Commercial Reel: Beer and Automotive Spots

Description

As our members already know, the Paul Fennell Studio was a pioneer in animated television advertising. This time, we are featuring two commercial reels from the mid 1950s. The first reel deals with automotive products- tires, gasoline, motor oil… The Shell gasoline commercial designed by Ed Benedict is a real standout with infectious music and animation. Spots like this certainly wouldn’t get tiresome upon repeated viewings. If you compare the Shell Motor Oil spot to our earlier reel of 1940 theatrical commercials, you will see how Fennell repeated and updated certain concepts from his earliest advertising cartoons.

The beer commercial reel includes several commercials each for Gunther’s, Valley Forge, Ram’s Head, and Schaefer Beer. The distinctive designs of Ed Benedict and jazzy musical accompaniment give these spots a very modern feel. They must have seemed unique among contemporary television advertising. It’s interesting to note that the earliest commercials for Gunther’s feature a typical cartoon bear, while the later more modern looking spots all have sports themes. The crew at Fennell was honing in on their target audience to create more effective advertisements.

Because of the ephemeral nature of commercials from the early days of television, these prints may be the last surviving copies of these films in existence.