Adverts Q-Z

A few years after the last of comedy series Keeping Up Appearances had aired, a Hyacinth Bucket-inspired character tries to appear better than the neighbours with how she keeps her bathroom here.

Robert Fyfe provides the voice of an animated block of Red Leicester here, in the days before he went on to star as Howard in Last of the Summer Wine.

A 'Change your Scenery' ad from 1998. Various characters mix seamlessly around the car to Marvellous by The Lightning Seeds.

A well remembered advert from the 90s set to a rewritten version of the song Rockin' Robin. This time it's for Rocky biscuits, with the famous Rocky Robin.

Say thank you with a box of Roses... awww. Although what the bloke in the car is doing with a spare box of Roses in the glove compartment in the first place is best not questioned!

A fast-paced advert for electronics chain Rumbelows. Rumbelows was originally started in 1969, before later being acquired by Thorn, owners of the Radio Rentals chain too. The chain lasted for several decades, before eventually being folded in 1995.

About as American an ad as you could get at the time, Salon Selectives was launched by the US cosmetics firm Helene Curtis as a salon-inspired hair care range. Originally heavily promoting the ability to mix and match just the right set of products for your hair, since the mid 90s the brand has changed hands several times as well as the products themselves being relaunched in various guises.

The Tin Man became synonymous with Seven Seas Cod Liver Oil (and their other associated products) throughout the 90s as part of a successful attempt to rejuvenate sales of the product. And in this one from 1993, he's even got himself a friend!

Where did Bet go after leaving Coronation Street? Well she did star in this Shredded Wheat advert - onwards and upwards in the world!

Promoting an early multichannel lineup from Sky Television in 1989. Launched a few months earlier in the Spring of that year, the initial lineup that included Sky One, Sky Movies, Sky News and Eurosport. A far cry from the hundreds of channels that would be available on Sky in later years, but enough to allow them to steal a headstart on fellow satellite provider BSB. With apologies for a few video sync errors in this advert.

Smarties.... the eggs that wont be beaten. Thanks to Iam again for this.

Another Quitline advert from 1993, this time with John Cleese in a morgue.

An early 90s reminder of how buses in London looked before they all had low floors in this Snickers advert. At this point Snickers was still a very young brand to the UK, having only changed from the more familiar Marathon name a year previous. Whether a bus driver and a design consultant were really the most memorable people to push a new brand is debatable... but 1991 was a different time!

Also from 1995, only this time it's for the frozen version of the peanut-based bar, Snickers Ice Cream.

Probably not doing much to help body confidence issues in this 1992 advert for Special K.

Another Reassuringly Expensive ad for Stella Artois from 1996. A Good Samaritan helps out all those he meets... but it's still not enough to warrant anyone buying him a pint of Stella at the pub.

Oh no... an iceberg! What will we do? A funny little Titanic spoof, starring David Swift, advertising Trebor's Extra Strong Mints in the mid 80s. Courtesy of Iam Burn.

This is one of the earlier Surf adverts featuring actors Pauline and Linda, of Birds of a Feather fame. Here they discuss the virtues one requires in a washing powder!

A very short advert for Lemon Tango from 1997. Featuring that famous publication 'Biggies'!

Later on in 1997, and we learn how Tango is helping bring Clowns back into society with the use of large orange trucks.... nice!

A rather funny advert for Tango from 2001. The moral of the story is, if you hear voices telling you to make a pass at your future father-in-law, always ignore them!!

Another Tango ad... with a FAT PIGEON! Courtesy of Iam Burn.

An advert from 1995 with a difference - You need the Page 888 subtitles on as part of the advert. Luckily at TV Whirl, you can get those subtitles too just by hitting that little text button on your remote (or below).

The Tetley Teafolk promote their round teabags in 1990 with a cover of 'I Get Around' by The Beach Boys.

A Tetley Tea advert from 1997. This was one of the last to feature the Tetley Tea Folk in their old guise, before they were abolished for a while. Only to be reintroduced again in 2010. Clip courtesy of Iam Burn.

A reminder that the defunct Toys R Us did have adverts before the 1989 'Magical Place' one they became synonymous with for the rest of their life, with a live action one here from 1988. Also coming from a pre-internet era where it was still acceptable to suggest dolls and teddies were perfect for girls and action toys for boys, without being lynched by parents on social media.

A nice advert for the Ford Transit in 2001, set to Slade's Coz I Luv You. This advert originally started out with the slogan 'Transit - The Backbone of Britain' hence the build up to showing a 'backbone' of lights across the country. However in later variants this was later changed to the far less imaginative 'Job Done' slogan for some reason.

Another ad from 'The Bank that likes to say yes', this time featuring clips from films in order to promote their free cinema tickets offer. The TSB logo and brand was to disappear in the late 90s as part of a merger with Lloyds to form Lloyds TSB. They would later be demerged with a brand new TSB logo appearing in 2013. Clip Courtesy of Iam Burn.

Although it was more common for TV Times ads to be tailored to that week's edition, sometimes more generic ads for the magazine would air. Here lots of stock photos of TV personalities and sections that appear in the mag feature, with no voiceover talking about any specific feature.

From those glorious days when TV Times and The Radio Times would carry listings for different broadcasters, another quick advert for the ITV version of the listings mag. With the late Cilla Black appearing on the cover this week.

In the second version, Norm turns up during clothes shopping. Also thanks to Iam for this.

You've just washed your shiny new Vauxhall Astra, when right on cue a pigeon parks itself right above your driveway. What is a man to do?

This famous campaign for Volkswagen launched in 1987 and starred Paula Hamilton styled up as a Diana-esque character. Leaving her husband after the breakup of a marriage, she is seen throwing away luxury items, before deciding to keep the VW car. At the time, the advert was hailed as a sign of a car advert finally targeting women complete with a strong female lead, contrasting with the traditional style of car advertising. The song used in the ad is 'Changes' written by Alan Price.

Woaaaahhh-ohhh! Vitalite... That's right!! The sun is back in 1993... or for a short while at least. He's been getting grumpier in his old age, and with them introducing so many long words to the spread now too, he finally snaps and goes on strike leaving the moon to take over.

Warburtons from 1992 and have you ever seen such a lovely Blackpool Milk Roll?

A parody of Indiana Jones for this Weetabix ad from 1987, featuring those lovable Weetabix characters. Clip courtesy of Iam Burn.

Nicholas Lyndhurst takes on a variety of roles as the family in WH Smiths' Christmas campaign for 1996. After all, what is a boy to do when he can't find any wrapping paper?

A tongue twisting song for Cadbury's Wispa from 1993. This was in the days before Cadbury strangely decided to abolish the bars and established brand in favour of 'Cadbury Dairy Milk with Bubbles'. Clip Courtesy of Iam Burn.

Advertising songs for Christmas with a simple advert, it's the defunct UK high street chain Woolworths.

Harry Enfield stars in this 1996 Worthington's advert. Boldly proclaiming how 'she' has been breeding men for 30 years, before launching in to a parody of dog food adverts.

Why is a man's head so full of boring old rubbish? er... its the question everyone asks!!

The most famous advertising campaign for Yellow Pages, the big phone directory of businesses, aired during the 80s. They featured the book coming to the rescue when no-one else could. In this version, a young male needs some French Polishers to save his life after a crazy party at his parent's house. Originally owned by BT before being sold off as a separate company, the UK editions of the Yellow Pages itself were published from 1966 right through until the end of 2018, when the company finally decided to discontinue the ever-shrinking print copy in favour of going entirely online.

Originally produced during the 'Good Old Yellow Pages' era in the early 90s, the famous Christmas version of the Yellow Pages advert well outlived any others from the campaign. Reappearing every Christmas without fail well into the 2000s, when only the internet largely killing off the big thick book resulted in the advert becoming increasingly irrelevant.