ADVERTISING ON TELEVISION Volume 16
NEW YORK STATE SAVINGS BANKS: A series of television ads from the late 1960’s pushing the virtues of New York Savings Bank, emphasizing their stability, reliability and the good they do for the community.
COUGH AND COLD REMEDIES: From the late 1950’s some of the first modern commercials for cold remedies, some taken from WBEN (owned by the Buffalo Evening News) in Buffalo, NY.
Including what may be the precursors to Contac’s tiny time pills, also includes early Contac commercials (Contac, incidentally, stands for continuous action), and spots for Isodette, Tri Span and Poractin.
GENERAL INSURANCE: More of ex-football star Tom Harmon plugging SAFECO INSURANCE, as general and home-owner insurance specialists.
Some accidents at home, in the car, and even on the boat are depicted along with SAFECO’s swift handling of them.
ADVERTISING ON TELEVISION Volume 17
(approx. 55 min.)
The commercials for most upset stomach remedies during the 1950’s and early 1960’s were serious in tone, but SQUIBB had unexpected success with these commercials for Antacil antacid, which were funny.
The basic emphasis was that while most antacids had an unpleasant taste, Antacil actually tasted good-so good, according to the commercial, that people wanted to use more than what they needed.
It was a clever campaign, reminiscent of the Lays Potato Chip “Bet You Can’t Eat Just One” commercials.
The people themselves are never seen, but a husband and wife are heard arguing, as he tries to take one more Antacil tablet than he needs; in another, the wife keeps slapping the husband’s hand away as he tries to sneak another Antacil. And in the last, a hand holding a roll of Antacil tablets remains clenched even as a screwdriver tries to pry the fingers open.
The BROXODENT automatic toothbrush was one of a large number of electric toothbrushes that were sold to the public during the middle - and late - 1960’s, as people became increasingly aware of new levels of health and dental care.
Broxodent and other electric toothbrushes were sold, in particular, as a solution to minor gum problems.
Another, more successful device as a brand, was the WATER PIK, which is seen here in two distinctly different kinds of ads, one a group of local-origination commercials with limited moving footage, lots of still frames, and a rough, informal feel; the second the national campaign ads, which are slicker, more informative, and feature elaborate graphics.
SPEC-T. was a new cough treatment during the early 1960’s, in lozenges colored red, yellow, and green that were designed to treat different kinds of sore throat, all relieved by the different kinds of Spec-T.
In a second one, a group of women stand at attention taking a pledge, like soldiers being sworn into the armed forces, involving the use of Spec-T. to relieve colds and coughs.
SAFECO INSURANCE is represented by a series of commercials dramatizing various household disasters (a boat engine catching fire, a tree thrown through the side of a house by a cyclone, pipes bursting, chimney fires etc.) that the company paid off claims on within days.
Actress Jinx Falkenburg is seen in a series of commercials for gas ovens, including those made by Gaffers & Sattler, Tappan (with rotisserie), the Magic Chef Double-oven, the Roper Range, and Caloric.
All of the commercials push the advantages of gas as a cleaner, faster, more sophisticated heating medium.
NATIONWIDE INSURANCE of Akron, Ohio (with lots of black and white footage of the streets of Akron from the late 1950’s) presents its national network of claims offices: it also offers a symbolic commercial showing a motorist lost in the wilderness, being assisted by an Indian.
The company’s life insurance offering, and its Family Securance Services, are also presented.
CONGESTAID was a very successful aerosol medication during the 1960’s, and was especially popular for use on children.
These ads show a mother helping to ease her son’s cold with the product.
Finally, in an infomercial that was obviously intended for use by the company’s marketing staff, OLD CROW BOURBON and its virtues are trumpeted by Broadway actress/dancer/singer Anita Gillette.
She sings and dances her way through a 15 minute infomercial from 1968 on a set resembling a political convention.
With delegates chiming in about the long history of Old Crow (it was apparently the first bourbon made in the US using “scientific principals” back in the early 19th century) and Gillette acting as cheerleader, we are led into a mock sales meeting where the executives boost their successes and the potential for growth.
Including the fact that, while bourbon sales grew by only 4% in the pervious year, Old Crow’s growth represented 20% of that total, and that 25% of bourbon drinkers were aware of the company’s most popular product--as someone says, think of what the sales would be if half of their potential customers knew of the product.
ADVERTISING ON TELEVISION Volume 18
(approx. 55 min)
FLORIDA ORANGE JUICE: Orange juice has been a favorite breakfast drink for much of the twentieth century, but it wasn’t until the 1960’s that the Florida Citrus Growers Association began pushing Florida orange juice as something special.
There were several advertising campaigns, the longest lasting and the most successful of which featured wholesome singing star Anita Bryant, who remained virtually a living symbol of Florida orange juice until she began speaking out on political issues (most notably against gay rights) in Dade County, Florida.
This tape features a wide variety of commercials for Florida orange juice, from the early 1960’s when they had the slogan “Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine,” but not a fixed spokesperson - orange juice spurts up inside a glass as though shooting from a fountain, intercut with sequences of men and women sunbathing, playing golf, tennis etc.
In other early commercials, families are seen enjoying orange juice early in the day, storm clouds clearing up and the sun coming out as they do.
The Anita Bryant commercials are a fair cross-section of her work for the association, the first featuring her in an orange grove singing while the camera pulls back to this enormous wide-shot of the entire grove with her at the center.
Other commercials, done on behalf of frozen orange juice, have Bryant declaring, of the frozen 12 ounce cans, that they contain the juice from 14 oranges.
Other ads show oranges in the processing plant, thousands of them rolling down the assembly line, dissolving to shots of a family enjoying orange juice for breakfast.
Other, non-Bryant ads, feature a wife and mother staring into the mirror saying, “Please tell me I’m pretty I know I’m efficient” we then see scenes of her preparing breakfast for the family using frozen orange juice.......
Another ad features an old-style New York City subway, people moving along during rush-hour, and a voice-over asking, “Did you forget to something for your husband this morning?” A voice over asking “You think you’re indispensable, don’t you?” while a camera pans in on an orange juice squeezer, describing the effort that went into designing the machine (longer than it took to design Gemini 2...), all “just to squeeze Florida oranges.
A Florida grapefruit is squeezed by hand in one ad, and grapefruit is presented as a diet food in another, with a slender fashion model eating one.
NIAGRA MOHAWK: Electric heat became really popular during the 1960’s partly thanks to advertising campaigns like this one.
In a series of ads by Niagra Mohawk (which emulated other advertising campaigns from other regions and power companies), electric heat is touted for its cleanliness, ease of use, and simplicity.
In the first, a baby is seen crawling along the floor while a woman’s voice explains, “my son, the explorer....” and presents electric heat for its safety and efficiency, and the guarantee from Niagra Mohawk that if the bills are higher than the stated levels, the installer will pay the difference.
Another ad shows a house with a thermostat in each room, while two catty women’s voices talk about the way the temperature in the house can be controlled in each individual room and adjusted.
Another shows a house from the outside, and the voice over explains how each room is heated to a different temperature.
But the best one of all opens with a dark, shadowy image of an ominous figure, and a voice over asking, “Is there a monster in your cellar?”
The lights come up to reveal...a furnace, as the announcer explains the lower cost and greater cleanliness of electric heat.
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ADVERTISING ON TELEVISION Volume 17 (approx. 55 min.)
The commercials for most upset stomach remedies during the 1950’s and early 1960’s were serious in tone, but SQUIBB had unexpected success with these commercials for Antacil antacid, which were funny.
ADVERTISING ON TELEVISION Volume 18 (approx. 55 min)
FLORIDA ORANGE JUICE: Orange juice has been a favorite breakfast drink for much of the twentieth century, but it wasn’t until the 1960’s that the Florida Citrus Growers Association began pushing Florida orange juice as something special.