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Story: Advertising

It's in the bag radio show, 1959

Video file

During the 1940s and 1950s radio became a significant medium for advertising. Companies would sponsor whole programmes and pepper the air waves with advertisements for their products. It's in the bagwas one of the most popular radio shows in the 1950s.  Sponsored by the soap manufacturers Lever Brothers, it was a Saturday night quiz programme compered by Selwyn Toogood and recorded before a live audience. Winners had to choose between an amount of money or the contents of a bag which might either be a cheap trifle or a valuable appliance. Watch one winner choose the bag.

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Archives New Zealand - Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga

Reference: Pictorial Parade 86, National Film Unit, 1959

Permission of Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga must be obtained before any re-use of this material.

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How to cite this page

Jock Phillips, Advertising – Radio and other advertising methods, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/22410/its-in-the-bag-radio-show-1959 (accessed 24 June 2026).

Story by Jock Phillips, published 4 March 2010.