Don’t click through these commercials

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Updated: March 25, 2011 9:31AM

The Museum of Broadcast Communications is betting that people won’t skip through its latest exhibit, “We’ll Be Right Back ... 60 years of Television Commercials.”

The new online exhibit debuts Wednesday at the museum’s Web site, museum.tv. The exhibit has been culled from the MBC’s archives of more than 10,000 commercials and nearly 100,000 hours of content.

The exhibit spans more than six decades, and showcases more than 100 of the best television commercials from the 1940s through today, the museum said.

The online exhibit features classic spots from iconic brands such as Tootsie Roll Pops, Texaco, Tang, Life Cereal, McDonalds, Alka Seltzer, Budweiser, Apple, Gillette, and others, the museum said.

It also offers a look at Super Bowl advertising featuring the most memorable spots from 1969 to 2010. Political advertising, infomercials, public service announcements and examples of product placement on programs like “I Love Lucy” and “Modern Family.”

There is even a section featuring Chicago’s most memorable local advertising, including Celozzi and Ettelson Chevrolet, Bert Weinman Ford, Victory Auto Wreckers, and TV Magic Cards with Marshall Brodien.

The online exhibit, “both celebrates and preserves our rich television heritage and supports the museum’s educational mission,” Museum of Broadcast Communications president and founder Bruce DuMont said. “Television programing and advertising are mirrors that reflect popular culture. Preserving our television heritage is a way of preserving our past, and offers future generations the chance to experience that culture in a very real way.”