Adverts M-P

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The late Bernard Manning appears in one of a series of commercials for Macleans mouthwash in 1990. This series featured various standup comedians with a reputation at the time for their more adult or controversial comedy 'washing their foul mouths' with the mouthwash.

A widemouthed frog (voiced it seems by Bill Oddie) tells everyone how much he likes Maltesers in 1991.

The end of 1996 and the end of the Access credit card in the UK too. A commercial, themed for the Christmas season, just letting everyone know you'll soon be finding things sporting the new Mastercard logo rather than Access.

The well-loved Victoria Wood attempts to sell us all on the wonders of Maxwell House coffee using as many words as is possible.

If there's one thing I've always thought improves my coffee, it's the beans being grown in the mountains. Just like I find my toast always tastes better when buttered deep in a cave and my shirt looks more vibrant when washed in glacial water from Alaska.

That famous band The Chinheads, performing in 1990 to promote McEwan's Lager.

26 seconds of dull build up, before reaching a pretty disappointing climax. Yes, we're talking about an advert for a Big Mac - I'm not sure what you were thinking.

Another McDonalds Ad from 1996, and one of a series of 'Money Saving Tips' from the mid 90s featuring footage with effects applied to make it appear like an old and worn film from the 70s (yes, not all of that is from my aging Betamax). Here they detail how to save on the costs of a launderette by donating your clothes to a second hand shop, before buying them back later!

Harry Enfield and Richard Branson star in this humourous little ad for Mercury Communications, done in the style of Enfield's Mr Chomondly-Warner and Greyson sketches.

Some years before their takeover by HSBC, Midland Bank taking a long time to tell us about their commitment on helping businesses with their banking.

An advert from 1997, promoting Midland Bank as the bank that's listening. Basically, a Midland Bank worker overhears two blokes discussing what they want from their banking, then does a load of James-Bond style stunts to take the idea back to the bank's bright ideas department quickly! Also by now the branding from their parent company HSBC is well and truly starting to take hold, ahead of the full rename that was to follow.

Another 'gonna want it/bottle' advert from the now disbanded Milk Board in 1987. This time focusing on how it'll help you keep fit and active, whilst repeating those words over and over and over again until they're buried deep in your mind...

First transmitted in 1989, an animated Red Car and Blue Car have a race. Red eats everything he sees, whilst 'smart' Blue only eats a Milky Way, as he knows it won't spoil his appetite for dinner. The advert was so well remembered, it was brought back again 20 years later in 2009 (see the Comeback Ads page), albeit now updated to remove any reference to someone eating chocolate being 'smart' and to it not ruining your appetite.

A nice little one to chalk up in the annals of 'remember the build up to this'. For the turn of the Millennium, there was a lot of worry about how computers would handle the date change to 00, with fears the sudden change of date could result in computer crashes which could destabilise the economy and DESTROY THE WORLD. To try and head off this, a massive campaign was run in the years running up to the year 2000 to make sure all businesses were ready!

A mix of a cheerful tune with some early 90s CGI makes up this M&Ms advert from 1991. Also note the lack of any blue sweets in the pack at that time.

Rowan Atkinson reprises his Mr Bean role to team up with Red and Yellow to advertise M&Ms in 1997. With the simple international appeal of the 'Mr Bean' character, adverts featuring him can be very easily shared across multiple territories making him a popular choice with Mars.

Smith and Jones reprise their 'talking heads' setup, albeit less comedic than usual to plug the Nationwide in 1990. At this point in time, the building society was going by the name 'Nationwide Anglia', following their merger with Anglia Building Society in 1987. They would revert to their more commonly known name in 1992.

Are you a Dunroamin or a Letsby Avenue? Another stop motion advert from the Nationwide from 1998, this time focussing on mortgages from the building society. This advert had originally aired at the same time as the above one in early 90s, before being brought back several years later with only a few slightly tweaked lyrics, a new singer and the addition of references to their website.

One of the National Lottery ads, where we had the giant hand going 'It's You!!'. This one involves 'a little black dress', and was one of the funnier ones.

Defunct antiperspirant product Natrel Plus advertises how to fool a pack of wolves in the early 90s.

In the early 90s, Crockett's Theme by Jan Hammer, originally written for Miami Vice, found itself being used for a series of campaigns for Natwest. In this one, a small business adviser reminisces about how his father made many mistakes as a small business owner, with his greengrocers ultimately being replaced by a video shop. They'd not quite predicted video shops would soon be replaced by the internet at this point!

In the years long before Brexit became a hot topic, Natwest advertise their new software to help businesses navigate the upcoming changes to the European Single Market. Full of positivity at the time with grey clouds and grainy footage, you could almost mistake it for a Eurosceptic Party Political Broadcast were it not for the solemn remix of Crockett's Theme in the background.

This Nescafe ad stars Paul Eddington and Derek Fowlds, reuniting their on-screen partnership from the BBC series Yes Minister.

Richard Briers and Penelope Wilton, of Ever Decreasing Circles fame, appear again in another advert for Nescafe.

...and a much later ad for Nescafe.

Long before phone-hacking scandals would see the end of the tabloid paper, Turkey is happy to have made it past another Christmas and is looking forward to the New Year's television.

Long before they were pushed off the mobile scene somewhat by new players like Apple come a few adverts from Nokia's heyday. First a short one from 1995 showing how you can use your Nokia to access all those things you need on your laptop.

Heating from Northern Electric. Im sure I recognise the voice-over (Was he not on a Dettol advert at some point)

This ad is well... strange! Basically its telling you how to train your new Vauxhall Nova to be a good car, and not attack the postman!

People who have a personal connection to Michael Parkinson talk about their experiences with the man for this commercial for mobile network One2One, part of a series of similar adverts. One2One would later become T-Mobile in the UK, and eventually form part of EE.

Promoting the financial pages on teletext service Oracle in the late 80s. You can now relive those crazy days of >10% interest rates!

If The Borrowers had been done on such a shoestring budget that they all resided within the confines of a freezer, you might have ended up with this advert for Oriental Express from 1992.

Letting everyone know the 5 things PAL can bring your dog. Before telling us of the exciting new flavours available. I am particularly glad to hear they've launched Traditional Marrowbone. That newfangled Modern Marrowbone just wasn't the same!

P-p-pick up a Penguin! This week (in March 1986), the penguins are all going on a rally in the snowy mountains, but it doesn't quite work out.

The puppies above are certainly cuter than the kids in this 2001 Pedigree Chum advert. Bah, humbug!

An insane ad for Peperami from 1996.

Robbie Coltrane pops up to promote Persil Washing Up Liquid in 1990.

Coltrane is getting a little tired of Granny's lack of appreciation for the hard work he puts into the washing up in another Persil liquid advert from the early 90s.

Fatty food stains were seemingly the biggest problem affecting the world of laundry back in the early 90s, as every detergent or powder seemed to be promoting themselves as having the same fatty-food-stain-removing power. Persil joining in with this in 1992.

Chariots of Fire, some washing detergent and just a touch of PMA in this 1995 ad.

A modern-day Peugeot advert!

Another chimp advert for PG, and this time there's been a bank robbery. But don't worry, the thief hasn't stolen the PG Tips!

Sara Crowe makes up only half of the famous Philadelphia duo in an early advert for the spread in 1990.

Six years on, and the comedy duo of Ann Bryson and Sara Crowe are still at it in the Philly ads. Here at a funfair.

Harry Enfield reprises his 'Kevin the Teenager' routine for this advert for Toaster Pockets.

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The late Peter Sallis provides the voiceover in his less-famous role with Aardman Animations, here promoting Polo Mints in 1997 (the advert itself having been first introduced 2 years prior).

Pot TV from 1993; intense stuff. Nope I can't figure it all out either!

Griff Rhys-Jones stars in this ad for the pru.