Central Bank Ad – April 23, 1966

Central Bank, one of the many late, great local banks – has been featured many times on this blog. The bank's freewheeling ad campaigns included a lot of clip art, making them a lot of fun.

And here's an ad that appeared in the Journal back on April 23, 1966 – sixty years ago this week. Do you remember the famous national advertising campaign that Central is parodying here?

Older readers probably have no trouble recalling the well-known "Let Hertz put you in the driver's seat" campaign, with trick photography literally dropping drivers out of the sky and into a Hertz rental car.

Here's one of the commercials. I really like the jazzy melody, as well as the depiction of travel as nothing but fun-fun-fun. (The couple drop into the moving car around the 50 second mark.)

By 1970, the campaign had been running long enough for Hertz to have some fun with it. This commercial features actor and comedian McLean Stevenson.

Ah, I miss those days of truly memorable and entertaining commercials!

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Gene Patrick did his version of the Hertz ad in a Passing Scene cartoon that ran in August 1966 when Joseph Calta was made Superintendent of Lorain City Schools.