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Library Makes Historic TV Ads Available Free on iTunes U

Part of the Mad Men in the Classroom Series

"Please, don't squeeze the Charmin!," "Double your pleasure; double your fun" -- these memorable slogans and the products they promote have been beamed to Americans in 60-, 30- and even 10-second spots since the introduction of television in the 1950s.

Now, more than 1,500 historic TV commercials from the Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History in the Duke University Special Collections Library are available on iTunes U in a collection called "AdViews."

The first 1,500 digitized television commercials, mostly from the 1950s and 1960s, are part of the Hartman Center's D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B) advertising agency archive. It includes 12,000 commercials total, some produced as recently as the late 1980s. Duke Libraries plans to make the remaining commercials available by the end of 2009.

"Within iTunes U in the iTunes Store, people will be able to do keyword searches for various product categories, brands, time periods and see the history of brands over time," said Jacqueline Reid, the Hartman Center director.

The commercials pitch everything from shampoo and toys to dog food and coffee. New York agency DMB&B produced the ads for iconic American companies such as General Foods, Texaco and Kraft.

The commercials show what products Americans have been buying through the decades, and they also reveal a great deal about American society over the past 50 years, said former Procter & Gamble marketing executive George Grody, now a visiting professor at Duke.

"I was looking at some of the commercials that are now being digitized at Duke, and they almost provide a history of U.S. culture," Grody said. "You can see how the roles of women have changed over the years, the role of the family has changed; African-Americans in advertising in the late ‘60s, where they weren't so present in the early ‘60s."

The AdViews collection of commercials also tracks changes in advertising strategies. "One of the subject areas that we're really trying to focus on with our digitization efforts is advertising and consumer culture," said Jill Katte, AdViews project manager.

Added Reid, "The commercials from 30, 40 years ago were much more direct about selling you the product. The path to take was to appeal to the consumer and try to make them feel some social anxiety.

"Today I think commercials are quite different. You're much more likely to see commercials that are meant to entertain."