Peters Ice Cream: The Best Things In Life (1949)

Like many cinema advertisements of the 1940s, this one for Peters Ice Cream plays like a short film with opening titles and voice-over narration.

Titled The Best Things in Life the ad shows young children at play before taking the viewer on a journey showing the wonders of the natural world, including flowers, loyal pets, mountains, farmland, birds and rugged seas.

The narrator describes life as a feast for the senses which begins in childhood and develops as children grow and gain knowledge and wisdom, with good health being a key component.

Interestingly, the product is not mentioned until the closing sequence of the ad, as the strange journey finally circles back to a children’s party.

We see children feasting on cake and ice cream as the narrator states the importance of eating good, healthy food and describes Peters ice cream as ‘nature’s almost perfect food’. Viewed 70 years later, through a modern-day lens, this creates a striking juxtaposition!

While the advertiser may draw a long bow to equate good health with ice cream, the production values of this ad are very high. Interestingly, the production company reuse a shot from their earlier CE Miller & Co. Removals advertisement, with a couple on a bench feeding swans in a Melbourne park.