Television sets such as this Philco receiver (built before 1942) Since the beginning of television, the bread and butter for any broadcast station is the revenue that comes from advertising. If you have seen nostalgic TV commercials from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, (check out You Tube for a good sampler of vintage commercials) then you know that television advertising and design has come a long way since the first commercial aired in 1941. Today, the commercials that interrupt our viewing pleasure run the gamut of being funny, glossy, provocative, entertaining, and just downright annoying (think "Head On" rub on aspirin that looks more like the paste we used to bind construction paper pieces together in kindergarten - Head On commercials are annoying but very effective).
If you noticed recently, the commercials for LG's new line of Scarlet TV sets are made to be more of a high-end Hollywood movie premiere and its hard to tell that they are trying to sell you a product - very clever and sexy marketing!
On this day in 1941, for-profit commercial television is first broadcast legally in the United States, as the licenses issued by the Federal Communications Commission becomes effective. Ten stations have received licenses a few months earlier on May 2. License number one was issued to W2XBS, NBC, which telecast from the Empire State Building over Channel 1.
