Wow, you just don’t see any gasoline commercials anymore (I’d just love to see them try to toot their own horn in this day & age of insane gas prices). Certainly we haven’t seen any commercials featuring a name star with an amusing plot line in quite some time. The last (and only, really) fuel commercials I remember when I was growing up are the ones that boasted about how clean and environmentally friendly (?!?) their gasoline is.
These early 1960s commercials, especially the first one, are pretty funny if you’re aware of the cheapskate character Jack Benny has portrayed as “himself” since the 1930s through radio and into television.
Side note: Jack was against doing commercials like these and didn’t want to become a pitchman for products. He didn’t want to belittle himself and be seen as a huckster. It was during this time as his career in entertainment was starting to slow down a bit that his business manager convinced him it was a good financial opportunity though and so he went along with it. Even if he may not have enjoyed the job, I think he did a great job.
