Cinecraft Flashback Friday Episode #46,
Title; The Wayward BTU
Client; Owens-Corning (1947).
Cinecraft created some 16 productions for Owens-Corning between 1945 and 1953 in addition to two revisions of The Wayward BTU. This film was short for its era, a mere 10 minutes. It was produced the ad agency Fuller & Smith & Ross, one of Cinecraft’s major early clients. (You can look at the film director’s script complete with the notes at this link from the Hagley Museum archives. HTTPS://DIGITAL.HAGLEY...)
Fuller & Smith & Ross was founded in 1907 and was a major player specializing in industrial and B2B advertising. They lasted until 1978 when they were absorbed by Creamer Inc. who dissolved in 1995. Fuller & Smith & Ross was heralded as creating the best B2B ad of the 20th Century by Advertising Age. marketingcraft...
The Wayward BTU tells the story of Fiberglass® and its value in insulating a kitchen cooking oven. Cinecraft used a limited animation approach to personify the work of BTUs inside a kitchen oven. The point of the film was to show the benefits of buying a new oven insulated with Fiberglass®.
Glass wool was invented by accident in 1932 or 1933 (depending on the source you choose). It became trademarked in 1938 as Fiberglass®. Owens Corning is a $7 billion, fortune 500 company that is still going and growing with HQ in Toledo, Ohio. And the Pink Panther is still telling their story.
Back in 1947 not long after World War II ended America was retooling from making the tools of war to making consumer goods. And modernizing homes and particularly kitchens was a big market opportunity. And modernizing homes and particularly kitchens was a big market opportunity.
Cinecraft made a number of films promoting modernizing kitchens in that era. The film extols the benefits of fiberglass insulation in ovens and even depicts how Fiberglass® is made through simplified animation.
This film is classic early Cinecraft with a little story about the young BTU lead character, Johnny, trying to get out of the oven for a ‘hot’ date. And this oven is so efficient, the only way out is through the open door.
30 окт 2024
