TFTP Will Return After These Messages: Evolution of Mountain Dew Ads (1960s-1980s)

Posted to YouTube by user 'haikarate4' (top), 'I Love TV Commercials' (middle), 'PeterMacca88' (bottom)
Length - 0:58 (top), 0:30 (middle), 0:30 (bottom)

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

The nature of advertising campaigns for a particular product sometimes shifts drastically over a long period of time, but often there is a discernible evolution that can be traced. Such an evolution is evident across these three ads for Mountain Dew--spanning from the product's national introduction in the mid-1960s into the early-1990s.

The first ad (top), from 1966, heavily emphasizes the beverage's "hillbilly" origins--Mountain Dew originated as a regional soda in Tennessee in the 1940s that was named after a slang term for moonshine. The animated ad exploits hillbilly stereotypes that were prevalent in the 1960s and before, from sources such as the "Lil' Abner" comic strip and "The Beverly Hillbillies" TV show. This hillbilly stereotype has mostly disappeared in today's culture, but Mountain Dew capitalized on it to the hilt in its early advertising--right down to the slogan "It'll tickle yore innards".

The second and third ads show a clear evolution from this hillbilly origin to the extreme sports emphasis that is still a focus of Mountain Dew advertising today. The middle ad, from 1977, has a wilderness setting like that of the hillbilly era, but the focus has shifted to an activity like kayaking within that setting. Other Mountain Dew ads from the 1970s and '80s follow this same trajectory, featuring activities like offroading and cliff jumping in outdoor settings.

The final ad (bottom), from the early-1990s, completes the shift by showing extreme sports such as sailboarding, motocross, and others. Tracing this evolution across these three ads (and others) shows how this carbonated beverage that ended up with a connection in its ads to extreme sports had its origins in hillbilly stereotypes--and how it got from the one to the other.

TFTP Signs-Off for the Week: Sign-Offs Through the Years - 1977 (WLS/Chicago)

Posted to YouTube by user 'The Museum of Classic Chicago Television'
Length - 7:50

Each Friday afternoon, TFTP signs-off for the week with a classic station sign-off sequence for your enjoyment and to bid farewell until Monday...

And throughout 2018, we are featuring "Sign-Offs Through the Years", as we go year-by-year with each successive week.

As we march into the late-1970s with "Sign-Offs Through the Years", here is a content-packed (and lengthy) sign-off from March 6, 1977, and station WLS in Chicago. It begins with the last few seconds and end credits of the 1961 movie "The Guns of Navarone" starring Gregory Peck. (Watch closely and see at least a couple instances of obvious pan-and-scan of this widescreen film.) This is followed by a couple of promos for upcoming movie broadcasts of "The Gambler" (1974) and "Bless the Beasts and Children" (1971).

A "Note of Interest" slide with voiceover of where to send public service announcements for the station, a long PSA for AARP featuring the late-in-life accomplishments of figures like Frank Lloyd Wright and Grandma Moses, and a station ID with a voiceover PSA for the United Negro College Fund precede a "Reflections" segment with a bible verse reading by Rev. John Ware--who emphasizes the concept of "Keep On Keepin' On" (remember, it was the seventies).

Finally, the national anthem film--with images of portraits of Founding Fathers--is played, preceded by a NAB Seal of Good Practice slide and followed by color bars.

TFTP Signs-Off for the Week--and Signs on for December! Station Sign-Off and Sign-On from WCBS/New York (1977)

Posted to YouTube by user 'SignOffsGuy'
Length - 8:53

Each Friday afternoon, TFTP signs-off for the week with a classic station sign-off segment for your enjoyment and to bid farewell until Monday...

AND

TFTP marks the beginning of each new month with a classic station sign-on sequence to "sign-on" for the month....

This special post--coming on a 1st of the month that is also a Friday--features a unique clip that includes BOTH a sign-off sequence and a sign-on sequence. Apparently (according to the notes for this clip on its YouTube page), WCBS (the flagship affiliate for CBS) at this time signed off each morning at 5:00 am for just one hour before signing back on shortly after 6:00 am. The clip above contains both the sign-off sequence as well as the start of the subsequent sign-on sequence for the era circa 1977.

The sign-off sequence begins (after a brief closing bumper for "The Late Late Show") with a public service announcement for the Jewish Chautauqua Society consisting of poetic voiceover on images of children's drawings and footage of abandoned concentration camps. This is followed by a religious segment called "Give Us This Day" featuring a Jewish rabbi delivering an inspirational message. Next is the ownership/technical voiceover (with some slide mix-ups involving the NAB code slide), with the national anthem film (a rather prosaic one featuring images of flags and national monuments in Washington, D.C.) closing out the sign-off.

Then the sign-on sequence starts. A WCBS test pattern kicks it off, followed by a ownership and technical voiceover that starts by greeting us with "Good Morning".

TFTP Will Return After These Messages: Commercial Block from KTLA/Los Angeles, with bulletin of Elvis Presley's death (Aug. 16, 1977)

Posted to YouTube by user 'MicroJow'

Recorded from a rerun broadcast of the 1960s TV western "The Big Valley" on Los Angeles independent station KTLA, this block of commercials includes the news bulletin of Elvis Presley's death on Aug. 16, 1977.

Rundown of commercials in this block (by original YouTube poster), not in the order they appear:
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Schick Center For the Control of Smoking and Weight
Carpeteria
Queen Mary Tours
Capital Home Loans
Standard American Builders
Hali-Specht's
Silent Valley
TV Guide
Dinah!
Aames Home Loans
Hair Away
The Bryman School
Custom Craft Carpets
H. Salt Fish & Chips
Dr. F.E. Campbell - Credit Dentist
Emergency! One
Banner Carpets
Hall's Furniture
The Sawyer Schools
Vita Mix

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