Set Your Watches, The 'Commercial' Is About To Turn 75... Tick, Tick, Tick

Long before America ran on Dunkin’, it ran on Bulova. In fact, “America runs on Bulova” was the only copy -- spoken as a voiceover with a simple graphic of a Bulova watch represented on a map of the U.S. -- that was also the first TV commercial ever aired 75 years ago today.

The spot ran only 10 seconds and cost only $9 to air on NBC’s then New York affiliate WNBT, which was also one of the first commercial TV stations to broadcast that day.

The spot ran at 2:39 PM on the East Coast just before a Brooklyn Dodgers game was broadcast.
4 comments about "Set Your Watches, The 'Commercial' Is About To Turn 75... Tick, Tick, Tick".
Check to receive email when comments are posted.
  1. Alvin Silk from Harvard Business School, July 1, 2016 at 11:46 a.m.

    Thanks Joe-- a timely remnder in the early stages of the "digital transformatin now underway of how ad formats and creative treatmentevolve over time as media/communication technolges change.

  2. Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston, July 1, 2016 at 11:48 a.m.

    One of my favorite TV commercials was a live one in the 1950s when John Cameron Swayze strapped a Timex watch to the propeller of an outboard motor to see if the watch would live up to the catchphrase, "Timex takes a licking but keeps on ticking" -- but the commercial ended with no watch on the propeller! An embarrassed Swayze apologized and promised that if the watch had still been there, it would still be ticking. Watch it here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NHq3Yze6s0

  3. Joe Mandese from MediaPost Inc., July 1, 2016 at 12:02 p.m.

    @Douglas Ferguson: The brand was done in by a (wrist) band. But have to give them props for trying something so daring.

    @Alvin Silk: It's ironic how we went from a :10 to full program sponsorships with brand integration (even cast commercials) to the :60, then the :30, and frequently :15s, :20s, etc. Maybe we will come full-circle and make the :10 the standard unit once again. Personally, I'm interested in new models some publishers and developers like Parsec are using that are time-based attention, or cost-per-second. Not sure TV will ever go that route, but it makes sense for digital in many ways.



  4. Chuck Lantz from 2007ac.com, 2017ac.com network replied, July 1, 2016 at 7:22 p.m.

    Swayze's ad-lib was epic. But it would have been even better if he'd quickly switched gears and started touting the "incredible horsepower and reliable starting ability" of that outboard motor.

Next story loading loading..