NBC's first experimental
broadcast, 1930
using a Felix the Cat toy
ADVERTISING ON TV- -Volume 1
(approx 55 min)
"TWO YEARS, 39 DAYS, AND ONE MINUTE"--hosted by WCBS-TV News anchorman Jim Jensen, and co-produced by the CBS network with the Television Bureau of Advertising for the Grocery Manufacturers of America.
This mid-1960's documentary looks at the nature of product development (the title refers to the time it takes for a new product in research and development, before it is ever seen by a single consumer), the scientific research behind it, which helps determine the exact nature, content and form of a product before it is ever offered nationally; and the selling of that product through the careful focusing of television advertising.
Examples of research and focus groups are presented, some in what today would seem very sexist terms, with women shown as "unable to balance a checkbook" but able to run a multi-million dollar industry through their decisions in shopping.
Different advertising techniques are shown, to illustrate humor, satire, and other approaches as well as the more creative visual side of tv advertising, with images and words that transform themselves.
Commercials include Campbell's Soup, Cracker Jacks (with Jack Gilford), Lays Potato Chips with (Bert Lahr), a Jello ad with a Chinese baby, Hawaiian Punch, and Kleenex Man-Sized Tissues.
"THE SALESMACHINE"--a look at the success of television advertising, narrated by Ed Herlihy, from both a historical and statistical point-of-view.
Beginning from the year of the invention of the telegraph in the 1840's, up through the development of radio as a popular medium and its eventual rise to an audience level matching newspapers, to 1949 and the emergence of tv stars as spokespersons for various products (Milton Berle for Texaco etc.) to 1952, when television passed radio in audience and advertising revenue, into the 1960's and the ballooning of television programming and audiences.
Viewers also get a close look at various television campaigns, demonstrating the growing sophistication of the medium, including Lucky Strike and Bank Americard.
The statistics and historical perspective offered are unique and astonishing, and pertain to far more than mere advertising numbers, offering glimpses of our popular culture evolving along with the new advertising medium.
ADVERTISING ON TELEVISION Volume 2
(approx 55 min)
Ed Wynn
A collection of entries in a national competition for the best locally produced television commercials.
Included are: General Telephone (spokesman being hit by eggs), Mitchell Photography of Raleigh, N.C. (photography as means of conquering time), Lone Star Gas (workers brought inside of huge gas-powered air conditioner), Jetzon Tires (cars racing along road to William Tell Overture)...
Plank Road Farm (kids playing with cows, ducks), Mt. Mercy College (parent of prospective student failing "quiz" about Mt. Mercy and its attributes), Kenny's Bantam Markets (husband of expectant mother goes out after midnight for pickles, ice cream etc. set to "Elephant Walk"), Cascade Electric Water Heaters, B.C. Telephone...
Sweeney & Company Jewelers (underwater shots, opera voice comes out of oyster), Prairie Maid (hot dogs and other sausages performing in circus), National Bank of Commerce College Fund (scenes of a father and son), Mastercharge (Southern Arizona Bank Mastercharge ad, rapid-fire cartoon presentation of the different kinds of items that can be bought with Mastercharge)...
White Spot Hamburgers (the Lone Ranger and Native American sidekick ride up to order food while the William Tell Overture plays in background--includes tag-line of "Who was that masked man?").
Continues with Rich's Department Store (montage of historic photos, line-drawings etc. pertaining to the Atlanta-based department store), Boston Store (women modeling clothes), Simpson's Department Store (montage of products set to guitar, piano etc.), Abraham & Strauss (Fred Willard as husband discussing gift he bought)...
Filene's (women on Boston streets), Winkelman's World of Imports (clips of travelog of Italy), Clairol (women using hair rollers), Williamsburg Shop at Wanamaker's (18th century style furniture), Gertz/Stern's stores, Maison Blanche (shots of jewelry and fish), Hutzler's (women in various fashions)...
Belk Stores (women in back-to-school fashions), Battlestein's (dance production numbers in store), Higbee's (fast-edited montage of furniture, toys etc.), Dayton's (casual shoes, close-up shots of shoes, women walking etc.)...
Dupont (shots of auto-racing, car crashes, Mario Andretti voice-over), National Cash Register, Boeing 747 (man kicking tires of jumbo jet), Gulf Oil (child building space station out of wooden construction set)...
General Electric Super-Bright Street Lights (police at crime-scene), Humble Oil/Esso (drovers taking care of herd on Texas ranch).
Other commercials on this tape include industrial promotional spots from AVCO Industries (Unisystem farm equipment, aircraft), Union Carbide fuel cells (electric motorcycle in operation)...
IBM Office Products (executive played by Willard Waterman dictating letter with "waste" meter running), Reynolds Aluminum Wrap, Coca-Cola cans, people at party), Rockwell Manufacturing (Arnold Palmer swinging golf club, men at work in construction), B.F. Goodrich (golf balls, domes, subways, operating rooms, nuclear submarines)...
New York Telephone, Reynolds Aluminum (Saturn V rocket), General Electric (water being wasted), Apex Controls Company (man reading paper, drenched by rain)...
General Telephone & Electronics International (scenes from Brazil, Iran, Belgium of towns, bridges, jungles, rivers, dancing girls etc.), North American Rockwell (underwater scenes depicting wealth available in the sea).
NOTE: THESE COMMERCIALS, WHICH DATE FROM 1970, ARE SOME OF THE MOST EFFECTIVE AND CREATIVE EVER MADE FOR LOCAL AND REGIONAL ADVERTISERS, AND AS COMMERCIALS FOR LOCAL AND REGIONAL CLIENTS, WERE NEVER SEEN ON NATIONAL TELEVISION.
ADVERTISING ON TELEVISION Volume 3
(approx 55 min)
TELEVISION BUREAU OF ADVERTISING: THE VISION OF TELEVISION: A dazzling industrial film dealing with the growth of television, both as a cultural institution and an advertising medium.
Beginning with an example of the familiarity of television names (Joe Friday, Kukla, Fran & Ollie, Sergeant Bilko, and Howdy Doody), this 1957 film goes into the explosion in the number of channels and sets in use in the United States from 1953 thru 1957, the ballooning number of advertisers both locally and nationally, and the growth in the average daily viewing time (to 5 hours and nine minutes as of 1957).
The usefulness of television advertising, and its competitive costs with other advertising media are discussed, and viewers are treated to both real and "mock-up" commercials.
Including Castro convertibles, Fab, Good Luck Margarine, Revlon cosmetics, RCA Victor portable television sets, and Snow Drift Wesson Oil shortening, all of which demonstrate different techniques of using television to great effect in selling products.
Viewer statistics are analyzed, along with the way in which viewers react to television messages (as opposed to print).
Amazingly for 1957, there is a surprising degree of emphasis on color broadcasting, even though only a tiny fraction of receivers in use at that time were color sets.
But black-and-white's effectiveness is analyzed as well (257 stations in the U.S. at that time broadcast in color at least part of the time, according to this film).
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Volumes 4-6, Click here
broadcast, 1930
using a Felix the Cat toy