This is one of a large collection of films made by Rowntree’s of York (now Nestlé).  Most of the films came via the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, based at the University of York.  The vast bulk of the films are adverts for their confectionary products: including Rolo, Black Magic, Toffee Crisp, Smarties, Milky Bar, KitKat, Dairy Box and many other brands made between 1929 and 1990.  The earliest one of the adverts is Mr York of York, Yorks, the first animated advertisement to be...

This is one of a large collection of films made by Rowntree’s of York (now Nestlé).  Most of the films came via the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, based at the University of York.  The vast bulk of the films are adverts for their confectionary products: including Rolo, Black Magic, Toffee Crisp, Smarties, Milky Bar, KitKat, Dairy Box and many other brands made between 1929 and 1990.  The earliest one of the adverts is Mr York of York, Yorks, the first animated advertisement to be made, in 1929, with synchronised sound - also online.  For an overview of the Rowntree’s business see After Eight Adverts (1962).  For more on Rowntree’s and TV advertising in the 1950s and ‘60s, see the Contexts for Tokens 1962-1963, Black Magic 1955-1968 and Kit Kat 1955-1959. 

What all the adverts shown here have in common is the emphasis on what is distinctive about Aeros: their difference.  What of course makes them different is the bubbles, something that was to become the focus of later adverts, with slogans like, "It's the bubbles of nothing that make it really something".  They may have been different, but they certainly weren’t new, first appearing in 1935, followed by the Aero Mint variation in the 1970s (the Wikipedia entry on Aero has this the other way around).  

As opposed to most of the adverts in these other collections this set of ads are all animations.  Even the Kit Kat adverts of roughly the same period are of real people acting.  One advantage of having real people is that the adverts can more easily target particular population groups by portraying a particular activity or lifestyle – although in the case of Kit Kat this was, and remains, aimed at a very wide section of society.  This latter point is clearly the case here with regard to Aero.  Judging by the many TV adverts posted on YouTube, animated ads weren’t as common as one might think; although most of these ads are from the US, which, as you might expect, are generally much longer and clearly cost more to make.

The first ad definitely has a US flavour though, both in the animation and the accompanying singing.  The singer sounds as if it might be the great Cab Calloway (or someone of that ilk, such as the equally great Louis Prima).  It isn’t clear whether Cab Calloway ever did sing on any adverts, or whether ads in the US during the 1950s would even feature a black performer, but he was no stranger to singing to a cartoon.  He famously sang on the equally wonderful Betty Boop cartoons in the 1930s (these too can be found on YouTube). The US feel is somewhat diminished though when the voiceover comes in.  These ads don’t have any credits with them, so any attributions are going to be somewhat speculative.  However, those of a certain generation may well recognise the distinctive baritone voice that interjects.  Again, another guess is that this might be the actor Deryck Guyler, who become quite well known for his small parts in comedy shows of the 1960s and ‘70s, especially in Sykes and as the school caretaker Norman Potter in Please Sir.  He mainly earnt his living during the 1950s doing voice-overs for commercials.

One aspect of the ads that might be perplexing for younger viewers is the reference to a specific price, and advertising on the basis of price.  This is not something that you would see in a commercial for a particular product today, and for a good reason: it is illegal.  The fixing of a price by the manufacturer for the distributors or retailers is called resale price maintenance.   This was stopped by the Resale Prices Act of 1964.  With the development of mass-produced branded goods by 1938 some 38% of all goods sold were done so with the manufacturer setting the price.  By the landmark date of 1956, around about the time these commercials were made, this had increased to more than half of all goods sold.  In this year the Restrictive Trade Practices Act was passed banning collective discrimination, by groups of manufacturers, to enforce minimum resale prices. 

However, the same Act strengthened the ability of individual manufacturers to fix prices, leading to an increase in this practice.  So after this date a campaign was launched by retailers to extend the law preventing manufacturers from setting their own prices, leading to the 1964 Act.  This was later taken into EU competition laws (there were exceptions, such as Net Book Agreement which wasn’t formally ended, by the Restrictive Practises Court, until 1997).  This changed the balance between manufacturers and retailers, and helped the boom in supermarkets and their own products – which could set prices at their absolute discretion, whatever price might be put on the packaging.  The huge opposition that instantly springs up against any idea of price controls, as the Labour Party have found on several occasions, shows just how embedded this market freedom is – whatever the consequences for shoppers on fixed incomes.   But the price for an Aero, taking inflation into account, hasn’t changed much in the intervening years.  Six old pence in 1956 is now worth about 53 pence, which is probably a bit less than an Aero bar would typically cost today – although it might be a bit smaller.

References

History of Aero

Helen Mercer, ‘The Abolition of Resale Price Maintenance in Britain in 1964: A Turning Point for British Manufacturers?’  LSE Working Papers in Economic History