How I Personally Benefited From A War Reagan Allowed

Ending the Cold War was a major achievement for his legacy, but letting G.I. Joe fight Cobra benefitted me personally.

Depending on who you might ask about Ronald Reagan’s legacy, you’ll get different answers. I’m not going to get into the legacy here. Like most people that have been in that office, the legacy is complex. However, good, bad, or other, if you distilled his eight years as President into three things, ending the Cold War is at the top of that list. Which is good and all, but didn’t quite benefit me personally. Well, I mean it did, but not directly.

No, it was the war that Reagan allowed that mattered to me most as a kid coming up in the 1980s. That was between a highly trained special mission force and a ruthless evil organization determined to conquer the world. That’s right, I’m talking about G.I. Joe versus Cobra.

I recently saw a video on YouTube that was criticizing the Reagan Administration for removing a regulation that limited advertising geared towards kids to 7 seconds. The removal of that regulation led to the success of G.I. Joe because not only could they now advertise to kids for longer than 7 seconds, they could make an entire TV show featuring cool characters and cool vehicles and show them off on the show.

This video said this all like it was a bad thing. As somebody that would spend their afternoons watching G.I. Joe cartoons, while playing with my G.I. Joe toys, and getting ideas for what to ask for my next birthday? There was no downside.

I get how on the surface this seemed a little sketchy. I’m a parent, and I do my best to be attentive to the media my kids watch. Yet, it was totally fine. The shows were 30 minutes long, but that didn’t mean I stopped playing with the toys when it was over. From there, I would spend time using my imagination to keep the battles between G.I. Joe and Cobra going.

This is to say nothing of the famous G.I. Joe PSAs that always ran at the end of the episode. I actually was learning from these short vignettes that featured a G.I. Joe character teaching kids to stay away from dangers. They ended with the kids responding to the lesson with “now we know,” and the G.I. Joe turning to the camera to say “and knowing is half the battle.”

I’m being 100% sincere when I say these were great in the 80s and are still great today. I might just have to show them all to my kids. They sure aren’t teaching these lessons on any shows they are watching today.

I recently watched a few episodes with my son, and honestly, they hold up as well as the PSAs. The stories were well written, and the animation was solid. They could be as clever as they were exciting. You can watch full episodes over on YouTube.

There are some great shows for kids today. Bluey is really great. I scoffed at Is It Cake? but after watching a few episodes with my kids, I get it. So, I can’t wrap things up by saying, “it’s a shame there is nothing as good as G.I. Joe today.”

Instead, what I do want to say is that this show was essentially a long commercial for toys, yet the creators took it seriously. They put together a really great show with PSAs at the end of them AND sold toys. The toys wouldn’t have been as compelling without the show. Hasbro was certainly not the only toy company to get into the extended commercial business. Not many of them were as good as G.I. Joe. Art and commerce don’t always have to be at odds. When done right, even the most commercial piece of work with the great creativity, you can get something really special.

And thanks to The Gipper, now we know…and knowing is half the battle.