Thursday, November 24, 2011

60s TV Commercials

I'm a child of the 50s and 60s. I probably watched more TV than my own kids ever did. Experts were not concerned about TV watching because kids still spent a prodigious amount of time playing outdoors with real live people.  


Programs were littered with incredibly inane commercials. Cigarettes commercials were a biggy and competition between brands was stiff. You look at some of the ads now and wonder how a marketing expert could think the absurd jingles and fantastic claims would snare a thinking person. But snare they did. Airtime must have been a bargain, given the length of the commercials.

These ads make 1960s Americans out to be half-wits.

Kids used to sing this one. And we all became smokers due to the catchy commercials--NOT!  Kent cigarettes: To a Frenchman, it's the Eiffel Tower, to a Dutchman, it's a pretty flower . . .

Not as snappy, but another Kent even stupider than the one above. I never smoked a cig in my life but my folks gave me the gift of secondhand smoke. And it was anything but "refreshing."  [Oops, this one isn't working today--try this: more doctors smoke Camels.

Hamm's beer anyone? Compare this one to the sophisticated beer commercials shown during Super Bowl.

Did you know Kool Aid is good for you? I heard it in this commercial. Check out the bangs on the younger girl. My Mom cut mine just like that. I look like  a dork in every school picture.

The 60s was the dopiest decade in history and this commercial for QT tanning lotion proves it. I used QT in 1966 just in time for 6th grade graduation. You see, I was embarrassed by my shocking snow-white legs. QT turned them shocking orange. Multiple vigorous scrubbings failed to wash it off. Oh the humiliation!

You won't see a TV commercial like this now--an advertisement for an automatic weapon and a snub-nose .38 revolver for kids!

The creepy: There's plenty wrong with this commercial and this product, Baby Laughs Alot, not the least being that it will leave you with terrifying nightmares. The laughter has got to be dubbed over.

4 comments:

  1. I remember the beer and cig commercials. I'll have that Kent jingle in my head all day now, thank you very much. I remember Kool Aid with that smiling glass pitcher. How about the Benson and Hedges 100 commercials? And then the silly mm longer?

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  2. Yeah, and how about Virginia Slims: you've come a long way baby . . .

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  3. Did you ever see these?

    http://youtu.be/VssO5bKFJU0

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  4. Yes, I think that series is hilarious, and so dated and sexist! Especially when the man calls his wife's coffee "criminal."

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