TFTP Will Return After These Messages: Three Commercials from 1954

Posted to Internet Archive by user 'HappySwordsman' (all three)
Length - 1:08 (top), 1:19 (middle), 1:18 (bottom)

Every Wednesday, TFTP takes a break from regular programming to bring you a selection of classic commercials. We will return after these messages...

Only two of these three commercials from 1954 feature a product spokesman on a set that looks like a well-appointed, wood-paneled study. The third is a classic product demonstration. Commercials of the 1950s, besides being longer and more leisurely than those we are familiar with today, also were drawn from definite genres, of which the stately product testimonial and the practical product demonstration are two.

The first ad, featuring "Super Circus" star Mary Hartline, is a demonstration of Dixie paper cups. The ad was clearly a live one in which a member of the program's cast pitches the product, and Hartline discusses the benefits of Dixie cups at a time when disposable paper cups were apparently still a novelty to many viewers. Ads number two and three, for Colgate toothpaste and Welch Family Wine, respectively, show the versatility of the wood-paneled-study genre of commercial; just about any product could be pitched within these confines and seem respectable. As a result, 1950s TV was lousy with them.