What television program aired Coca-Cola’s first television commercial in 1950?

Coca-Cola’s first television commercial aired on The Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Show in 1950.

Television was becoming an important advertising medium in the United States after World War II. Coca-Cola entered that medium through a sponsorship arrangement with the popular radio and television program featuring ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his puppet character Charlie McCarthy.

The appearance marked a shift from Coca-Cola’s earlier reliance on painted signs, newspaper advertisements, posters, radio, and point-of-sale materials. Television allowed the company to show the drink being served and consumed within an entertainment program rather than only through static illustrations.

The program is sometimes shortened in references to the Charlie McCarthy Show, but its full title is The Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Show. That complete title identifies the program associated with Coca-Cola’s first television commercial.