The era of advertising to sell something by enticing people to make a purchase began in the 1920s. People were psychologically approached to feel they had to buy an item to feel good, be popular, loved by the opposite sex--just buy it! Even if one didn't need it.
Thirty years later, and with the advent of television, advertising became commercials--slick, creative and memorable, which once stuck in one's mind, a likely sale would occur. Advertising agencies must have been filled with some of the most creative people, so creative to fix something in one's mind, certainly mine, that I can clearly recall the jingle, image or products themselves forty or fifty-some years later. Commercials of the 1950s have remained an will continue to remain in my memory bank for perpetuity.
The commercial classic of all classics, to me, has to be the Brylcream one. Using cartoon figures, as I recall, it showed an attractive woman (the sex approach--always a winner to attract a male's attention), who would go for a guy if he used the product. But the jingle, such creativity! Remember this?
"Brylcream, a little dab will do ya. Brylcream, you'll look so debonair. Brylcream, the gals will all pursue yaaaaaaaaa,They'll love to run their fingers through your hair!”
Now, analyze the appeal of that. “Just a dab will do ya." Must be a good product to be able to use so little. "You'll look so debonair." DEBONAIR! That's a word of class, would make a guy tops! Oh, and then the real draw--"The gals will all pursue ya..." What guy wouldn't want to be chased by females galore? And, to think of it, that they would want to "rub their fingers through your hair"--that just seems like a male fantasy ecstasy. Visions and feelings of being irresistible will catch any guy's attention--especially when he's an adolescent, who might not even know what "debonair" means, but it sounded good. It had the oh-so-important draw to bring on SEX APPEAL!
Actually, I bought a bottle of Byrlcream, in my 7th grade year as I
recall, pre-flattop days. It was better than the oily Vaseline, the one that was advertised in the back pages of comic books earlier, using Bert Parks saying, "I'm through with goo." Brylcream was gooey, but it smelled good and looked good--white and creamy. But when I went to the flattop, so went away the Byrlcream out of my life. I haven't been debonair since. But it was false advertising anyway, as far as I'm concerned. No female ever ran her fingers through my hair, even if I used an extra dab or two.
Wyatt