The Shift In American Values From the 1950s to the 1960s
Through the Context of Humor In Television Advertising
Christina Jones
Faculty Sponsor: Pamela Pennock
Affiliation: Department of Social Sciences; University of Michigan-Dearborn
In the United States, the era immediately following World War II was marked by a Red
Scare-fueled conservatism and staid sense of exceptionalism as well as a booming economy,
explosion of population, and rapid technological advancement. Much of that technology was
geared toward the white middle-class nuclear family who were moving into spacious suburban
homes in droves. The television, in particular, was in high demand, and advertisers wasted little
time in utilizing it as a medium to sell products. The socio-political climate in the United States
in the 1950s, coupled with the popularization of television as a major source of information and
entertainment led to advertisements marked by whimsy and comic absurdity, and provided fuel
for a generation of satirists whose lampooning of the advertising of the day set the tone for the
shift to a darker and more ironic style that was to come in the 1960s.
Though the first television ad—an austere 10 second spot for Bulova watches--aired in
1941 it wasn’t until 1948 and the advent of round-the-clock telecasting that commercials and
product sponsorships became ubiquitous within the landscape of television. Programming in this
era was dominated by upbeat whimsy as found in the puppet programs of Kukla, Fran, and Ollie
and Howdy Doody and neo-vaudevillian smorgasbord of song, dance, and absurd or gently satiric
comedy as in The Ed Sullivan Show, Amateur Hour, and Texaco Star Theatre. Advertising of this
era reflected the style, as evidenced in the Lucky Strike “Square Dance” cigarette ad of 1948, in
which stop-motion cigarettes dance to a call and response song in which the refrain is
“L.S.M.F.T” which stands for “Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco”. 1 The ad, created by the Jam
Handy Organization, was intended to appeal particularly to rural smokers but became universally
popular, with the dancing cigarette motif being imitated by other companies. 2 Television
advertising proved to be extremely successful for cigarette manufacturers, with per-capita
cigarette consumption almost doubling between 1940 and 1950. 3
With television overtaking radio as the major medium of entertainment in the 1950s,
advertisers began to introduce brand mascots to familiarize their products to the public. These
mascots often took their inspiration from the simple, madcap, fast paced cartoons beloved by
children. This style of ad was facilitated by the ease of animating such basic shapes, which made
for a commercial that was more quickly produced and less expensive. 4 Obviously, these mascots
were often attached to products directed at children, but they could also be found in commercials
aimed at adults, particularly household cleaning products and beer.
1
Lucky Strike, Square Dance (Jam Handy Org., 1948). Television Advertisement. From Internet Archive. 57 sec,
accessed March 19, 2015, https://archive.org/details/LuckyStr1948_2
2
Jerome Holst, “Dancers”, TV Acres, accessed March 19, 2015, http://www.tvacres.com/dance_butts.htm
3
Tobacco Outlook Report, Economic Research Service, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. “Cigarette Consumption, United
States, 1900-2007,” sourced from Infoplease. Accessed March 24, 2015,
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0908700.html
4
Leif Peng, “1950s Cartoon Art: Who Influenced Who?”, Today’s Inspiration Blog, October 01, 2010,
http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/2010/10/1950s-cartoon-art-who-influenced-who.html
The “I Want My Maypo” Kid, created by famed Disney animator John Hubley in 1956
was little more than a simplistic drawing of a young child with the voice of Hubley’s four year
old son dubbed in as the boy’s voice. The commercials all ended with this animated child-christened “Marky Maypo”—repeating the tagline “I want my Maypo!”. The exaggerated and
silly gestures of Marky and his cartoon father echoed those of Looney Tunes or Tom and Jerry
and were wildly popular with children. 5 The ad increased sales of Maypo by 78% on average and
made “I want my Maypo!” a household slogan. 6
Adults, too, were taken in by comedic mascots. In 1955, when facing slumping sales due
to an influx of national beer corporations, Piel’s, a regional brewery based in New York, turned
to the Young and Rubicam ad agency who came up with Bert and Harry Piel. Bert and Harry
were the fictitious owners of Piel’s Brewery, and were voiced by popular comedians Bob Elliott
and Ray Goulding. 7 The ads used the same simple, cartoonish aesthetic that worked for breakfast
cereals and subtle humor that was being employed on popular variety shows and were very
successful as a result. The light satire and meta-comedy—Bert demanding to the unseen camera
operator “Hey! I wanted a shot of the label!”, the brothers interviewing a French-Canadian
hockey player about Piel’s who when asked why he prefers Piel’s responds in French that he
doesn’t understand the question—resonated with male audiences in particular, with a Bert and
Harry fan club being established along with merchandise such as coasters and beer koozies.
Unfortunately, the commercials which spurred thousands of new customers on to try Piel’s also
gave them the opportunity to discover that it wasn’t very good, and after an initial increase, sales
of the beer actually fell. 8
Product mascots weren’t merely relegated to the realm of cartoon animation. The 1950s
gave the world the first television appearance of the Jolly Green Giant, Kool-Aid’s “Pitcher
Man” (who later became known as Kool-Aid Man), and Speedy Alka-Seltzer. Speedy, who
resembled Howdy Doody, was a stop-motion animated boy with an Alka-Seltzer tab for a body.
The sheer absurdity of his appearance, combined with a slew of comedic commercials starring
Buster Keaton, made Speedy a success. 9 The initial popularity of Alka-Seltzer ads featuring
Speedy led to an investment from the company of $8.5 million a year, making it the largest
investment of any campaign of the 1950s. 10
The Speedy commercials were silly yet clever, with the formula of Keaton wearily
spouting off a fatalistic adage (“the captain always goes down with his ship”, “eat, drink and be
merry, for tomorrow…”) and little Speedy reassuring him that everything would be fine, so long
as he had his Alka-Seltzer. The ads also managed to incorporate some of the physical humor
5
Homestat Farm Ltd, “A Little Boy Named Marky”, accessed March 19, 2015,
http://www.homestatfarm.com/MemoryLane/TheTaleofMarkyMaypo/tabid/3083/Default.aspx
6
Maypo, I Want My Maypo (Heublein Inc., 1956). Television Advertisements. Youtube Video, 5 min. 12 sec,
accessed March 22, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_0qsG9ndGI
7
Jerome Holst, “Advertising Mascots - People”, TV Acres, accessed March 19, 2015,
http://www.tvacres.com/admascots_pielsbrothers.htm
8
Piel’s Beer, Bert and Harry (Young and Rubicam, 1955). Television Advertisements. Youtube Video, 7 min. 37 sec,
accessed March 19, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHroxyoCwV4
9
Alka-Seltzer, Buster Keaton, c. 1950s. Television Advertisements. Youtube Video. 3 mins, 13 sec., accessed March
19, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTT1TSdWjkQ
10
Alka Seltzer, “Little Speedy Alka Seltzer Fun Facts”, accessed March 24, 2015, http://www.alkaseltzer.com/75/
which Keaton was famous for, and managed to speak to a populace who wanted their comedy
broad, playful, and encouraging.
Though television commercials were taking off in the 1950s, some of the most exemplary
advertising humor of the era can be found within the content of variety shows. The reliance of
these programs on vaudeville-style skits and absurd sketches with an emphasis on domestic
misunderstandings provided ample opportunity for sponsors to have their products advertised in
ways that maintained the comedic spirit of the program. The Garry Moore Show produced a
particularly memorable commercial for SOS scrub pads where Moore, his sidekick Dunward
Kirby, and singer Denise Lor perform a Wagner-inspired operatic jingle in which Lor’s voice is
dubbed over with a male baritone, and Moore’s with a female soprano. The performance is both
anarchic and inclusive, with all performers coming close to breaking with every repeated refrain
of “S-O-S”. At the end of the ad, Moore thanks McCann-Erickson for writing it, adding that he
wishes there were more commercials like it on television. 11
It was in this same spirit of gleeful chaos that modern American satire found its audience.
The 1950s was the era of the Teenager, the first generation without firsthand knowledge of the
serious desperation and thrift of the Great Depression, and too young to remember much of
World War II. In many cases these young people, who would become the creators of the
counterculture in the 60s, didn’t share the need for or appreciation of broad, gentle, reassuring
comedy that was so successful with their parents. And while slapstick was still popular, a new,
edgier style of comedy was emerging with MAD Magazine leading the way.
Founded in 1952 by Harvey Kurtzman and William Gaines, MAD provided a contrast to
most cultural media of the day. It openly and cheerfully satirized politics, religion, social norms,
and advertising. From its inception, MAD maintained a policy of not allowing advertising,
giving them freedom that other publications didn’t have in deriding products and practices. 12
Despite the popularity of MAD Magazine and other satirical forms of media such as the
parody songs of Tom Lehrer and Stan Freberg with a teenage audience, commercials from the
1950s aimed at that demographic tend to be focused not on humor, but on the old advertising
chestnut of physical attractiveness (particularly in ads for shampoo and toothpaste) and the role it
plays in social acceptance. Other products marketed toward teenagers such as Coca-Cola play
like an episode of Leave It To Beaver with fresh-faced teens enjoying a break from their school
work with an ice cold Coke, served up to them by their dutiful and doting mother. 13 It isn’t
difficult to surmise why so many of these teenagers were soon to demand authenticity and a
change in the status quo—the easy, breezy phoniness they were being presented with was
tiresome, and indicative of a society that truly didn’t “get it”.
The closest that commercial advertisements came to self-parody in the 1950s can be
found in a spot for Heinz Worcestershire sauce from the late 1950s. In the ad, a slick, smiling
presenter stumbles over the pronunciation of “Worcestershire”, becoming increasingly angry and
11
The Garry Moore Show, SOS Pads Commercial, c. 1950s. Television Advertisement. Youtube video. 2 min, 29 sec,
accessed March 19, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onQjBTPwXDY
12
Stephen E. Kercher, Revel With A Cause: Liberal Satire In Postwar America, (University of Chicago Press, 2006),
106.
13
Coca-Cola, Teenagers, c. 1950s. Television Advertisement. Youtube video. 3 min, 17 sec, accessed March 24,
2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgAt4dMgwwU
embarrassed while alternating a cheesy grin to the camera with nonverbal commands directed
toward its operator. At one point he accidentally grabs a can of Heinz beans instead, soon after
which he ends the commercial by yelling, red-faced, “You know it’s good because it’s Heinz!”.14
While the content of this ad is pretty soft in terms of satire, it still represents one of the few
examples in the era of advertisers and corporations mocking themselves in any way.
While advertisers were reluctant to poke fun at themselves, there were plenty who
weren’t afraid to parody other forms of media. An ad for Snowdrift Shortening from 1951
lampoons soap operas of the era by telling a one minute story of a lovers’ spat involving the
woman feeding her male partner food that has been prepared in inferior cooking oil. The only
words spoken by the couple throughout the ad are each other’s names: John and Marsha, with
overwrought inflection intended to convey their changing emotions as the scene progresses.
Eventually she presents him with food remade with Snowdrift, and all is well. With their passion
clearly inflamed by the supremacy of the shortening, John and Marsha share a relatively
scandalous (for the 1950s) kiss. All of this is set to melodramatic organ music, to rather hilarious
effect. 15
A less overt satirization of another genre of media can be found in an ad for Mum
Deodorant. A beautiful woman dressed all in black, clearly a spy or informant of some kind, sits
at a table in a café, covertly watching a handsome man (also clearly dressed as some kind of a
spy) through a compact mirror. She gets up and walks past him, inconspicuously dropping a
piece of paper at his feet. The message—“New Mum Has A Secret Weapon”, the weapon turns
out to be “M-3”, a mysteriously named new ingredient that prevents underarm wetness for 24
hours. The ad evokes an aesthetic somewhere between Casablanca and James Bond, and the
sheer absurdity of using so serious a medium to advertise deodorant speaks to the sensibilities of
advertisers (and audiences) at the time. 16
Advertising in the 1950s reflected television in the 1950s, which in turn reflected the way
society of that era chose to see itself. In ads, the quality of a product was presented as though it
were paramount, though in truth planned obsolescence rendered quality ephemeral, especially
when compared to the prospect of owning something “new” or “improved”. Teenagers were seen
as a viable consumer market, but their actual thoughts, feelings, and wants were ignored.
Familiarity was celebrated, gentle whimsy was encouraged, and the goods one bought were to be
a reflection on their place in an orderly society. This fragile interpretation of America, based on
an optimistic conformity and overwhelming sense of imperviousness to criticism served as the
impetus for the development of a counterculture defined by turning the sensibilities and mores of
the 1950s upside down.
14
Heinz, Heinz Worcestershire Sauce, c. 1950s. Television advertisement. Youtube video. 1 min, 1 sec. Accessed
March 19, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-cy6276XY0
15
Wesson, Snowdrift John and Marsha, 1951. Television advertisement. Youtube video. 1 min. Accessed March 19,
2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-cy6276XY0
16
Mum Deodorant, Get the Message? c. 1950s. Television advertisement. Youtube video. 1 min, 2 sec. Accessed
March 24, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-cy6276XY0
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