Free online archive of vintage TV commercials

Carrie McLaren is a guest blogger at Boing Boing and coauthor of Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. She lives in Brooklyn, the former home of her now defunct Stay Free! magazine.

The Hartman Center at Duke University has just launched AdViews, a collection of thousands of TV commercials from the 1950s-1980s, all from the archives of ad agency D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles. Early spots for IBM computers, Hasbro, Squibb, and a bunch of others are here. I especially enjoyed the Pampers spots; the narrative in them is so hilariously forced, it's almost porn-like. These ads don't promote a brand so much as the concept of disposability -- still a new idea at the time.

Unfortunately, the videos aren't nearly as accessible as the print ads in the other Duke/Hartman archives--they're on an iTunes channel, which allows for downloading but not much else. The archive is still a work in progress, though, and greater accessibility is planned for the future.

(Thanks, Skip!)

Leave a comment

Anonymous

Email Address

Remember personal info?

Speech is free, but Boing Boing is moderated. Comments may be deleted or disemvoweled. Anonymous comments are not automatically published. Please don't make racist, sexist or homophobic remarks or use associated offensive terms. Please don't talk politics in unrelated threads. Please don't cuss or harass other commenters. Please don't post signatures, spam, astroturf or copypasta. Link to your website only on your profile page. Wheedling accomplishes nothing. Stay on topic. Read the full moderation policy. Thank you!

Submit your toddler's science questions!

When I was guesting on BoingBoing last spring, my friends' son Will wanted to know whether cockroaches had a penis. I enjoyed tracking down the surprisingly complicated answer, so I thought I'd keep the theme going now that I'm on full-time. I'm hoping to answer a Science Question from a Toddler onc... More.

Apple patents anti-user attention-complianceware

Apple's filed a patent on a design for a device that won't let its owner use it unless that person demonstrates that she has complied with an advertiser's demands by paying attention to an ad and taking some action indicating her dutiful attention. It's amazing how many of these vendors fail to und... More.

The Green Flash of the Sun

Sometimes, from certain places, the light from the sun can briefly appear green. NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day explains, Just as the setting Sun disappears completely from view, a last glimmer appears startlingly green. The effect is typically visible only from locations with a low, distan... More.

Alternate Star Trek pilot to be released

The forthcoming DVD release of Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 3 includes a pilot episode previously only available on the bootleg circuit. Apparently a German film collector found a print of this alternate version of the second Star Trek pilot, titled "Where No One Has Gone Before," and br... More.

7 Comments

| Leave a comment

stevew | #1 | 08:59 on Mon, Jul.27 | Reply

Hope someone does this with Doyle Dane Bernbach too!

Anonymous | #2 | 09:22 on Mon, Jul.27 | Reply

I hope they make a youtube channel! C'mon isn't this exactly what youtube is *for*?

Anonymous | #3 | 11:38 on Mon, Jul.27 | Reply

I'm starting to have a problem with academia publishing stuff on iTunes and claiming it's "free".

Anonymous | #4 | 16:33 on Mon, Jul.27 | Reply

It is free. The pain is that you have to use the iTunes software (which is free) to access the video files.

Anonymous | #5 | 17:04 on Mon, Jul.27 | Reply

I guess those of us using Linux are out of luck then.

Anonymous | #6 | 18:51 on Mon, Jul.27 | Reply

Borden's! They still make the best milkshakes.

Anonymous | #7 | 07:13 on Tue, Jul.28 | Reply

Looks like the Duke University Libraries (home of the Hartman Center) has posted videos to a couple of channels in YouTube:

DukeLibDigitalColl

DukeUnivLibraries

I only see a couple of videos related to adViews there, but hopefully they will post more. Some of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Videos seem relevant to consumer culture.