From Oreo to Red Bull, CPG Brands Are Transforming Marketing

On July 1, 1941, Bulova Watches aired the first-ever television commercial during the lead-in to a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. The 10-second commercial depicted a black-and-white outline of the United States sitting stoically on a screen, with the Bulova Watch logo emblazoned on it. For the first seven seconds, the image stood in silence, like a classroom map eagerly imprinting a nation’s outlines on a child's mind. Then, a voice-over chimed in: "America runs on Bulova time."

Why did Bulova do it? After all, only 4,000 television sets existed in New York at that time, and television advertising was completely unchartered waters. Read more...