Gee whiz. I'm glad I was still a piece of fairy dust when ads like this were circulating TV. This is an old, albeit excrutiatingly awkward PSA of a mom catching her preteen son, ahem, playing pocket pinball.
Her reply?
"Excuse me, Ricky. Ricky, I saw what you were doing. It felt good, didn't it? It's alright, we all have feelings like this sometimes. I'm just glad you're doing this in the privacy of your own room."
Um, versus Shabbat dinner? I'm wondering why she hasn't run out the door screaming at this point. It's as though she's been spying on poor Ricky for weeks, carefully rehearsing her "masturbation is groovy" monologue until the time is right. And then there's Ricky, with his deadpan face innocently blinking away thoughts of Goldie Hawn or Marie Osmond... or whoever kids fantasized about back in those days. His mother does exit and apologize, not without letting Ricky know that they'll soon have "a talk" about how he can control these urges in the future.
I give credit to those ad men from the '70s. What else can you do when you're handed a creative brief on juvenile masturbation? Although it would have been interesting to see a Schoolhouse Rock version air after Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.
