Adverts M-P

A slightly different advert from Mars from 1989 in that rather than promoting a single bar this time round, it promotes a range of their different chocolates, instead showing how great they are from the fridge during a hot summer. Snickers still retains its UK name Marathon at this point.

A very simple advert for Maxpax vending machines from the early 90s, presumably put together on a shoestring budget made up from coins which got stuck in one of their machines.

Maggie Smith takes on the excessive verbiage this time in another Maxwell House advert from 1990.

A cheerful little ad for McCoy's from 1993, sent in by Iam Burn.

Ronald and his friend Grimace advertising the McDonalds chain in the UK in 1986, long before the characters were dropped from their UK advertising in an attempt to change the chain's image. Grimace seems to think if you shake a cow enough you'll get a fresh milkshake. From a time when you could legitimately tell a cow to 'ooh, shake this end Daisy', and hint at a character being 'really thick' on a kids advert without anyone complaining.

Slightly more activity in this later McDonalds advert from 1996. This time round promoting their Monopoly giveaway - an occasionally recurring promotional tie up between the fast food chain and the boardgame which continues to current day.

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. Clip courtesy of Iam Burn.

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.

Repeat 'Gonna Want Bottle' in a song enough times, and you'll obviously know it's an advert for milk. Thanks to Iam for this.

From a carefree era when it was still fine to promote your product as 'fine to eat as it won't fill you up' comes this animated advert for Milky Way.

A nice little one to chalk up in the annals of 'never really panned out as such'. For the turn of the Millennium, there was an awful 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.

People from all professions, such as Photographers from Ilford and Builders from Hammersmith visit their branch of Nationwide, along with a little song. One of several songs using stop motion put together in the early 90s. Advert courtesy of Iam Burn.

Another jolly little tune and stop motion for the Nationwide Building Society, produced a little later than some of their others as it now includes showing some of their non-branch services, such as internet and phone-banking, presented in a lighthearted way! Watch out for the Ghoulies and Ghosties!

Still using their giant gold hand to let you know when 'it's you', it's the National Lottery from 1997.

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!

Ah those dark days of the mid-80s, when it was still fine to suggest that the main thing a woman at a fancy dinner would be concerned about would be the gold jewellery she was wearing. Lots of such gold abound in this advert for Nescafé Gold Blend.

The late Richard Briers and Penelope Wilton, who had appeared together in Ever Decreasing Circles in the 80s, appear here in another sitcom-inspired commercial for the coffee brand.

...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!

Oracle used to provide the teletext service on ITV and Channel 4, up until it was outbid by the unimaginatively named 'Teletext ltd', losing it's franchise in 1993. Here is an advert from 1991 for their service. Thanks to Iam Burn for this ad.

The Oxo family became well established on our screens throughout the eighties and nieties, as we followed them growing up. The final advert was broadcast in the late 90's, and featured only the Mother and Father, as everyone had already left. This one, from 1989, shows one of the ads from the family's heyday and features the late Lynda Bellingham.

Panasonic advertising a VCR with an innovative feature in the late 80s. Before keying in Videoplus codes would become ubiquitous for the machines, the idea here was that you could scan in a barcode to set the machine's recording timer instead.

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

An insane ad for Peperami from 1996. Thanks to Iam Burn.

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

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.

Another car advert, only this time it is for Peugeot! What it can do will literally 'take your breath away'!

The chimps feature in a PG Tips advert from 1990. Their famous pyramid bag was still a short while off at this point, so instead they promote their extra large square bags as having more room for the tea to infuse.

There are 2 things PG Tips are famous for. Their tea, and the Chimps. The chimps were the main front for PG, for decades, until 2002, when finally they disappeared from our screens, to be replaced with the T-Birds. 4 Plasterceine characters. More recently they've revisited the chimp theme with a cunning return to the screens of Al and Munkeh. Here is one of those good-old chimp ads, from 1992.

Harry Enfield reprises his 'Kevin the Teenager' routine for this advert for Toaster Pockets. Clip thanks to Iam Burn.

The secret services storm a building... only to find it belongs to some old ladies. Never mind, they'll have the place looking as good as new in no time. Clip courtesy of Iam Burn.

A spoof of The Shawshank Redemption can be seen in this 1998 Ad for Pot Noodle. Thanks again to Iam for this.