Here we see noted film actress Maureen Arthur (no stranger to the odd TV cameo or, as it turns out, even odder commercial) bringing her specific brand of perkiness to an ad for Cheer Detergent. In a performance which registers somewhere between Kristin Chenoweth and Amy Sedaris on The Plucky Imp Scale, Miss Arthur plays a suburban Mom who is lamenting the less-than-vibrant tones of her children's school togs. Frustrated and bereft of a solution, she is visited by an extraterrestrial bearing an uncanny resemblance to the vulcan Spock from the 1960s television enterprise known as Star Trek. Through the magic of what passes for special effects in 1969, a box of All-Temp-a-Cheer materializes in a ribbon of flashing lights set upon a bed of otherworldly moog trills and (as so frequently happens) a cute white lady from the 'burbs has all of her domestic problems solved by a tall, imposing alien creature with fierce brows.
The promise of cleanliness. The promise of brightness. The promise of all things good and new. Brought to you by the 1940s and 50s.
1950s and 1960s detergent and cleanser boxes from my collection.
