Continuing a thread about vintage TV ads we last did on September 8, today's post delves into 1950's and 1960's Commercial Land, specifically cigarettes.
To get in the mood, it's time for a cuppa joe from Conquistador Coffee!
Since the September 8 post started with animated ads, here are some very good ones plugging Lucky "LSMFT" Strikes.
While I don't know offhand who produced the stylish "It's Light Up Time" ads, they are the epitome of the prevalent 1950's graphic design style in animation, especially commercials, known as Cartoon Modern.
Not sure if a showbiz celebrity is one of the dancing Old Gold cigarette packs in this ad, but that's how we'll start the Celebrity Cigarette Commercials compendium. Didn't Mary Tyler Moore act as a dancing cigarette pack in one of these ads?
With a few cups of java from a roaster other than Conquistador Coffee now consumed, we now watch a Winston Cigarettes ad from the Beverly Hillbillies TV show starring Buddy Ebsen and Irene Ryan.
In another Beverly Hillbillies Winstons ad, Bea Benaderet joins the cast.
Here, a manufuctured couple (Rob & Laura Petrie played by Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore, who previously starred in the Happy Hotpoint ads) and a real one, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, adeptly sell smokes!
The Jack Benny Program on radio and TV was sponsored by Lucky Strikes.
In the early 1950's live Jack Benny shows, guest stars at times delivered the commercials, giving announcer Don Wilson a rare breather. In this case, the great Humphrey Bogart does the honors.
While the following celebrity ads compilation mostly consists of car commercials, there is a great Viceroy Cigarettes ad starring a pre-Batgirl Yvonne Craig; yes, Viceroy's got the taste that's right. It's the third one in the mix and starts at 1:00.
Here, the excellent vocalist and actress Julie London sings one of the Marlboro jingles ("you've got a lot to like with a Marlboro, filter, flavor, flip-top box). Later in the compilation, actor/writer Dennis O' Keefe stars in a bunch of commercials for Camel Cigarettes, as opposed to slapping guys around or terrorizing Ann Sheridan in a hard-boiled film noir thriller.
In closing, we extend a prominent top hat tip to Tim Romano for the following terrific compilation of commercials, mastered from 35mm.
And there she is, not Miss America, but the fair Geene Courtney, demonstrating the wonder of 1950's technology, sausages as a fashion accessory, with panache and extra mustard. Ms. Courtney was crowned Sausage Queen during National Hot Dog Week (sponsored by the Zion Meat Company), specifically in the year 1955. Nutritionists be damned - I like her!
And of course, we know what the theme music was when Geene accepted her official Sausage Queen tiara. Couldn't have possibly been Bert Parks singing the Miss America theme, but that's okay - we like this ditty by Perry Como better.
Invariably, this brings to mind a very cheesy TV ad, to this day branded into the minds of baby boomers as a red-hot brand burned cattle - this gem's from 1967 and no less ridiculously unsubtle almost 50 years later.
Here's one of my favorite commercials, starring the immortal "Hamm's Bear" (of course, he's immortal - he's a freakin' cartoon character), from the land of sky blue waters (waters)."
Too bad cartoons were considered to be for kids in the 60's, since Yogi Bear (Ed Benedict design) would have been the perfect animated spokesperson for a delicious frosty brew! And if marijuana had been legal and advertised on prime time TV, Yogi would also have been a fantastic plugger for what the great Louis Armstrong dubbed "New Orleans Golden Leaf". Yogi would have been WAY less expensive than Satchmo, Bob Marley or Peter Tosh and almost as entertaining.
Just imagine: "hey BooBoo, pass that pipe over to me, heeheehee. . . I'm as hungry as a bear, hey hey hey, maybe we could have some simply scrumptious Kellogg's OKs!"
The ever-sultry Edie sings praises for the Panatela Extras, and, even though the Muriel Cigars voice-over pitchman talks over most of Stan Getz' tenor sax playing, I'm ready to buy some Panatela Extras right now - disregarding the fact that the commercial aired 43 years ago and I don't smoke.
The only way Muriel Cigars could have been luckier is if Ernie Kovacs had still been living when this commercial aired.
The tendency is to remember Edie Adams, who passed awayearlier this year, as Mrs. Kovacs and the conscientious archivist of the comedian's innovative legacy, rather than for her lengthy careeras a Tony award winning entertainer.
