Australian TV Ads

You know when you think about it that much maligned creature the TV advertisement has more cultural clout than you’d give it credit for. Advertisements (or commercials) have been used to sell every product imaginable over the years, from household products to goods and services, to political campaigns. The first television advertisement was broadcast in the US at 14:29 on July 1, 1941, when the Bulova Watch Company paid $9 for a 20-second spot aired before a baseball game. It simply displayed a Bulova watch over a map of the U.S., with a voiceover of the company's slogan "America runs on Bulova time!"

Its common knowledge that the expense invested in these little productions outweighs pound for pound and metre for metre their full length relatives. The effect of television advertisements upon the viewing public has been so successful and so pervasive that it would seem impossible to wage a successful political election campaign without use of television advertising. Many television advertisements feature catchy jingles or catch-phrases that generate sustained appeal, which may remain in the minds of television viewers long after the span of the advertising campaign. Some of these ad jingles or catch-phrases may take on lives of their own, spawning gags or "riffs" that may appear in other forms of media, such as comedy movies or television variety shows, or in written media, such as magazine comics or literature. These long-lasting advertising elements may therefore be said to have taken a place in the no history of the demographic to which they have appeared.
"What a lot of pretentious shite," you are no doubt thinking. But why not test it out on the modest (but lots of growth potential) list of Aussie adverts at Local Counsel-Australian Adverts and see if the theory bears out its contention?