Philips Colour TV advertisement

How do you advertise colour TVs to people watching in black-and-white? After colour broadcasting began on 1 March 1975 (‘C-Day'), Australians lapped up the new technology at a rate that exceeded the UK, the US and Japan. However, there were still plenty of hold-outs, and this Philips ad from 1977 used an ingenious device to show them what they were missing.  

A series of live animals, from a monkey hankering after on-screen bananas to a border collie bringing a televised man his slippers, are fooled by the ‘natural colour’ of the Philips set – ‘colour that makes you feel like you’re really there’. If you weren’t reeled in by the cuteness of a seal hugging the screen, the soaring theme from the BBC series The Onedin Line might do the trick.  

Explore more on the launch of colour TV in Australia