Anyone who has an interest in advertising, culture or history, should check out the amazing collection of television advertising archived by Duke University Library. The collection is called AdViews: A Digital Archive of Vintage Television Commercials, and is well worth a look.

These fine American commercials date from the 1950’s through the 1980’s and contain (as the archive description says)

Notable television commercials created for various clients from the D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles advertising agency archives held in the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History at the Duke University Libraries. The TV ads were digitized from the 16mm preservation film prints in 2009, as part of the AdViews Collection.

The commercials are hosted through iTunes, so be sure to download some Madison Avenue goodness. I find it most interesting to see how advertising has evolved, or devolved depending on one’s point of view. There are some excellent examples of mid-century modern typography, iconography and sensibilities to be found.