THOMAS ALVA EDISON IN TV ADVERTISING: THE INVENTOR WHO KNEW HOW TO SELL THE FUTURE

Thomas Alva Edison appears in advertising as a symbol of technological progress, breakthrough ideas and the moment when a new technology transforms everyday life. But he is interesting to advertising creatives for another reason as well: his public image was not created long after his death. As early as the 1870s, demonstrations of the phonograph and extraordinary press interest turned him into an international celebrity. Later, his products were promoted through paid public exhibitions and spectacular comparative “tone tests”. Edison is therefore not merely a historical figure retrospectively transformed by advertising into a marketing symbol. From the very beginning, his own career also unfolded at the intersection of technological development, public demonstrations and the ability to capture an audience’s attention.

When Thomas Alva Edison introduced the phonograph in 1877, it was not simply another of his technical projects. The device, capable of recording and subsequently reproducing sound, attracted extraordinary attention and, according to The Tinfoil Phonograph, a document created as part of the Thomas A. Edison Papers project at Rutgers University, turned Edison into an international celebrity. The following year, journalists began flocking to his Menlo Park laboratory, and reports, biographical articles and illustrations about him appeared in the press. In April 1878, the New York Daily Graphic called him the “Wizard of Menlo Park”. Edison’s name therefore very quickly became associated with the image of someone from whom the public could expect something never seen before.



From an advertising perspective, however, what is even more interesting is how the phonograph reached the public. Edison’s company began organising public demonstrations of the phonograph. In May 1878, it hired James Redpath, a former journalist and founder of the Redpath Lyceum Bureau lecture agency. He trained approximately 80 men who were granted the right to demonstrate the phonograph publicly. They paid USD 100 for this opportunity, while visitors usually paid 25 cents for admission to a demonstration, with part of the proceeds going to Edison’s company. The technological novelty was therefore not merely described or displayed: audiences paid directly for the opportunity to see and hear it in action. From today’s perspective, this model comes surprisingly close to a product roadshow or experiential product presentation.

Edison was also far from being a solitary genius. And Menlo Park was not a workshop where Edison created everything alone. The Thomas A. Edison Papers project at Rutgers University describes it as a “laboratory based on systematic and collaborative research aimed at the practical industrial application of results”. This model was a precursor to modern research and development laboratories. Television advertising usually condenses this more complicated story into a simple image and works with the widespread historical shorthand that Edison invented the light bulb. In reality, Edison and his collaborators made a fundamental contribution to the development of a practical incandescent lighting system, but the invention of the light bulb itself cannot be attributed to him alone.

Perhaps the most remarkable parallel with modern advertising, however, can be found in Edison’s so-called tone tests, public performances held between 1915 and 1925. During these recitals, a performer’s live performance was interwoven with a recording of the same performer played on a Diamond Disc phonograph. At certain moments, the performer stopped singing or playing while the recording continued, with the aim of convincing the audience that the difference between live and reproduced sound was virtually impossible to distinguish. Instead of an abstract claim about quality, customers were given a dramatic comparative demonstration directly before their eyes – or rather, their ears.

Edison in Advertising

The commercial use of Edison’s legacy continues more than ninety years after his death. The Charles Edison Fund, which licenses commercial use of Edison’s name, likeness and other elements of his legacy, lists brands including Intel, Chick-fil-A, Mazda, Chevrolet Volt and Harvoni among those that have used his image or legacy in commercial campaigns. Edison is therefore far more than a historical figure from school textbooks. His public image remains a widely used communications asset.

Television commercials featuring Edison do not all use the same principle, however. Sometimes the brilliant inventor is the central character in a historical scene, while elsewhere he appears briefly among other famous personalities. He can serve as a benchmark for the scale of a new invention, but also as a symbol of a technology whose time has come to be surpassed.

Bud Light: Edison and the Invention of the Wrong Light

A 1987 commercial for Bud Light is built around a simple English-language pun. A young Edison excitedly approaches his teacher and shows him his new invention – the electric light bulb. Edison expects recognition for something revolutionary that will change the world. His teacher, however, does not react to Edison’s discovery as he expects. The punchline is that what he actually wanted was simply Bud Light. This also matched the brand’s advertising style at the time, which used slogans and wordplay around the word “light”; a contemporary Bud Light advertisement, for example, used the line “Everything else is just a light”.


Video: Bud Light – Thomas Edison’s Light Bulb

Apple: Edison Among the “Crazy Ones” Who Change the World

The “Think Different” campaign launched by Apple in 1997 uses Edison in a completely different way. In the one-minute “The Crazy Ones” commercial, archival footage of him appears among seventeen figures representing people capable of changing established rules – alongside Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King Jr., Pablo Picasso and others. Edison does not invent anything on camera, nor is there any need to tell the story of the light bulb; his historical reputation becomes part of a broader pantheon of creators and nonconformists with which Apple associates its own identity. The campaign debuted on 28 September 1997 and was created through a collaboration between Apple and TBWA\Chiat\Day. Preparing the campaign also involved obtaining permission from the featured personalities or their estates.


Video: Apple – Think Different / The Crazy Ones

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups: Edison Comes Second

The 2016 “Inventors” commercial for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups plays with the idea of ranking the greatest inventors in history. It puts Benjamin Franklin in first place, Thomas Alva Edison in second, and humorously ranks H. B. Reese, creator of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, third. The humour rests on the mismatch between the significance of historic technological discoveries and an ordinary confectionery product: the combination of chocolate and peanut butter is presented as an invention worthy of the same company as Franklin’s or Edison’s achievements. Edison therefore does not appear as the main character, but as a benchmark of inventive greatness. His presence helps the brand humorously elevate Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups from a popular sweet into one of the “great inventions” of history. The advertisement was created by agency Arnold.


Video: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups – Inventors

Cree LED: It Is Time to Move On

LED lighting manufacturer Cree used Edison’s legacy in an unusual way in 2013: not as a reason to trust its product, but as an argument for abandoning old technology. In the commercial titled “1879”, actor Lance Reddick points out that the traditional incandescent light bulb is associated with Edison and the year 1879, contrasting that date with the present day. The logic of the advertisement is deliberately provocative – Edison’s achievement is historically admirable precisely because it was new in its time, not because 19th-century technology should never evolve. Edison therefore does not sanctify the past in the commercial, but helps the brand make the case for moving beyond it. The campaign for Cree was created by agency Baldwin&.


Video: Cree LED Light Bulbs – 1879

Cree LED: The Funeral of the Light Bulb

The same brand took the idea even further in its “Eulogy” commercial, styled as a funeral for the traditional incandescent light bulb. Bagpipes play across a snowy landscape, the bulb is placed in a small wooden coffin, and Lance Reddick addresses Edison directly during the symbolic burial of what is presented as his most famous invention. The advertisement thus dramatises the end of one technological era. Interestingly, according to Forbes México, Cree’s then-CEO Chuck Swoboda said that the company had checked the position of the managers of Edison’s rights before launching the campaign. The commercial is therefore not merely a parody of technological history; the use of Edison’s legacy itself formed part of a deliberately planned commercial strategy involving his name and heritage.


Video: Cree – Eulogy

Mazda CX-5: From Edison’s Switch to SKYACTIV

A 2013 commercial for the Mazda CX-5 opens with a reference to Thomas Alva Edison and the electric light bulb as a symbol of technological breakthrough. This image then leads into SKYACTIV technology, which Mazda presents as a new approach to vehicle engineering. Edison functions primarily as a symbol of innovation – his reputation as an inventor who transformed everyday life helps give Mazda’s technology the significance of a fundamental change rather than merely another technical improvement. The use of Edison’s legacy was licensed through the Charles Edison Fund.


Video: Mazda USA – Edison / The Mazda Way / CX-5

FTX: Even Edison Does Not Want to Miss the Next Big Thing

Ahead of the 2022 Super Bowl, cryptocurrency exchange FTX used a series of short teasers set in different historical periods. One of them also featured Edison. The commercial works with the idea of “Don’t Miss Out” – the fear of overlooking an opportunity that later proves to be significant. In the teaser, Edison remarks that his focus on inventing has caused him to miss various things in the past, but this time he does not want to miss FTX’s bitcoin giveaway linked to the airing of its commercial during the Super Bowl. His presence works as an ironic historical reference: the very person associated with technological breakthroughs does not want to miss the next innovation. The same principle was then developed further in FTX’s main commercial starring Larry David, who rejects new inventions and ideas across different historical eras. The campaign was created in collaboration with agency dentsuMB.


Video: FTX – Super Bowl 2022 Teaser: Edison

Looking back over more than three decades of advertising, it is clear that Edison’s role has been remarkably varied. In the 1980s, Bud Light used his most famous association with light as the basis for a pun. Apple placed him in a gallery of people who challenged convention. Reese’s turned him into a benchmark of inventive greatness. Cree, by contrast, used his historic success as an argument for why even technologies that were once revolutionary eventually need to be surpassed. Mazda borrowed the idea of a technological turning point, while FTX played with the paradox that even a famous innovator can “miss out” on something new. Edison is therefore associated in advertising not only with different brands, but also with different meanings: he can represent discovery, authority, a past that must be surpassed, or the fear that we may fail to recognise the next great breakthrough in time.

There may be another reason why Edison continues to work so well in advertising: his real-life story. Edison became a media celebrity during his active career, his company organised paid product demonstrations, and the later tone tests relied on dramatic proof of quality in front of an audience. Advertising does not borrow only the image of Edison as a famous inventor. It also borrows the story of a man whose career itself demonstrates that a new idea or invention alone is not enough. You also have to show people why they should be fascinated by it.

Sources: rutgers.edu. loc.gov, nps.gov, charlesedisonfund.org, thomasedison.org