AdViews is a digital archive of thousands of vintage television commercials dating from the 1950s to the 1980s.

The world's longest running TV commercial is the Discount Tire Company's Thank you commercial, produced by Swartwout Productions (Arizona, USA) and first aired in 1975. The same commercial has been aired continuously every year in parts of the USA.

Gibbs SR toothpaste The first TV ad broadcast in the UK went on air on ITV on September 22, 1955, advertising Gibbs SR toothpaste. In Asia, the first TV ad broadcast appeared on Nippon Television in Tokyo on August 28, 1953, advertising Seikosha (subsequently Seiko); it also displayed a clock with the current time.

Gibbs SR toothpaste The first TV ad broadcast in the UK went on air on ITV on September 22, 1955, advertising Gibbs SR toothpaste. In Asia, the first TV ad broadcast appeared on Nippon Television in Tokyo on August 28, 1953, advertising Seikosha (subsequently Seiko); it also displayed a clock with the current time.

The first television advert was for Gibbs SR toothpaste. It was broadcast on the 22nd September 1955, which coincided with the first broadcast of ITV. This advert is a lot longer than most adverts broadcast recently, at around one minute long.

At midnight, on 13 February 2003, tobacco advertising in Britain took its last gasp. Its demise had been predicted as long ago as 1965 when cigarette ads were banned from TV.

We'll now discuss the first-ever recognised television commercial. To do so, we must return to July 1st, 1941, in New York City. The WNBT (now WNBC channel four) broadcasted an advert for the watchmaker Bulova, before a baseball game.

The Best TV Adverts of All Time

• Freeview: Singing Cat and Budgie.
• John Lewis: Elton John.
• Money Supermarket: Dave's Epic Strut.
• Cadbury's Dairy Milk: Drumming Gorilla.
• Old Spice: The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.
• Gillette: We Believe: The Best Men Can Be.
• Coca-Cola: Holidays Are Coming!
• Haribo: Inner Child.

Bird's eye peas The first ever advert that appeared on 15th November 1969 in colour was for Bird's eye peas. It starred the actress Patsy Kensit as a child and had the famous slogan “fresh as the moment when the pod went pop”! It cost £23 to air the advert!

Public health officials and consumers wanted stronger warning labels on tobacco products and their advertisements banned from television and radio, where they could easily reach impressionable children. (Tobacco companies were the single largest product advertisers on television in 1969.)

The last televised cigarette ad ran at 11:50 P.M. during The Johnny Carson Show on Jan. 1, 1971.

Gibbs SR toothpaste The first TV ad broadcast in the UK went on air on ITV on September 22, 1955, advertising Gibbs SR toothpaste.