Here are eight minutes of television commercials from 1964 (the year I happened to be born in). Plenty of animated cereal commercials, innocuous Bactine and Lipton tea spots and such. I’ve always felt that TV (and magazine) ads are a surefire way to experience the culture of a given period and here we see a version of the 60s much closer to the 50s. 1964 ads are benign, unfussy, uninventive and friendly. Although the President’s been shot (and we were technically in Vietnam) the public face put on American culture was still a soothing one. And then Anita Bryant makes a quick appearance at the end and we feel the onslaught coming; if you don’t know who she was just think of the most hateful sort of homophob and dress her up in mid-century modeling outfits. Her appearance at the Hollywood Bowl in the late 1970s in which she attacked all gay people as sinful and not worthy of any rights led to her downfall. Her commercial contract with whatever Orange Juice brand she shilled for was cancelled. SNL parodied her as did other publications. Her husband divorced her and she went bankrupt. Proof that there’s always hope that the world straightens things out for those possessed with hate and prejudice. Meanwhile we wait…