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!

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!

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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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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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.

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.

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...

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...")

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 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!

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.

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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!

A 1993 ad for Cadbury's Creme Egg, with people from different starsigns telling others how they do it! (no inuendo intended!!)

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.

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.