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.

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.

Natwest advertises their banks opening on Saturdays. Well, this was revolutionary at the time. Clip courtesy of Iam Burn.

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.

Angela Thorne and the late Michael Elphick of Three Up, Two Down fame are reunited in an advert for Nescafé from 1991.

Gelsen Kirchen is looking for a place to become twinned with, but the deciding factor is the beer. The actual Gelsenkirchen in Germany has been twinned with Newcastle Upon Tyne since 1948. Newcastle Exhibition was originally brewed within the region, but production was moved with sales and mergers of the breweries in the 2000s.

Basketball player Charles Barkley kills the ref... opera style!

A longer advert for Nokia from 1996 going into more detail on the value of communication and keeping it simple.

A later heating ad from Northern Electric. This time the voiceover is provided by Victoria Wood.

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.

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.

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.

In the modern age, Unilever go to great lengths to tell us to keep their detergents, including Persil, out of the reach of children. Jump back to the early 90s though and involving your children was almost a part of the washing powder ad scene.

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.

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.