Crazy Eddie: Marketing At Its Finest
- 19 minutes ago
- 6 min read
Over the years, thanks to the greatness of YouTube, I’ve been able to go back and watch vintage commercials. I know that, at times, I need to stop leaning heavily on nostalgia and enjoy modern advertisements, but there’s something different about advertisements from the 1980s and 1990s.
Even though it was seeping with capitalism and totally marketed for Americans to “spend, spend, spend”, there was such a positive vibe to them. Catchy jingles, fun characters, and optimism throughout just made them impossible to forget.
Legendary ads from McDonalds, Coca-Coca, Pepsi, and Nike still resonate with people to this very day. These ads made the brand household names and, as of 2026, are stronger than ever.
However, there is one business that, to me, stood out above all others. Their relentless, yet appealing, marketing strategy had people making treks to their locations for the finest in electronic equipment. Not only that, there truthfully hasn’t been anyone since then that has promoted themselves like this.
I’m talking about CRAZY EDDIE.
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The story of Crazy Eddie is absolutely wild. Originally a family business run by Eddie and Sam M. Antar and Ronnie Gindi, Eddie’s cousin, called Sights and Sounds on Kings Highway in Brooklyn, NY in 1969. After a slow start, Eddie would buy out Gindi and take over the day-to-day operations. Eddie’s aggressive selling, combined with his incredible charisma, turned business around and ultimately renamed the business Crazy Eddie.
The business grew throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, and by the late 80s, Crazy Eddie had 43 locations across the Tri-State Area and began expansion into Pennsylvania and Connecticut. In 1984, the Antar family took Crazy Eddie public and went onto the New York Stock Exchange [CRZY].
Their pop culture relevance nationwide was truly INSANE (pun fully intended), and the majority of their popularity was thanks to their aggressive marketing and advertising campaigns.
Headed by Jerry Carroll, a disc jockey for WPIX-FM, to be the face on television, and commercials written and produced by Advertising Director Larry Weiss, Crazy Eddie, by 1983, produced over 3500 ads across both mediums.
In the mid-to-late 1970s, Mr. Weiss created some classic commercials still remembered to this day. In 1977, the company filmed a doo-wop ad in a school bathroom, singing the following lyrics:
Well now
When you think you're ready
Come down to crazy Eddie
The man whose got most everything in stereo sound
His audio selection
Will meet with your perfection
And he's got the lowest prices around
So come on down
And put him to the test
Find out for yourself
Whose prices really are the best
He'll fix you up
With the sound for your place
And he's guaranteed to put a smile on your face
So when you think you're ready
Come down to crazy Eddie
The man whose got most everything in stereo sound
And as the story goes
It's known all over the world
Crazy Eddie will not be undersold
A few months later, the company upped the ante with the spoof of Saturday Night Fever. They even filmed it at the 2001 Odyssey in Bay Ridge, where the infamous dance scenes took place. Mr. Carroll had the dubious honor of playing the Tony Manero character.
Arguably, it really put Crazy Eddie over a lot - not just as an electronics store, but as an experience. Heading into the 1980s, Crazy Eddie fit in perfectly with that motif. It became a destination you just had to check out.
According to Mr. Weiss in an interview on WhiteCollarFraud.com, coincidentally run by former Crazy Eddie CFO and convicted felon (more on that later) Sam E. Antar, Eddie’s cousin, the purchasing of advertising time on radio was literally $5 a spot, while television, thanks to the genius pushing of the Crazy Eddie management team keeping them on throughout the night, was $10 a spot.
Compared to today, that is highway robbery prices. More importantly, a brilliant play to make an impact in the greatest city in the world.
Mr. Carroll’s passion in each and every commercial was infectious. A combination of auctioneer and sales pitch, he showcased every deal and every appliance on sale. And almost every commercial closed the same: CRAZY EDDIE - HIS PRICES ARE INSANE!!!
Thanks to Radio Rewinder on YouTube, I was able to find an old radio commercial with Mr. Carroll during the Howard Stern Show in December 1985 on K-Rock! “The King of All Media” even closed it out with the location of the new store.
The aggressiveness of the marketing made Crazy Eddie have as strong of a name recognition in New York City as Coca-Cola, according to multiple studies and reports.
Sadly, by 1988, the good times would ultimately fizzle out.
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As it turned out with Crazy Eddie, the business wound up being one giant fraud.
From the beginning, Eddie Antar would skim off the top and falsify sales reports to avoid paying the government sales tax. Then, prior to going public, the company reduced the skim to make records look stronger. On top of that, the methods to keep the fraud going were, in the only way I could describe it, revolutionary.
The Panama Pump was the most memorable way. They would tape wads of cash to their bodies, then hop on a flight to Israel. Then, they would deposit it into an Israeli bank account. After that, they would transfer the funds to bank accounts in Panama, which would then be transferred back to the United States. The money was then laundered back into the company.
After a hostile takeover from investor Elias Zinn and consultant Victor Palmari in late 1987, it soon came out that the company was short $80 million of inventory and filed for bankruptcy in 1989. The SEC went after the Antar family. Eddie fled to Israel in 1990 and was ultimately captured three years later. After bringing him back to the US in 1993 and multiple court cases, he was sentenced to prison in 1997 and was ultimately released in 1999.
Sam E. Antar, who stood firm and provided the Federal Government and SEC with incredible information, not only bring down the remainder of his family, but also to recover moneys lost throughout their scam, pled guilty to 3 counts: Conspiracy to Commit Securities Fraud, Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud, and Obstruction of Justice. He was sentenced to six months house arrest, 1,200 hours of community service, three years of probation, and $10,100 fines and fees, as well as owing the SEC $80,000 for insider trading. Ironically enough, since he could no longer be an officer or director of a publicly owned company, he became a forensic accountant and worked closely with the Federal Government and SEC. He also runs WhiteCollarFraud.com. As a complete noob as it comes to business and its intricacies, I can safely say that Sam E. is a genius.
Also, if you want more of an in depth look into the history of Crazy Eddie, purchase Gary Weiss’s book “Retail Gangster: The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie”, which was released in 2022. Such an awesome read.
Interestingly, the Antar Family actually tried to restart the Crazy Eddie brand with a store in Wayne, NJ, including plans of an online presence, but it didn’t last long. In fact, here is a commercial from 1999 promoting the store, which I believe aired on WABC-TV Channel 7.
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I will close with this. I never had the privilege of ever going to a Crazy Eddie store, but had they survived, I would have been five minutes away from one in East Brunswick growing up.
I implore all of you to check out these advertisements. To this day, there are hundreds on YouTube. The passion and drive of the Antars, the vision of Larry Weiss, and the voice of Jerry Carroll is unmatched in the modern market. They are just too good.
I know it’s a different time, but I wish that modern commercials had one-tenth of the passion that these Crazy Eddie ads had. There’s just something missing in today’s marketing. They just don’t have the oomph.
Ultimately, Crazy Eddie’s ads will never be undersold. In fact, they cannot be sold enough. Their commercials were just INSANE.
Jon Harder
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