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.

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.

~ NEW! ~

Red and Yellow are both going through an airport in this M&Ms ad from 1999.

People from all professions, such as Photographers from Ilford and Builders from Hammersmith visit their branch of Nationwide (back under the building society's familiar name by this point), 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!

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!

Endless different camera angles showing cute little puppies in this advert for Pedigree Chum from 1992.

Peperami... its a bit of an animal, and now he's found your TV.

Pepperami Cheezie... on the radio of all places. Thanks to Iam Burn.

Robbie Coltrane appears in another advert alongside Granny. This time with the rain threatening to ruin all those nice plates she's put out to dry.

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.

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.

I bet you can all remember this Pizza Hut advert from 1995. It features the Underwood Rugby family.

Pot TV from 1993; intense stuff. Nope I can't figure it all out either. =;) Thanks to Iam again.

Griff Rhys-Jones stars in this ad for the pru. Courtesy of Iam Burn.