I just got a cut-out book from Daedalus (www.salebooks.com) on the history
of television advertising. That is, not advertising on TV, but advertising
of TV.

It's called "Window to the Future -- The Golden Age of Television Marketing
and Advertising", and has around 150 well-reproduced print ads, plus some
interesting commentary.

Did you know Zenith made TVs with Blaxide picture tubes? Blaxide? Whatever
genius came up with that name should have been horsewhipped.

An ad for GE's PortaColor has a pre-teen holding the unit, while standing in
front of a console TV (the claim being that the little set is as good as the
big one). The fake picture on both sets is a cowboy with his arm around the
neck of a tomahawk-wielding Indian, with the cowboy's gun at the Indian's
jaw. All question of political correctness aside, it's a surprisingly
violent image for any TV ad, let alone one with a young'un.