the left side of a videotape. It offers both a “kindly” rewind reminder, as well as an outright WARNING! 

Blockbuster Video, a highly successful rental chain founded in 1985, had expanded to more than 9,000 stores by the early 2000s. When a Blockbuster made its way to my small Midwestern city in the mid-1990s, it felt like we were really on the map. 

Of course, Blockbuster's largely mainstream inventory could not compare with the more varied selections of our public library, or to competitor, Hollywood Video, which emerged on the other side of town. This is to say nothing about what happened to the smaller rental operations when Blockbuster moved in. Blockbuster did at least offer some choice finds for the collector in the expansive “pre-viewed” sale bins. 

Today there is just one Blockbuster franchise store left: in Bend, Oregon.

It is amazing the sense of familiarity and even comfort that this label infuses me with. Obviously, this is branding doing its job. But there is something more: In ephemeral culture, when we find things that endure, we can be reminded of who we once were, and what mattered to us. 

I'll take that barely torn logo ticket any day of the week.