Adverts A-C

An Abbey National ad from the eighties... ooh remember those interest rates though! Clip thanks to Iam Burn.

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.

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

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.

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!

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

An old advert for Barclays Bank in 1991, featuring the Ghost of the Headless Baron(Well, sort of!)

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.

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

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'...

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.

Julie Walters stars in this humorous Advert for Bisto from the late 90s. Clip courtesy of Iam Burn.

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. Clip thanks to Iam Burn.

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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.

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.

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 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.

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'.

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...")

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.

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.

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

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.