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!

~ NEW! ~

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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...")

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.

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.