Note the music too. The changing styles and instruments cover off the changing times very well. This ad was done by Grey London and has generated an impressive 5.2 million YouTube views, 657 Facebook shares and 63 tweets since its' launch about two weeks ago. And yes the ad is getting online ad support. But it's still the most successful viral Gillette has released to date. Now contrast that with this Australian commercial produced in 1961.
Note how excited they got about the executive travelling case for an extra 20 shillings. And this was the industry's idea of a high tech commercial from 1959. Taking the crew to the Mohave dessert.
In the early days of TV advertising there were also some liberties taken too. Colgate-Palmolive and Ted Bates advertising got into a bit of hot water in 1960 for another commercial. They claimed their razor would shave sand paper. The only problem was, the commercial actually featured sand crystals on a piece of glass. The Federal Trades Commission eventually had the ads pulled. Here's the whole story here from Museum of Hoaxes. Razor advertising has definitely come a long way baby.
With over 30 years experience, Tim McLarty currently works out of Toronto Canada as a writer/voice performer, producer and media strategist producing advertising and entertainment content.
Ontrackblog is a division of OntrackCommunications Inc.