ADVERTISING ON TELEVISION Volume 22
HANKSCRAFT #2 (approx. 55 min)
The adventure into motion displays continues, with this look at specific designs associated with certain products.
Motion displays have been a fixture of instore marketing for many years, and the company most responsible for making this format possible and practical is Hankscraft, which makes a small, highly efficient electric motors and other mechanical linkages needed to make motion displays entertaining.
“Ideas In Motion” is the company’s credo, and the title of this tape devoted to Hankscraft’s work.
Using front and back, internal and external views of successful displays, the company shows how its vast range of customized designs and specialized electric motors can be used in innumerable combinations and arrays, always surprising the customer and the viewer.
The simplicity of the motion and the complexity of some of the linkages are amazing, as is the diversity of products, from ice cream to beer that benefit from this treatment.
We also get a look at the use of motion displays in demonstrating the products, and even the occasional celebrity tie-in, in the form of the CAR 54 WHERE ARE YOU contest, utilizing the images of Fred Gwynne and Joe E. Ross from the early 1960’s television series, run by Proctor & Gamble.
ADVERTISING ON TELEVISION Volume 23
Political Commercials #1 (approx 55 min)
Televises political commercials were born during the 1952 presidential campaign with the “I Like Ike” animated commercial for Eisenhower.
In the years since, they’ve become more sophisticated, and generally more personal, as exemplified in this collection of spots dating from 1964 thru 1970.
The first set of spots is a collection of commercials done for the campaign of Abraham Beame for Mayor of New York in 1965.
It features endorsements by Hubert Humphrey and Robert Kennedy, as well as Beame himself in a series of question-and-answer session addressing the issues of the day (which, among other things, include a surprisingly early mention of environmental issues, growing out of the then-current New York City water shortage).
The second set of spots come from Hubert Humphrey’s 1970 campaign to regain a seat in the U.S. Senate in his home state of Minnesota, built around the catch phrase, “Humphrey-you know he cares”. The former vice president takes on Richard Nixon’s record on economics, the environment, nuclear arms control, social security, and other major issues of the day.
The major part of these spots feature the candidate in seemingly off the cuff encounters with ordinary voters, answering questions from these people.
All of the commercials are fairly sophisticated, including spots not featuring the candidate at all, but “typical” voters asking the question in vivid detail.
That spot had an opposite version, in which a voter was asked the question, “What has Richard Nixon ever done for you?” and realizing that all of the accomplishments that Nixon was claiming were really results of Humphrey’s work as Senator or Vice President.
One of the most successful spots features a partly built house, with voice-overs of the family that was supposed to live there, coupled with an announcer talking about rising interest rates under the Nixon administration, and what Humphrey as a U.S. Senator could do about them.
The next major batch of commercials comes from the 1968 Humphrey campaign for President.
In addition to spots featuring Humphrey, commercials (really infomercials) on Senator Muskie, Humphrey’s running mate, are also included, giving a good biographical portrait of the vice presidential candidate.
Also featured are infomercials that include Humphrey’s wife Muriel, and Senator Ted Kennedy’s endorsement; man on the street interviews about the Democrats and what they’ve done for ordinary Americans; and even an appearance by an electronically generated cartoon character similar to “Stanley” from the Garry Moore Show.
And Douglas Fairbanks Jr. appears in an appeal for funds for the 1968 Humphrey campaign.
ADVERTISING ON TELEVISION Volume 24
(approx 35 min.)
Political Commercials Volume Two
This second collection of political spots from television includes more spots from the 1968 and 1970 Humphrey campaigns, this time all in color.
Also included is the long on air promotional clip for the 1968 presidential convention coverage by NBC, and an excerpt from Walter Cronkite’s coverage of the crisis that erupted over Civil Rights at the 1956 Democratic National Convention, when a group of southern delegates threatened to walk out if any support for a Civil Rights bill were included in the platform.
A brief fragment of a 1970 debate (featuring William Rusher of the National Review and former Senator Frank Moss of Utah) over anti-smoking laws from the house Ways and Means Committee Room is seen.
Also, footage discussing Kennedy, Nixon, and the so-called Missile Gap during the 1960 campaign; ads attacking Barry Goldwater’s stated position to sell off the Tennessee Valley Authority (an auctioneer takes bids on a dam); glimpses of the 1964 California caucuses; and Maryland Senator Charles Mathias campaigning for his senate seat.
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ADVERTISING ON TELEVISION Volume 23 Political Commercials #1 (approx 55 min)
Televises political commercials were born during the 1952 presidential campaign with the “I Like Ike” animated commercial for Eisenhower.
ADVERTISING ON TELEVISION Volume 24 (approx 35 min.)
Political Commercials Volume Two This second collection of political spots from television includes more spots from the 1968 and 1970 Humphrey campaigns, this time all in color.