Commercials that were common then but are rare today.

[hamster]

Today I saw an ad for Dr. Pepper. OK I know soda can still advertise on TV but I have to admit it had been quite awhile since I have seen such an ad. Back in the day soda ads were everywhere. Come to think of it, it's been years since I have seen an ad for candy bars as well. A few years ago I have seen TV commercials here in Denver for those e-cigarettes. Now that the FDA is cracking down on e-cigs I haven't seen such an ad in a long time however I haven't heard that such ads are now banned.

Are there any other ads that you can remember that were all over the dial then but hard to find today ??

 

[landtuna]

Snowdrift (shortening - "Oh John, Oh Marsha!)
Gaffers & Sattler (appliances)
Richard Hudnut (hair care products)
Ipana (toothpaste) - Bucky, Bucky Beaver
Imperial, Studebaker, Plymouth, Pontiac, American Motors, Packard (oops!)
Reddy Kilowatt (electric power)
Brylcream (A little dab will do ya)
Clearasil (Dick Clark shaving cream)
Thom McAn (shoes)
White Rock Black Cherry (soda)

 

[KeithE4]

Today I saw an ad for Dr. Pepper. OK I know soda can still advertise on TV but I have to admit it had been quite awhile since I have seen such an ad. Back in the day soda ads were everywhere. Come to think of it, it's been years since I have seen an ad for candy bars as well. A few years ago I have seen TV commercials here in Denver for those e-cigarettes. Now that the FDA is cracking down on e-cigs I haven't seen such an ad in a long time however I haven't heard that such ads are now banned.

Are there any other ads that you can remember that were all over the dial then but hard to find today ??

I'll start with the obvious: Cigarette ads all over the place.

Another one that's no longer allowed is breakfast cereal with a well-known cartoon character on the box, with that character doing its commercials on TV. Examples include Yogi Bear on a box of "OKs" -- a combination of Cheeri-Os and "Cheeri-Ks." Quick Draw McGraw on boxes of Sugar Smacks was another one. Rocky & Bullwinkle pushed General Mills cereals, mainly because their ad agency backed the Mexican animation studio that Jay Ward contracted with (see also: Total Television/Leonardo Productions' The King and Odie).

But Post Cereals was the worst offender. In fact, they based a whole series on characters that were on their cereal boxes: Linus the Lionhearted (the star of the show, on Crispy Critters), Sugar Bear (Sugar Crisp), the mailman (forgot his name) who talked like Gomer Pyle (Alpha Bits), Twinkles the Elephant (Twinkles), and several others. IIRC, it was this show that got the FCC to ban cartoon characters endorsing products. But, hey, it wasn't as bad as The Flintstones smoking cigarettes (Winstons?) "on-camera" for its first year or two.

 

[landtuna]

I didn't do ciggies which are totally absent today but the ones that always cracked me up were the so-called "doctors" who advertised cigarettes in beautiful Christmas packaging. Even the Three Stooges knew in their 1930's shorts that ciggies were "coffin nails".

 

[joebtsflk1]

Oldsmobile, Saturn
Robert Hall (for those of you who were in major metros)
7-UP
Kodak
Chiquita

As far as candy bars, I've seen plenty of ads for Reese's, a few for Snickers, Hershey Kisses (more so at holidays) Suspect they are on programs that skew younger, like my daughter watches.

 

[davideduardo]

Another one that's no longer allowed is breakfast cereal with a well-known cartoon character on the box, with that character doing its commercials on TV. Examples include Yogi Bear on a box of "OKs" -- a combination of Cheeri-Os and "Cheeri-Ks." Quick Draw McGraw on boxes of Sugar Smacks was another one. Rocky & Bullwinkle pushed General Mills cereals, mainly because their ad agency backed the Mexican animation studio that Jay Ward contracted with (see also: Total Television/Leonardo Productions' The King and Odie).

I did not know that the use of cartoon characters was disallowed. When was legislation to that effect passed?

The only initiative... and a failed one at that... that I know of was the 1978 "kidvid" effort at the FCC which ended in "we can't do that".

In the supermarket, I see the cereal isle overpopulated with them, from the Fruit Loops toucan to the Kellog's Cornelius on the corn flakes boxes.

I thought the reason that Yogi and Rocky were not on boxes any more is that they are not relevant to kids any more.

 

[KeithE4]

I did not know that the use of cartoon characters was disallowed. When was legislation to that effect passed?

The only initiative... and a failed one at that... that I know of was the 1978 "kidvid" effort at the FCC which ended in "we can't do that".

Linus the Lionhearted was cancelled by ABC in 1969 when the FTC ruled that cartoon stars may not air on their sponsors' commercials. Effectively, LTL was a 30 minute infomercial for Post's products, since the cartoon stars of the show were the characters on the cereal boxes, and that was a no-no. I can find lots of references, but no links to the ruling.

In the supermarket, I see the cereal isle overpopulated with them, from the Fruit Loops toucan to the Kellog's Cornelius on the corn flakes boxes.

Toucan Sam, Cornelius, and even Sugar Bear (or whatever he's called now) are OK to air in commercials for their products because they don't star in children's entertainment programming. They don't have their own shows.

I thought the reason that Yogi and Rocky were not on boxes any more is that they are not relevant to kids any more.

They ran their course as relevant cartoon stars right about the time that Linus the Lionhearted was cancelled. Both of their shows had left network television years earlier anyway. By 1969, Hanna-Barbera was heavily into Scooby Doo and its clones, while I think Jay Ward's studio had closed by then. Both still aired on local TV, but their respective heydays were over.

 

[hamster]

Oldsmobile, Saturn
Robert Hall (for those of you who were in major metros)
7-UP
Kodak
Chiquita

As far as candy bars, I've seen plenty of ads for Reese's, a few for Snickers, Hershey Kisses (more so at holidays) Suspect they are on programs that skew younger, like my daughter watches.

Robert Hall had a few stores in the smaller cities such as Hagerstown & Cumberland in Maryland for examples. But for some unknown reason they really didn't advertise on the air in those places. About cigarette ads..had there been the 24/7 cable networks in those days I have to wonder if they would had been given a pass to air such ads. I could easily see the cast of The Family Guy doing such ads. Isn't Seth MacFarlane a hardcore smoker ??

 

[anotherguyTN]

Dr. Pepper is a sponsor on a lot of sports programs, especially college football. And I don't know how it is now since I don't watch as many awards shows, but DP used to be a sponsor on just about any award show or music special that was produced by Dick Clark. I've wondered if he had an interest in the company at that time, and I can remember seeing some DP ads with him in them on You Tube.

As for candy, I still see ads for Hershey's Reese's, M&Ms, and Twix regularly, and of course there are is plenty on kid's shows.

 

[hamster]

Dr. Pepper is a sponsor on a lot of sports programs, especially college football. And I don't know how it is now since I don't watch as many awards shows, but DP used to be a sponsor on just about any award show or music special that was produced by Dick Clark. I've wondered if he had an interest in the company at that time, and I can remember seeing some DP ads with him in them on You Tube.

As for candy, I still see ads for Hershey's Reese's, M&Ms, and Twix regularly, and of course there are is plenty on kid's shows.

Good question !! Not sure if Dick Clark had an interest in the Dr. Pepper company in those days but he was in Dallas the day Kennedy was shot in 1963 to attend a soda convention on behalf of Dr. Pepper ( he talked about it on his old "Rock Roll & Remember" radio show years ago ). FWIW...Joan Crawford was at the very same convention on behalf of Pepsi-Cola. Of course in those days Joan was on the Pepsi Board of Directors.

 

[Mario500]

An earlier version of the Tootsie Roll Pop advertisement with a person asking an owl, "How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop"?" used to appear on television very often (it began with the same person asking the same question to a turtle. It also had different music and a different announcer (an actor named Herschel Bernardi)).

 

[Radio-X]

Don't laugh...but in terms of things you never see advertised on TV anymore...

Paralegals.

There was a time from the late 80's-early 00's where you could NOT watch a daytime TV show on a terrestrial TV station without an ad for a for-profit paralegal school coming on.

Most of the lawyers I talk to say the shortage has stayed the same/gotten worse since 2000.

What you see now in their place are for-profit health care schools (Everest, et al). Haven't seen a for-profit paralegal school ad since at least 2005-06.

Radio-X

 

[davideduardo]

Linus the Lionhearted was cancelled by ABC in 1969 when the FTC ruled that cartoon stars may not air on their sponsors' commercials. Effectively, LTL was a 30 minute infomercial for Post's products, since the cartoon stars of the show were the characters on the cereal boxes, and that was a no-no. I can find lots of references, but no links to the ruling.

Interesting. I did not know that.

I will search Broadcasting Magazine for references as well as Television Magazine (although that disappeared in late 1968. Update: I searched for both, and can not find any report in either magazine in the 60's and 70's about any inquiry or proceeding.

I suspect that part of the issues was the program-length commercial issue.

 

[CTListener]

I watched Linus as a kid. Looking back, it was actually a well-done show and the humor wasn't stupid. The cereals were never mentioned in the cartoons themselves, but of course you'd see Linus (voiced by Carl Reiner!) in the Crispy Critters commercials, Sugar Bear in the Sugar Crisp commercials, Lovable Truly the Postman in the Alpha-Bits commercials, etc., whenever the program went to a break. The show also had catchy, unforgettable opening and closing musical numbers. The closing one was really sad, with Sasha the Grouse (who didn't have a cereal, oddly enough) sweeping up the remnants of the spotlight as the rest of the cast walked off the stage. It may not have taught a serious lesson, like today's dishwater-dull E/I children's programming, but neither did it do much harm, IMO.

 

[davideduardo]

It may not have taught a serious lesson, like today's dishwater-dull E/I children's programming, but neither did it do much harm, IMO.

The show actually won praise and awards when it first premiered earlier in the 60's. I found a lot of references to that in the Broadcasting Magazines from around 1964, in fact. It appears that folks found examples of getting along with others and good social behavior in the show and rewarded it accordingly.

 

[hamster]

Do local radio stations advertise on local TV anymore ?? A few weeks ago while watching Crackle I did seen an ad for Denver's KOA Newsradio with Steffan Tubbs talking about how one can now hear KOA on FM. However before that I did see an ad with some girl talking into a mic "This is Jill for KOSI 101 FM" but she was advertising insurance not KOSI 101. Oh for the record there is no "Jill" on the air at Denver's KOSI 101.

 

[KeithE4]

I watched Linus as a kid. Looking back, it was actually a well-done show and the humor wasn't stupid. The cereals were never mentioned in the cartoons themselves, but of course you'd see Linus (voiced by Carl Reiner!) in the Crispy Critters commercials, Sugar Bear in the Sugar Crisp commercials, Lovable Truly the Postman in the Alpha-Bits commercials, etc., whenever the program went to a break. The show also had catchy, unforgettable opening and closing musical numbers. The closing one was really sad, with Sasha the Grouse (who didn't have a cereal, oddly enough) sweeping up the remnants of the spotlight as the rest of the cast walked off the stage. It may not have taught a serious lesson, like today's dishwater-dull E/I children's programming, but neither did it do much harm, IMO.

Linus was voiced by Sheldon Leonard, not Carl Reiner. Reiner did other characters on the show. Ruth Buzzi was Granny Goodwitch.

Full cast list is here (only the first season is mentioned for some reason): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057763/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast

 

[Corky Marlowe]

The other side of this coin would be hard liquor ads, banned from TV from around 1950 till (had to look it up) 1996.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Don't forget Hoverround ("Takes Me where I Want to Go!") and Scooter Store commercials! At least one ad from each company (or so it seemed) on "The Price Is Right" until about 4 or so years ago (when one of the two companies was shut down by the feds, IIRC).

And speaking of old TPIR commercials, I hardly ever see Liberty Mutual ads anymore (including the ones that had Wilford Brimley).

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Just thought of another product that was UBIQUITOUS on ESPN for years--The Tom Emanski baseball instructional videos, "Dynamic Practice Organization", "Defensive Drills", and of course, "Teaching The Mechanics Of The Major League Swing". They must have been good, because they helped produce Baseball World's back to back TO BACK national champs!