By the time we had settled in at Lewisburg, WV around 1956, television had really hit its stride. Great shows were airing, the majority of homes now had sets and the power of a television ad was daunting. If we saw it on TV, we had to have it.
I remember Saturday morning cartoons, many sponsored by M&Ms.
“They melt in your mouth, not in your hands!” the ad said. And we begged for M&M’s. I remember having a large bag handy and when those commercials came on, we’d stick a handful of the colorful chocolates in our mouths, sucking the sweet coatings off first before then chewing the inside chocolates. Good stuff then and it still is today.
Another product that TV made famous was Royal Gelatin Pudding. Buffalo Bob of Howdy Doody fame hawked the pudding, a bowl piled high and topped with whipped cream, and it became a regular on the weekly grocery list. The pudding was okay, but never as delicious as when we watched Buffalo Bob eat a large spoonful.
Somewhere in the mid-50s, Jiffy Pop hit the airways. Jiffy Pop was a ready-to-cook concoction of premeasured popcorn, seasoning and oil in a heavy gauge aluminum foil pan. Just put in on the stove, shake it around and you’re eating delicious popcorn in “a jiffy” the ads said. But the stuff was heat sensitive, half the kernels burned and the other half didn’t pop. But, we kept buying it because the TV said we should.
We even bought coonskin caps. Think about that! Millions of young and old alike went out and bought furry caps with a raccoon tail and we actually wore them – because we watched Davy Crocket on TV and that made it okay.
Perhaps the worst product encouraged by TV ads was powdered milk. Powdered milk, a product made by evaporating real milk to a dry state, had been around for a long time, but somewhere in the mid-50s’ TV ads portrayed the stuff as a product of the future. No need for the milkman, no need to take up valuable space in the refrigerator, no need for a quart of milk to ever go bad. You could cook with it and it was delicious to drink, said the TV ads.
They lied! The stuff was awful. Why drink powdered milk when you could have the real thing – cold, delicious pasteurized milk!
But we tried to like it – we even put Ovaltine in it to try and make it taste better, but it didn’t get any better.
Today, I keep a little powdered milk on the pantry because a bread recipe I have calls for the stuff. But I wouldn’t drink it on a bet – no matter what they say on TV!