First TV Ad and 1961 Television commercial promotion - Television TapeMost of my readers know that I am a big fan of the art of videos, advertising and television commercials. It was on this date – July 1, 1941 that what is believed to be the first television commercial aired in the United States.
It was right before a baseball between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies on July 1, 1941, the first television advertisement was broadcast in the United States.
At exactly 2:29 in the afternoon, the New York City NBC affiliate, WNBT, aired a 20-second spot for the Bulova Watch Company. Bulova paid $9 for the ad. According to a Bulova history account, the ad simply displayed a Bulova watch over a map of the U.S., with a voiceover of the company's slogan “America runs on Bulova time!”
Then there was the matter of promoting – television advertising…
According to an article, “Inside Production,” written by Walter Schoenknecht on January 8, 2007 for “TV Technology” magazine, this video is a copy of a “sales pitch [John Vrba] recorded in 1961 while he was Sales Manager at Los Angeles’ KTTV.”
The link for “Inside Production” is here, http://www.televisiontape.tv/Story.html, and the article is a comprehensive - must read for folks who, like me, enjoy the art of advertizing, especially TV advertizing.
We owe Mr. Schoenknecht a great debt of gratitude for finding and saving this historic material. He wrote that he had “…found a box of cast-off 16mm films while I was a Communication Arts student decades ago…”
This video has something for everyone from techno-geeks, folks who study the science and art of advertising to historians to aficionados of early television.
Please enjoy – and thanks again to Mr. Schoenknecht.
Kevin Dayhoff
www.kevindayhoff.net
television advertising history technology sales
19410701 first TV Ad and 1961 TV commercial promotion - Television Tape
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