Museum of Broadcast Communications launches an online exhibition with TV ads

The Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) launched a  new online exhibit at museum.tv, “We’ll be Right Back: 60 years of Television Commercials“, that includes  more than 10,000 commercials and nearly 100,000 hours of content.

The exhibition spans more than six decades and showcases more than 100 of the best television commercials from the 1940s through today, including some of the most creative, innovative, and ground breaking advertising work from the “Cool 50’s” through “The 2k’s.”  

The online exhibit features classic spots from iconic brands such as Tootsie Roll Pops, Chevrolet, Texaco, Tang, Life Cereal, McDonalds, Alka Seltzer, Dunkin Donuts, Coca Cola, Budweiser, American Express, Lexus, Gillette, Apple, Target and others. It also offers a look at Super Bowl advertising featuring the most memorable spots from 1969 to 2010, Political advertising, Infomercials, Public Service Announcements and examples of Product Placement on programs like “I Love Lucy” and “Modern Family.”

The exhibit starts in the earliest days of television programming and chronicles the growth of television advertising, from simple product placement to an art form all its own. Each section features links that let visitors watch classic commercials and editorial that provides a brief history of the era or genre and helps visitors put the content they view in context with the times.

Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) is an Illinois non-profit corporation and manages two subsidiaries. Museum.tv and the National Radio Hall of Fame (NRHOF) and it’s website radiohof.org. The MBC is to collect, preserve, and present historic and contemporary and television content as well as educate, inform and entertain the public through it’s archives, public programs, screening, exhibits, publications and online access to it’s resources.