TV Reviews : ‘Smithsonian World’ Probes World of Advertising

“Selling the Dream,” an exploration of the world of advertising and its effects on American culture, is as engrossing as . . . well, a good television commercial.

This episode of “Smithsonian World,” airing at 9 tonight on Channels 28 and 15, skillfully examines the history of modern advertising and records the creation of a $100-million national ad campaign in 1990 for the introduction of the new Mitsubishi 3000 GT.

Producer-director Steve York uses the Mitsubishi campaign as a framing device for the larger story. “Selling the Dream” seamlessly weaves together interviews with industry giants and academics with countless examples of period advertising. The examples range from charming to appalling, from turn-of-the-century “Cures All Diseases” patent medicines to the cutting-edge Bo Jackson Nike TV commercials of today. Particularly fun are the ads from the 1960s, an era when funnymen took over and caution was thrown to the wind.

“Dream” makes a strong case that advertising both reflects and reinforces our culture, even arguing, as one academic puts it, that “advertising is one of the predominant art forms of our time.”

Not that anything is sugarcoated; there are quite a few cynical asides from the narrator and the interviewees. “America,” says one copywriter, “is all about selling.”