Norelco’s Stop-Motion Animation Christmas Commercials

In the 1960s and 70s, Norelco used stop-motion animation to advertise their personal care products, in particular their electric shavers. At the time, stop-motion was a rare form of animation with very little presence on television. The spots began with a sledding Santa, propped up by one of Norelco’s trademark three-headed razor attachments.

When the spots aired during those classic Rankin-Bass stop-motion animation productions, viewers would confuse the commercials for the Rankin-Bass shows themselves. 

The commercials always ended with the narration, “Norelco, even our name says Christmas,” as Nöelco flashed on-screen. Like the red cups at Starbucks today, for millions of Americans, Norelco’s Christmas spots were an indication that the holidays were upon us. In more recent years, the tradition has continued, but the stop-motion animation gave way to newer technologies like CGI.

The commercials were so popular that the concept extended to Norelco’s print advertisements as well.