Adverts A-C

Appearing in 1992 to advertise 7Up and attempt to appeal to the 'hip' youth demographic is Fido Dido - a character created by Joanna Ferrone and Sue Rose some years previous.

During the 80s, when unemployment was at a terribly high rate, the ever-helpful UK government brought out... a leaflet. Perhaps not a brilliant scheme, but the overexagerrated screaming makes this an interesting ad. Courtesy of Iam Burn.

5 years later and the advertising has gotten a bit more active, although the 'great fibre provider' tagline has remained.

Cool it brothers - it's 3am. The yoghurts are having a party downstairs but it's keeping the fridge magnets awake. Hey I only commentate on these things, I don't write the advert script!

What better way to celebrate Ambrosia Creamed Rice than with a train station (intended to look like Paddington, but actually St Pancras due to refurbishment at the time), a farmer riding a cow, and a cover of Village People’s Go West?

An earlier 'singing cows' advert for Anchor Butter, from 1988. Computer video animation isn't quite as advanced at this point, so a lot more looping of shots is used to try and create the effect of the cows singing.

The anchor cows sing, as they do battle against the evil lawnmower taking all of their grass. There's some serious stuff going down in fields these days!

Not a talking cow in sight for another product from Anchor. But there are a lot of cats. ALL THE CATS!

A fondly remembered animated campaign for Aquafresh from the mid 90s, using the tagline 'Not Just a Pretty Paste'.

One of a series of adverts for Asda from the early 90s, using Perfect from Fairground Attraction as a backing track. Plenty of 'everyday life' shots mixed in with items you could buy from Asda. Budding ident designers the world over may have been looking at this and thinking 'hmm, random lifestyle shots. Could we make channel idents out of this?..'.

Who wouldn't want one of these as a pet then? A jolly little animation, advertising the drink Babycham in the 1980's, with their famous animated character.

A later advert for the same shampoo!

A new logo, but 8 years on, and the same song for B&Q is still going. Different scenes make for a different set of lyrics this time round.

Throughout the nineties, to promote their credit card, Barclays commissioned several adverts starring Rowan Atkinson as a bungling agent for the fictional government department MI7 alongside his sidekick 'Bough' who would usually come to the rescue with his Barclaycard. The idea behind this was to form the basis for Atkinson's later film Johnny English in 2003.

The daily routine of a man who's house is falling to bits is shown in this Barclaycard ad, with the slogan 'Dont put it off, put it on!'.

The States - Nice Place, shame aboot the beer! One of several similar-style ads for McEwans Best Scotch from 1990. There's a hilarious song, which a lot of local knowledge references which probably make much more sense to those from the North East. Thanks to Iam Burn for this.

Samantha Womack (at the time Janus) stars in this advert for the shortlived Bingo bar from the mid 90s. Admittedly with the internet age looming, choosing a generic name which would be nigh on impossible to search for mightn't have been the best marketing choice, but there you go.

Discussing parents either getting back together or remarrying... over a nice meal with Bisto gravy naturally.

Julie Walters again, this time getting tongue-tied over new Chicken flavour Bisto. Thanks to Iam Burn.

A 2001 Boddingtons where that cow who's supposedly male(with an udder?) teaches us pint survival during parachute failure. Thanks again to Iam.

The run up to Christmas 1991, and the festive advert style from Boots that year followed an animated style for Santa and his friendly elves, who look like the remaining members of a comeback tour for the seven dwarves.

1996 and a non-festive advert for Boots. The 'Someone Cares' advertising style present in the 1995 Christmas campaign continues through to their summer range.

Mrs Collins wouldn't just trust anyone, so she certainly knows who to trust with their important financial needs - The Bradford & Bingley. I wonder how that one panned out for her in the long term!

Don't you just love to be in control, with British Gas.

From a few months before BSB and British Sky Broadcasting were forced to merge to avoid bankruptcy of both companies, a promo for the new 5 channel service from BSB. Showing just what amazing things could come from the sky in the night.

1993, and Mel Smith is enlisted to promote the BT share offer. Thanks again to Iam.

ET is back for another BT advert, and this time he's found a way to get into a children's birthday party without drawing too much attention.

A later advert from the Budweiser Frogs campaign. This time round, some lizards who weren't able to get screen time due to those showstealing frogs begin plotting their revenge.

A short advert for the Lancashire park, mainly notable as being owned by Granada at this time, hence the mentions of it at several points. This was during the phase of the 80s and 90s where Granada still kept a large amount of outside-of-television interests. The Camelot Theme Park was sold off in the late 90s, and eventually closed its doors completely in 2012.

One of the most famous of all the 'I'll bet he drinks' adverts for Carling Black Label aired in 1990. Evoking the 1955 The Dam Busters film, a German sentry is responsible for blocking all the bouncing bombs being sent in his direction.

A squirrel runs an obstacle course to the Mission Impossible theme to reach some nuts, in another memorable advert for Carling Black Label from 1991. The advert is also marked for posterity by playing on background televisions in the series 3 episode of One Foot In The Grave 'Monday Morning Will Be Fine', alongside the David Dundas ITV theme of the time.

An advert for Carling, where a bloke just walks home through a pretty normal world, with naked receptionists, talking dogs, and people herding animals on stairs. The tagline for this advert, one of several different words in use during the campaign, is 'Amazing'.

Cheetos have proven a very successful brand in the US for many years, complete with their mascot and his famous catchphrase 'It Aint Easy Being Cheesy', however it has been a much more limited success story over here. Owners PepsiCo initially tried to launch the brand in the UK in 1990, bringing both the character and catchphrase over with him, although it was shortlived. After another aborted try in the early 2000s, the brand was finally brought back to the UK in 2015, although without the famous mascot from America.

Are you eating a sweet? Yep, Still with the same voices, a 2002 Churchill ad now. Once again thanks to Iam.

Cupid is really struggling to bring about some love, but don't worry they have a Citrëon AX to help!

In a follow on advert from late 1990 aired quite close to the eventual banning, Russ Abbot features again, this time clay pigeon shooting. However Des O'Connor is getting his own back for his records being abused in their earlier ad...

Advertising Jacob's Club in 1984. Starting by showing things going wrong for various groups of people, the song then invites everyone to 'come and be a member of the Club fanclub' instead.

A later, and much more well known advert for Club. Most people can probably remember this one!! (Hint: "If you like alot of chocolate on your biscuit, join our...")

In another outing for Coco and the gang, this time they're out to reveal the Loch Ness monster, with the aid of a giant bowl of Kelloggs Coco Pops.

Colman's of Norwich reminding us of how famous they were for producing... Wine!

An advert for electronics and white goods chain chain Comet from 1991, with the logo 'clicking' into place. Comet fell into administration in late 2012, with all the stores closed not long afterwards.

A warped advert from 1986 for Copperhead Cider. Featuring the slogan 'knock it on the head', it has one of those songs you'll either love or hate! Another one thanks to Iam.

A mix of live action and animation in this lively little number for Kellogg's Corn Flakes in 1987. Where we hear that after just one bowl of Corn Flakes, the whole world will be rockin' to that crunchy golden jive. Even mascot Cornelius is starting to think it's getting a little late for all this!

'Oh what a beautiful mooooorrrrrnnnniing....' -as the Sunshine choir would say. This advert was adapted slightly for use on Channel 5, when it first launched, showing the Corn Flakes ads for when ITV and C4 launched, then this one!

Remembering the legendary Bruce Forsyth who could turn his hand to anything, here he appears dressed as a judge in 1997 to promote the Courts furniture store. Courts ultimately folded in the UK in 2004, although stores under the name continue to trade in some other countries.

Another advert from the same starsign campaign for Cadbury's Creme Egg, this time aired in the 1993 season. The only notable difference is the addition of the purple 'Cadbury' logo in the corner, which had appeared on all adverts from later in 1990.

Launched in the US in the fifties, the Crest brand in the UK has largely been phased out in favour of 'Oral B' by owners Procter & Gamble. Prior to the purchase of Oral B in the late 2000s however, their toothpaste products were marketed heavily in the UK as Crest too. Here in a simple 1991 advert promoting how much Crest helps improve that nightmare visit to the dentist for children.

What should you do if you get stuck in a lift with a food trolley? Steal all those Kelloggs Crunchy Nut Cornflakes of course.

A friendly lesson from 1995 from Kellogg's on just how hard you're making it for the removal men if you're obsessed with eating endless bowls of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes.