# First tv ad to employ humor **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 12, 2014, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-ad-to-employ-humor/692950 "2014-07-12T21:44:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![common\_good](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@common\_good](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/common_good)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2014, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-ad-to-employ-humor/692950/21 "2014-07-19T21:47:30Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I have a DVD full of TV commercials, some of which were humorous long before 1960, so I dispute the premise. > The most famous funny one from that time period though was Stan Freburg’s Jeno’s Pizza Roll commercial which you can see [here.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxeZo7gRkeA) But it was hardly the first. That’s the one I was thinking of. I recalled reading some book about advertising 25 years ago, and it gave the opinion that the Jeno’s ad broke some barrier in the use of humor. Others point out that premise is probably wrong. Anyway, ads tended to take their products too seriously in those early days of tv ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2014, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-ad-to-employ-humor/692950/22 "2014-07-19T22:11:36Z")
> [@common\_good](#): > > That’s the one I was thinking of. I recalled reading some book about advertising 25 years ago, and it gave the opinion that the Jeno’s ad broke some barrier in the use of humor. Others point out that premise is probably wrong. Anyway, ads tended to take their products too seriously in those early days of tv All it needs is a Swiss archer, and a kid with an apple on his head tapping the Lone Ranger on the shoulder and saying “By the way…” ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2014, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-ad-to-employ-humor/692950/23 "2014-07-19T22:19:08Z")
> [@common\_good](#): > > That’s the one I was thinking of. I recalled reading some book about advertising 25 years ago, and it gave the opinion that the Jeno’s ad broke some barrier in the use of humor. Humor has been in radio and then TV advertising since nearly the beginning. _Satire_ - especially self-satire - was nonexistent before Freberg’s earliest work. That’s almost certainly the “barrier” you’re thinking of. I’d also bet the book you’re thinking of is Terry Galanoy’s _Down the Tube_. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2014, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-ad-to-employ-humor/692950/24 "2014-07-20T01:49:02Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > All it needs is a Swiss archer, and a kid with an apple on his head tapping the Lone Ranger on the shoulder and saying “By the way…” Have a pizza roll, Keemosabee? ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2014, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-ad-to-employ-humor/692950/25 "2014-07-20T01:56:15Z")
“Have a pizza roll, Dad. It’ll steady your hands.” ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2014, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-ad-to-employ-humor/692950/26 "2014-07-20T04:08:44Z")
> [@common\_good](#): > > Anyway, ads tended to take their products too seriously in those early days of tv In the early or mid '50s, didn’t a newly minted U.S. law prevent a program’s actors from selling products, as **[George Burns and Gracie Allen did with Carnation](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q44iT8TRdgw)**? Perhaps they were concerned that the plots of entire shows would soon not only revolve around evaporated milk but Hamm’s beer, the snazzy new Henry J and the wonderous new Super V Crosley 17-inch TV. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2014, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-ad-to-employ-humor/692950/27 "2014-07-20T15:35:37Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > In the early or mid '50s, didn’t a newly minted U.S. law prevent a program’s actors from selling products, as **[George Burns and Gracie Allen did with Carnation](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q44iT8TRdgw)**? Sounds like the law everyone knows was passed to outlaw subliminal advertising. (Never was such a thing.) > [@](#): > > Perhaps they were concerned that the plots of entire shows would soon not only revolve around evaporated milk but Hamm’s beer, the snazzy new Henry J and the wonderous new Super V Crosley 17-inch TV. Since Fred and Barney had integrated commercials for Winston cigarettes in the mid-1960s, it seems likely that the law never existed but such worries were prescient. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2014, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-ad-to-employ-humor/692950/28 "2014-07-20T15:56:17Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > In the early or mid '50s, didn’t a newly minted U.S. law prevent a program’s actors from selling products, as **[George Burns and Gracie Allen did with Carnation](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q44iT8TRdgw)**? > > Perhaps they were concerned that the plots of entire shows would soon not only revolve around evaporated milk but Hamm’s beer, the snazzy new Henry J and the wonderous new Super V Crosley 17-inch TV. There’re some pretty blatant product placements on _Rizzoli & Isles_ that would undoubtedly violate such a law if it existed. It’s done tongue-in-cheek, and usually right before a commercial cut to an actual commercial for the product (including one designed to reference the show). Those placements are going to look really odd in reruns ten years from now. Maybe they’ll just be edited out. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2014, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-ad-to-employ-humor/692950/29 "2014-07-20T16:45:22Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > There’re some pretty blatant product placements on _Rizzoli & Isles_ that would undoubtedly violate such a law if it existed. It’s done tongue-in-cheek, and usually right before a commercial cut to an actual commercial for the product (including one designed to reference the show). Those placements are going to look really odd in reruns ten years from now. Maybe they’ll just be edited out. No, they’ll be mapped over. Besides a rising tide of technology and implementation to insert modern ads and placement in older material, there is a preparatory movement going on now. Just as Johnny Carson started recording the _Tonight Show_ in stereo years before stereo TV was available, and JMS shot _Babylon 5_ in widescreen even though it was first broadcast in 4:3, prescient movie and TV producers are following guidelines to allow in-show products to be digitally remapped in future reshowings. Orwell was a piker. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2014, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-ad-to-employ-humor/692950/30 "2014-07-20T16:54:37Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > No, they’ll be mapped over. > > _-snip-_ > > prescient movie and TV producers are following guidelines to allow in-show products to be digitally remapped in future reshowings. For the particular _Rizzoli & Isles_ I’m thinking of, there’s discussion of the product; it isn’t just sitting there on the counter, and they show the characters using it. It’s going to take some really complicated CGI, and some overdubbing by really good voice actors, or a lot of work to patch together the dialogue from existing dialogue. It’ll be easier to snip it. That doesn’t mean in the future there won’t be a can of some cola that doesn’t even exist yet sitting on the kitchen counter, just sitting. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2014, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-ad-to-employ-humor/692950/31 "2014-07-20T18:23:54Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > In the early or mid '50s, didn’t a newly minted U.S. law prevent a program’s actors from selling products, as **[George Burns and Gracie Allen did with Carnation](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q44iT8TRdgw)**? > > Perhaps they were concerned that the plots of entire shows would soon not only revolve around evaporated milk but Hamm’s beer, the snazzy new Henry J and the wonderous new Super V Crosley 17-inch TV. in radio an actor who played the main character might do the commercial in the steam of the show. in radio comedies, while there may have been a character who acted as the single sponsor product spokes person but the commercial was part of the show and often became a lengthy comical bit. George Burns and Gracie Allen did this with Bill Goodwin on the radio. Fibber McGee and Molly show and the Jack Benny show did similar. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2014, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-ad-to-employ-humor/692950/32 "2014-07-20T18:53:36Z")
The Andrews Sisters did a Campbell’s Soup song, that sometimes you can find on compilations of their more obscure songs. They had regular radio shows for both ABC and CBS at different times, and they would sing the sponsor’s song as just one of the other songs they sang, interspersed with comedy bits and interviews with guest stars. I assume they probably had other sponsors, and other songs, but Campbell’s Soup is the only one I’ve heard. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2014, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-ad-to-employ-humor/692950/33 "2014-07-20T19:04:15Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > For the particular _Rizzoli & Isles_ I’m thinking of, there’s discussion of the product; it isn’t just sitting there on the counter, and they show the characters using it. It’s going to take some really complicated CGI, and some overdubbing by really good voice actors, or a lot of work to patch together the dialogue from existing dialogue. It sounds as if the practice is integral to the show. The next iteration - maybe the next season - will Get the Memo. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-tv-ad-to-employ-humor/692950.md?page=1)