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.

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!

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.

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

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

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?..'.

~ NEW! ~

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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!

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...

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

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!

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.