Adverts D-G

Car maker of the time Daewoo use sharks swimming through the streets to promote their vehicle showrooms as not filled with salesmen on commission, allowing you to pop in and out in peace. After growing their car business in the UK throughout the 80s and 90s, Daewoo ran into financial difficulties and sold the car division to General Motors in 2001. Over the years that followed the brand was phased out completely.

A 1993 ad for Daily Star, advertising it as a paper for those who like to think for themselves.

Forget worrying about lowering the minimum wage age - Kids will do anything just for the great taste of Dairylea!

1988, and what about a little bit of light gambling about whether you're really getting Danish Bacon, just to get you in the mood.

Peter Sallis features in one of his less famous voice acting roles - promoting Danish Bacon.

One of a series of adverts for Danepak Bacon used in the mid-nineties, where the delicious smell of bacon causes a nose to take on a life of its own.

A throwback to the ever-famous scene from The Shining to promote Danish Bacon at the end of the 90s. One of a series of similar campaigns of this era, although less controversial than their Exorcist-based advert.

Danny Baker joins forces with a small child as he continues his search for even whiter whites. Part of a long running stint advertising the washing powder brand.

Ah the cheesy days of the past, its the famous Daz Doorstep Challenge.

Snowman-style animation features in this wintery advert for the Debenhams Boxing Day sale from 1992. Using Sail On from the Commodores as backing music track.

~ NEW! ~

What does The Man From Del Monte say? Take a look in 1990.

A 1990 ad for Diamond White, in which things are not quite what they seem...

A jolly little number from Coke from the early 90s! Clever editing together of footage creates a party full of the famous from throughout the ages.

One of the most famous Diet Coke adverts from 1995. A group of women take a 'Diet Coke Break' every day at 11.30 so that they can watch a workman remove his shirt.

~ NEW! ~

1997, and the 'Just For The Taste of It' tagline returns to become the main focus of the song to promote Diet Coke once more.

Early visions of what the still unknown internet could become from 1996. Digital was then the trademark of the large Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), who would only continue through until 1998 before merging with Compaq. Ultimately ending up as part of HP when Compaq also fell into difficulty in the early 2000s.

One of several adverts for Dime Bar from the mid-90s featuring comedian Harry Enfield interview members of the public about their love for Dime Bars, then the name used in the UK. The Dime Bar was renamed as Daim in 2005 to match international naming.

Who doesn't like Armadillos? Harry Enfield stars in his probably best remembered advert for Dime Bars.

Richard Wilson provides the voiceover this time around for the now defunct DIY chain Do It All.

A late 80s Domestos ad set to the song 'Big Bad John'. The sheriff, in the form of a bottle of Domestos, patrols the toilet protecting people from all known germs. Apologies for the soft sound quality on this clip.

Big Bad Dom sees a return to screens in 1990. Once again set to 'Big Bad John', but this time coming with a fresh new scent!

Halfway through Doritos and Chill and he gives you that look anyone? A dippy couple attempt to sex up the well known snack in the mid 90s.

It's the 80s, so who wouldn't want to have a giant tub of Double Cream flirting with them?

Mixing different shots together in splitscreen to advertise the Cadbury's Double Decker bar in 1990. Set to the notes from Love and Marriage.

The Cod Father and a Flamingo Dancer are among more items appearing in another set of Fascinating Combinations to advertise Double Decker. Once again set to Love and Marriage, the airing here dates from October 1990, before the Cadbury triangle was added to the top left of all their advert endboards.

Talking in trendy speak in this ad, complete with normal English subtitles underneath.

Following the same style, another subtitled advert for Drifter from 1993. This time featuring a pair of surfers.

A hard hitting campaign for Drink Driving from the 90s, set to In The Summertime by Mungo Jerry.

A watercolour depiction of the famous dog, among other scenes, features. All to promote the vast array of shades of white available from Dulux in 1983.

A man, probably feeling like he was 'taking back control', paints the walls of his house to the patriotic notes of I Vow To Thee, My Country. While the Dulux dog lends an occasional helpful paw.

An advert for Dulux in 1992, with the famous dog interspersed again! This time round showing how a coat of paint can change the mood of almost anything!

A much more recent, and certainly more hilarious advert for Dulux from 2001, with some plasterceine figures. (And yes the dog is still around, albeit no doubt a different actor!)

The privatisation of the UK's electric network happened in two phases in 1990 and 1991. In the first phase in 1990, the 12 regions of Central Electricity Generating Board was split off into 12 companies in England and Wales, with shares being offered in each by the UK Government. A campaign was launched to promote this, showing a collection of horror movie characters looking at how they could get into the share offer.

A second advert to promote the new shares in the regional electricity companies. This time round, Frankenstein's Monster doubles up as a cigarette lighter.

Another advert promoting shares for the newly privatised regional electricity companies. This time Frankenstein's Monster is finding the £100 minimum that he needs to invest.

HM Government continue to use the 'monsters' theme for their Electricity share campaign a few months later, as the deadline for applying looms in December 1990.

In the second phase of the UK privatisation in 1991, shares were offered for the power generation companies National Power and Powergen by HM Government. This animated advert encourages investors to get their own prospectus for the share offer, reusing the same phone number as had been used in the 1990 share offer.

Electrolux in 1997 reminding us that devastating cyclones are actually caused by those in the heavens doing a bit of hoovering.

Forgotten to feed your cat today? Well you'd better hope you don't own one of the latest Epson printers in 1997 with pictures so pin sharp you wouldn't know they weren't the real thing...

Those super pin-sharp Epson printers work to everyone's advantage, as a second advert in the 'cat' series demonstrates...

Antoine de Caunes, of Eurotrash fame, appears in an advert to promote Eurostar in 1996. Extolling the virtues of how quickly you could be enjoying yourself in Paris, rather than suffering in the UK. Watch out for the graphical glitch at 8 seconds, which would normally have been hidden on a TV's overscan area.

Part 1 of the tediously-long-running Ever Ready Forever Eddy story starts off with Eddy and a clown. As... all good stories do!

From 1992, and the now discontinued Ever Ready Gold Seal line is advertised in another part of the long-running Forever Eddy story. A series of commercials extolling the virtues of how long the brand lasts.

One of the many ads from the days when Fairy still used its famous white bottle, and when promoting washing up liquid as being good to your hands still worked as a marketing slogan.

Another funky little song promoting Fanta Orange in 1990 with the lyrics 'When Orange Fizzes'.

The adverts for Felix catfood, animated in Black and white, have been used to advertise the brand for a very long time now, albeit updated and tweaked in style over the years. This shows a variant from 1998.

The familiar Ferrero Rocher music, only this time performed by a choir to give it a festive feeling.

The well-remembered advert for Ferrero Rocher from the 90s, where the ambassador is really spoiling everyone. The particular version of this advert was first introduced in 1993 and, although only used for a limited number of years at the time, has been parodied ever since.

Possible references to Day of the Triffids in this advert for the Escort XR3i? Well it's a car advert at the end of the day, so it's anyone's guess!

A special Ford advert broadcast during the ITV Movie Premiere of Groundhog Day in 1996. Asking the question 'What do you do in yours'... but over and over again.

... and now for Ford in 2001!

Richard Wilson (star of One Foot in The Grave) remembers a Golden Childhood as he eats his Flora Buttery.

One of a series of ads in the eighties for Fosters starring Paul Hogan.

Mr Hogan again, this time at a Christmas party for this Fosters ad.

One of several 'Jickle it you wrigglers' ads from the late 90s. The subject this time; rage!

A sweet and simple animated advert for Fox's Glacier Mints, where a fox tries to tell us polar bears should not be on mints... to no success! (We sensibly didn't allow polar bears to have donuts back then either...)

Very yellow looking, but definitely not the Yellow Pages... It's Freepages from 1997. The company would later become Scoot, quickly peaking during the dotcom bubble, before just as quickly fizzling out to a shadow of its former self as that bubble burst.

In the days before the internet, the UK had the 'Friends' phone service. A pre-recorded premium rate line chat line people could call presumably to cure insomnia or something similar. For the majority of the 90s, this service was one of the few advertisers almost singlehandedly funding the overnight service on ITV.

And just incase the main Friends service didn't quite float your boat, here's Friends... In Space! Now for the next question - does anyone want to own up to ever actually calling this service?

A man stands by a bar. The opening line not to a joke this time, but to an advert for KP's Frisps from 1991 demonstrating just how much their snack can improve your dancing skills.

Mascot Tony The Tiger brings the Kellogg's cereal to The Wild West in 1989.

Tony the Tiger is back in another animated adventure, and this time he has to foil the creatively named Tigerman so that he can't get hold of the Frosties secret formula.

A single woman tells of her obsession with Kellogg's Frosties, and how it's gotten her into some embarrassing situations in the past.

Cadburys bring back their famous 'Everyone's a Fruit and Nutcase' song for the mid-90s, this time with added CGI characters.

The first of several adverts for Kellogg's Fruit 'n Fibre which ran from the late 80s through to the early 90s, and featured people in brightly colourful yet highly surreal surroundings. Firstly, on a campsite.

Another surreal Fruit 'n Fibre advert, this time getting into 1989. Some twins are so difficult to distinguish from one another - unless you can get their mother to send you some boxes of Fruit 'n Fibre.

Continuing the surreal theme in a moment he'd probably like to forget, a young Ross Kemp stars in this jolly advert for Fruit and Fibre in 1990, based around a golfcourse on the med. Courtesy of Matt Richings.

Still being aired in 1991, although produced the previous year, in this addition to the surreal collection the theme is an Action Holiday.

An animated advert for Fruit Pastilles from 1991 and.... mmm... you just can't help chewing. Then for some unexplained reason typing that you're chewing out loud.

An alternative edit of the 'You just can't help chewing' advert. The piranha once again features just with different vocals, and this time a ventriloquist's dummy is also involved.

A stick man, a factory, and a lot of creepy sound effects. What better way to advertise the Fruit Pastil-Lolly (other than to include that stray -le in the name perhaps!).

First introduced in the early 80s, this famous commercial for Fry's Turkish Delight ran on both television and cinema for well over a decade. And still I don't think anyone could 100% explain exactly what was going on!

An advert from 1992 for Galaxy, although the use of softened picture and shades of brown was consistent across their campaigns for so many years, it could have been picked from almost any year and still not looked out of place.

Too disorganised to finish that chocolate bar before all your friends arrive? Fine, just break the lift and make them all walk up flights of stairs instead!

An advert from the late 80s promoting the Gateway chain. Gateway was a well known chain of supermarkets which expanded throughout the 70s and 80s to much of the UK. Many of the stores were subsequently sold off in the early 90s, and what remained was then rebranded as Somerfield. A chain which itself was eventually subsumed into The Co-operative Group.

Gino, oh Gino, Ginelli. We're not sure anything else about this ice cream advert was particularly memorable, but the song lives on forever.

Two adverts here for Kellogg's cereals in 1991, that have since been dropped from the market in the UK. Both of them with the word 'Golden' in the name. This first one is for Golden Crackles, and possibly is meant to present a harsh dystopian vision of the terribly localised impacts of climate change!

Another defunct cereal from Kelloggs in 1991, set to Beethoven's Symphony No 6. This time with a lot of people expressing their shock that you could make a tasty cereal out of oats! Who knows why else they would think the word 'oatmeal' was on the box.

A young Jeremy Clarkson in one of his less well remembered roles. As the face of Granada Rentals in their latter days of 1998, promoting 'TV 2000' - an upcoming deal for digital television equipment, what with the impending launch of DTT later that year. With the rapidly declining TV rental market, Granada Rentals was merged with Radio Rentals in 2000 to form Boxclever, before the original operation fell into administration in 2003, nowadays having been sold on and existing as an online-only brand. A dormant business from the Granada Rentals operation remains registered at ITV plc's headquarters in London to this day.

Rutger Hauer has been to the barbers, and now he's going to share a secret with you via telepathy in another surreal Guinness campaign.

Rutger Hauer stars in another surreal Guinness advert from 1992, showing us how to bring just a little bit of art to life in the process.

Rutger meets himself in this advert for Guinness, although there is a way to tell them apart.

More adverts for Guiness, starting with another of the long running strange adverts from the early 90s featuring Rutger Hauer. Once again the point of which is lost on my simple mind!

Scenes of madness are mixed in with scenes of... fishing... in an advert from the Guinness 'Not everything in black and white makes sense' campaign of the mid 90s.

Another advert from the 'Not Everything in Black and White Makes Sense' Guinness campaign from 1997 Guinness features various absurd statistics, before concluding with Vic Reeves stating that '88.2% of statistics are made up on the spot'.

Not quite Guinness... it's Guinness Draught Bitter this time. You have to endure the rough, to appreciate the smooth.