1954 newspaper ad
 

"Buying any of these products you win a blender for free!"

How much for the gal? :D

FREE BLENDER? COUNT ME IN!

Margaritas, anyone?

That washing machine was an automatic one?
Why the prices where in U.S. Dollars?

The washing machine was an Westinghouse, but I don't know if it was automatic. As for the price in dollars, I would have to know what were the exchange rates in 1954. Have in mind that in 1954 Brazil had a different currency.

About the blender: I have that exact blender.

The prices are in cruzeiros, that was Brazil's currency in 1954.

Note that many currencies are abbreviated with the $ sign, including the Mexican Peso. Something sold in the US for $1 may be sold in Canada for $1.40 and in México for $20, and all three are roughly the same price.

EDIT: before searching, I had thought that the shorthand for a Brazilian Currency had changed to Cz for Cruizeros and more recently to just R for the Real. Turns out I was wrong, they all were represented as "$", though I'm using the wrong dollar sign, as a Real has TWO vertical strokes instead of one. "R$" is only used in international transactions. In Brazil, it's simply the double-strokes dollar sign.

3 Reais ("hey-ICESH") are worth about a US dollar.

The value of the Real is far more stable than the value of the Cruziero was.

The one pictured is definitely an automatic washing machine, that's what they looked like in the beginning before anybody knew what a washing machine should look like lol. If it wasn't auto, it'd have a wringer.

This kind of marketing was very popular in the U.S.
One of the greatest practitioners was Sol Polk, of the Polk Bros. stores in Chicago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_Polk

Some of the things he gave away:
A lighted plastic snowman or Santa Claus lawn decoration for Christmas;
A strange stringed instrument dubbed a "Polk-alele";
A Hawaiian pineapple;
A year's supply of Coca-Cola (but you had to come back every week to get another case);
And many other things.

I once got an electric weed trimmer with the purchase of a washer and dryer.

Polk was also the first retailer in the U.S. to discount prices below the maker's list price, the first to do its TV commercials in color, and the first to heavily promote color TV.

Ah... when a retailer gives you free shit as an incentive... it lets you know just how much money they make off of you!

In the case of Polk, I'd bet that the more expensive name brand stuff was heavily subsidized by the manufacturer as brand advertising.