Here's an ad design for TDK cassettes, c. 1993. The campaign's slogan, "As Serious As You Can Get" was designed in part to shore up sagging cassette sales for both pre-recorded and blank media. Indeed, 1993 was a bleak year for recordable media manufacturers as CD players had reached 5 million units sold during that period, up 21% from the year before. That same year, cassette player shipments had dropped 7% to approximately 3.4 million units.

TDK has come a long way since its founding in 1935. It has been at the technological forefront of the recording and audio production industries since it manufactured its first magnetic recording tape in 1952. Now comes word that Imation will acquire TDK's media business. At least the TDK brand name will live on.