Adverts A-C

54321 was a chocolate bar of the 80s, discontinued in 1989. Famously remembered from this ad featuring a cover of 5-4-3-2-1 from Manfred Mann, as well as cameos from both Rik Mayall and Ted Rogers at various points over the years.

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.

An Abbey National ad from the eighties... ooh remember those interest rates though!

For a time in the late 90s, Abbey National took on Alan Davies as the leading face of the bank. Here he appears alongside a cat and a group of bikers in a rural pub.

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.

~ NEW! ~

Stephen Fry and Naomi Campbell have a dinner party with a selection of historical figures, all in order to promote After Eight chocolates.

Back from the days when describing yourself as a 'great fibre provider' wouldn't instantly bring you under the eyes of Ofcom, Kellogg's tell us just how much you'd need to eat to get the same amount of fibre as a bowl of All Bran.

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

Allinson reminding us in no uncertain terms that 'Its bread wi' nowt taken 'owt'... (and they dont make Brown!)

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!

Oh no, someone's stolen all the Ambrosia Devon cows! In true Famous Five style, the group have to solve this mystery quickly or there'll be no Ambrosia Devon Custard for anyone. Keep your eyes peeled for the textual jokes scattered throughout this one.

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?

Back from the days when Lord Sugar's company made more than just Sky boxes, this man has £450 to spend a computer, so why not buy himself an Amstrad? In a throwback to The Generation Game.

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.

Football fever strikes the Anchor singing cows in 1991, as the video animation continues to improve.

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!

1994, and in a later Anchor advert the cows sing a different song. Perhaps attempting to animate in additional lip motion wasn't the best plan.

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

Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk meets The Andrex Puppy. It's the crossover everyone has been waiting for!

This advert for Andrex originally aired with a more sedate soundtrack in the early 80s, featuring a puppy and a duck interacting in the snow. However it was the later remix of it which saw the visuals teamed up with 'Merry Christmas Everybody' by Slade as well as adding the poignant Dogs Trust message about a 'Puppy Is For Life Not Just for Christmas' that became much better remembered. Becoming a recurring feature of British Christmas television for many years to follow.

A much smaller plant for the ageless Andrex puppy to deal with this time round.

An advert for the well-known dessert, here showing an alternative and somewhat questionable production method of vibrating a cow.

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

An Argos ad from the late 80s... with a song telling us how 'it's so easy' to shop with them.

10 years later with Argos and you'd be forgiven for thinking it was 10 years earlier. Out are moving shots and cheerful jingles in favour of a series of static product shots with a voiceover in 1997.

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?..'.

An advert for Asda from the very early 90s. At the time the chain was undergoing a lot of financial issues behind the scenes, but it didn't stop them knocking 9p off a tin of soup! The style of this continues the style of the previous, and use of the song 'Perfect', only this time features more practical pricing shots rather than vague lifestyle ones.

An advert for the Atari ST from 1990, showcasing its variety of capabilities. Being 5 years since the release of the original version by this point, the specific model mentioned is one of the later revisions which came with a built in floppy drive, the Atari 520STFM.

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.

An advert for Johnson's Baby Shampoo, advertising it as 'for the whole family'. Come to think of it, they've always promoted the shampoo this way! Why didn't they just call it 'Family Shampoo' in the first place!

A later advert for the same shampoo!

From the late 80s, and DIY chain B&Q puts together a nice little ditty to celebrate the fact 'You can do it if you B&Q it'. The music may long since have disappeared, however the retailer continues to use the slogan to this day.

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.

One of several ads from the early 90s where spirits seem to have been employed by Barclays. In this spot, he's helping someone open a bank account so they can get on the rental ladder, despite the slightly questionable landlady.

From the same 'spirit' campaign, another advert for Barclays Bank in 1991. This time featuring the Ghost of the Headless Baron... or a close approximation in the form of someone from the bank.

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.

Rowan Atkinson stars in another advert for Barclaycard, this time self-charged with protecting the shopping for the beautiful Economic Adviser to the UN. In this advert, Atkinson's character is actually named as Richard Latham. Although the character idea would be largely the same in the later movies that followed, this name was not carried through.

The daily routine of a man who remains positive as his house is a moment away from collapse is shown in this 1997 Barclaycard ad, complete with the slogan 'Don't put it off, put it on!'.

Another advert for Barclaycard, this time in 2001. By now, its now Angus Deayton at the helm!

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.

The people of Portsmouth feature in a slightly bizarre advert for defunct clothing and homewares chain BHS in 1994. Cramming in as many nautical jokes as possible to promote their latest 'sail'...

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.

The late John Hewer played the famous Captain Birds Eye (or Birdseye, depending on your point of view) from 1967 through until 1998. The concept never changed much over that time - A jolly sea captain would ply a crew of children with plates of his finest fish fingers. In this advert from 1990, the children are looking a bit older, and the shape of the fish fingers is somewhat rounder.

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

Julie Walters stars in this humorous Advert for Bisto from the late 90s.

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

A famous ad for Boddingtons from the 90s. In a spoof of all those stylish trainer ads, an athlete runs through the desert to catch up with an Ice Cream truck driven by Melanie Sykes.

In 1999, Boddingtons switched to animated adverts, featuring a cow character Graham Heffer as the face of brand. Here they appear in a parody of movie The Shining.

Another 2001 animated Boddingtons ad where that cow teaches us pint survival during parachute failure.

Boots employ the skills of TVC London, the animation studio famously behind The Snowman, to produce their 1990 Christmas campaign. Featuring their animation of a Raymond Briggs style Father Christmas, a whole year before their follow up animation on the character would air on Channel 4.

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.

A few years later and Boots are now using live action for their Christmas campaign. Although in those 4 years their actual selection of gifts doesn't appear to have changed massively!

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.

A friendly reminder of the possibly hallucinogenic effects of coconuts, courtesy of Bounty in the late 90s.

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!

From Christmas 1992, and British Airways let everyone know how special they make people feel... and apparently how their staff are some sort of giant omnipotent Gods in the sky! All whilst showing considerably more shots of sailing boats than of any planes.

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

A long 1989 advert promoting the rail industry in 1989, featuring footage shot around the country. A fun game is spotting how many of the same trains can still be seen in use 30 years later.

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.

Maureen Lipman stars in one of her many Beatie adverts for then-named British Telecom, that ran throughout the late 80s and into the early 90s. In this adventure, a new carphone is the focus using one of those modern 'mobile' networks. We're pretty sure the idea will never catch on!

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

ET, the alien from Spielberg's famous film, has popped up in numerous advertising campaigns over the years, most recently for Comcast/Sky in 2019. Here, some 20 years earlier, he's busy advertising BT, reminding Mum there's always a good reason to call for no reason.

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.

An ad from the famous Budweiser Frogs set from the late 90s. The concept itself was very simple - three frogs just repeat the name Budweiser over and over again.

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.

The famous animated Cadbury's Caramel bunny with her dreamy voice provided by Miriam Margolyes appears here in a well remembered advert alongside a beaver. Write your own jokes! This particular advert had been in use since the 80s, but had been updated here to include the newer corner Cadbury logo that had been added to all their ads from the 90s.

A jolly little number to advertise Cadbury's Chocolate Milk in the late 80s. One of the products from the Cadbury stable which ultimately didn't last in the market.

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.

In another ad from the long running 'I'll bet he drinks' Carling Black Label stable, a man isn't going to let having his leg in a cast prevent him going on the rollercoaster!

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.

King Arthur returns Excalibur... with a twist, in this 1991 advert for Carling Black Label. One of many from across the years where the 'I'll bet he/she/they drinks Carling Black Label' catchphrase was used, which would always follow something unexpected happening onscreen. The slogan was eventually dropped in the 90s as the drink was also rebranded to just 'Carling'.

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.

Another Carling Black Label advert, and this time round it's a spoof Beadles About-style show. Except things are turned on their heads somewhat.

At first glance it looks like the lager advert is destined to be another one for Castlemaine. But very soon, Carling Black Label reminds us of how they like to do things, with a visitor from England dealing with a spider in the toilet.

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'.

One of the many dogfoods to come out of the Masterfoods department of Mars, Cesar has always been positioned as their more 'upmarket food for smaller dogs' range. And this advert from 1993 is no exception.

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.

The original and well known nodding dog advert for Churchill, voiced by Reeves and Mortimer.

Are you eating a sweet? Yep, Still with the same voices, a 2002 Churchill ad now.

A later ad for Churchill, appearing in 2004, whereby we find out Churchill is no good at saving the Earth from an alien invasion... but is quite good at saving money on car insurance. How exactly we could still use our cars if the human race had been overthrown by aliens is another story!

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

Advertising cigarettes on UK television was banned back in the 60s, however cigar advertising continued to be permitted through to 1991. Comedian Russ Abbot stars in an advert for Castella Classic Cigars, in the days before the ban. This time he's out fishing, but knows the easier way to do it...

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...

Russ Abbot in another Classic Cigars advert. And this time he's tasked with mowing the lawn, but without making too much effort.

Another of the long running Russ Abbot Classic Cigars advert features him playing golf. With a little help from an open-topped bus and an InterCity train,

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 classic club ad from 1987, featuring a remarkable recreation of the famous Wizard of Oz, only this time singing and dancing about Club. Watch out for an early appearance of the well known 'if you like a lotta chocolate' slogan too.

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...")

A Des Lynam (or Lion) cameo in this Coco Pops advert from 1995. The Coco United team are losing badly in the Jungle World Cup, until hero Coco inspires them by showing them all the milk turning chocolatey.

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.

Tom and Jerry feature in this Colgate Toothpaste advert from 1994.

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

When defunct companies collide! Electronics chain Comet promote free installation of BSB in 1990.

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.

Kellogg's promote one of their most exciting cereals ever, enticingly named 'Common Sense'. Not a brand that lasted for a particularly long time relative to many of their more famous ones, perhaps not unsurprisingly.

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!

A well loved and well remembered advert from Walls for Cornetto. This particular broadcast was shown on TV in 1992, although the advert remained in frequent use in cinemas for several years afterwards!

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!

From 1991, and Kellogg's remind us all that one of the first things you want to do after that wedding is to have a bowl of Kellogg's Corn Flakes.

'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!

Need to wake your kid in a hurry? Well as it's not an ad placing during the children's shows of the era, Kelloggs would like to pretend the answer isn't Frosties or Coco Pops but instead is...er... Corn Flakes!

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.

Stop motion animated characters depicting starsigns was the Cadburys approach for selling Creme Eggs for several years throughout the early 90s, with each of them talking about 'How They Do It'. Here in 1990 are Leo, Gemini, Sagittarius and Tauros.

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.

Matt Lucas (aka George Dawes) stars in this ad, asking people 'How will you eat yours?'.

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.

Do you get that Friday feeling every day? Or just have a very odd sense of dress? Either way you've probably been eating Cadbury Crunchies.

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

1994, and the police need to coax a fugitive out of the mountains. Lucky for them they always come with boxes of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes.

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.

An ad from 1990 encouraging people to secure their houses against criminals.