These Classic TV Commericals from the '40s and '50s Will Take You Back in Time
Ask me where I put my car keys this morning, and I wouldn’t be able to tell you. But ask me to recite my favorite television commercial jingle, and I’ll be able to burst into a song I haven’t heard in decades.
Music has an amazing way of working into the depths of our brains, meaning all of those annoying songs about Band-Aids and Pepsodent are still buried down deep somewhere in the recesses of our minds.
Take, for example, this classic Pepsodent toothpaste commercial that first aired in 1948: “You’ll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent.”
Even taglines like, “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should,” shoot us back into the past, making us shake our heads in amusement at the trivial things we’re able to remember.
Even though television marketing in the ’40s and ’50s was new, advertisers knew they had a captive audience at hand. Throw in some catchy music with smiling, friendly faces, and it seemed like the product sold itself.
You may recall the evenings sitting around the one small black-and-white television in your home with family members eagerly awaiting the evening’s programming.
Part of the enjoyment of television back in the ’50s also came from the advertisements, happily convincing us that we needed to buy a Chevrolet or that Maxwell House coffee was superior to the rest.
While television ads in 2018 look different than they did back in the ’40s and ’50s, we can still enjoy a blast from the past thanks to the wealth of classic television archives to be found on YouTube.
So, without further adieu, here are a few television commercials that will take you straight back to childhood, starring BAND-AID, Budweiser, Remington Electric Shaver, and much more.
Do you remember watching any of these classics on television?
“Born 1951 — these are great to watch,” one YouTube viewer wrote. “And some are far better than the ads today (do I sound old yet?) The Chevy Truck commercial is really well done, and good poetry for a TV ad!”
Other viewers agree that the advertisements from the ’50s are more down-to-earth, family-friendly and have an overall happier feeling than those of today.
Would you agree?
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