Forum Topic

Favourite TV/cinema adverts/commercials

Do any of us have favourite adverts, both ?Here are some I like:Carling Black Label "sunbeds" (1990s) where an Englishman throws a towel into a swimming pool, it bounces a couple of times and unrolls onto a sunbed, much to the annoyance of a bunch of krauts.DVLA Road Tax (2000s) with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.Hoover vacuum cleaner (1950s) "Hoover beats as it sweeps as it cleans".Renault "build a better car" (1980s). So why didn't they market it?"Guinnessphone" of late 1960s? Buy 24 half pint bottles of Guinness. Place in straight line. Open first and leave. Open second and drink 1/24, and so on. Blow across top of bottle to play note. The ad even included suitable sheet music! Any more to jog the memory?

Alan Brainsby ● 6802d46 Comments

Hamlet Cigars, the first a Ford Anglia with 'Carlos Fanango wide wheels' not making it through the gap and leaving the Anglia wheeless. The best one of that series however was the loss of the toilet roll under the door of the outside toilet, with the 'Andrex'puppy rolling it away from the desparately scrabbling hand, followed by the cigar smoke over the top of the door,Happiness is a Cigar called Hamlet!

Colin Vaughan ● 6802d

That Vauxhall Vectra "This car is a phee-nomo-non" add from the early noughties. Simply because it was so bad.At the time it came out I was on a NLP course with a bunch of soon-to-be-redundant Vauxhall office staff and they all said it had made their lives hell....

Gavin Gilbert ● 6802d

Happiness is a cigar hamlet

David Archer ● 6802d

carling sun beds

David Archer ● 6802d

The Cinzano ads with Leonard Rossiter and Joan Collins

David Archer ● 6802d

Thanks, I enjoyed seeing all those old commercials again - great!One I liked was the French car commercial(forget which car) that went:"Michelle?!"      "Pa-pa?!"    :-)

Gerry Tan ● 6802d

papa/nicole

David Archer ● 6802d

hyundai's version of nicole/papa????

David Archer ● 6802d

Favourite: The single shot - I think it was Honda not so long ago - which is a bit like the current Guinness one of a domino trail knocking things over...Least favourite ever - Wrigley's barfing dog which made viewers want to throw up.

Sara Nathan ● 6802d

That Hyundai one is brill David! And I got the name wrong on my last posting...it should have been Nicole NOT Michelle...sorry.Keep 'em coming, they're most interesting - thanks.

Gerry Tan ● 6802d

Honda Domino

David Archer ● 6802d

Fiat Strada

David Archer ● 6802d

Francis House ● 6802d

There's something about that sun bed advert.There was a sister(?) advert, too, where an MGB ragtop diver deflates the car's tyres to drive under a French lorry blockade. Memorable to me because of one of the lorries was emblazoned "Oui, Oui, Eau de Toilette"!

Alan Brainsby ● 6801d

Having just enjoyed a Davidof, that was a pleasant reminder.

Graham Weeks ● 6801d

The original Mac ad.Kipling's nativity play.Various Heineken;s

Graham Weeks ● 6801d

Do you include that 1970s cartoon of the three pigs and the Heineken drinking wolf? The wolf family had bacon for dinner.

Alan Brainsby ● 6801d

DavidThanks for that terrific Strada car advert. I remember it well..and it was so rousing that one felt like writing a cheque out there and then to buy one.Years later one read in WHICH? reports that it was a rust heap!

Jim Lawes ● 6801d

Has anyone here ever owned a Fiat? If so, what was the experience?

Alan Brainsby ● 6801d

I owned a small one and it was OK except when some tea leaf nicked a wheel one Good Friday night outside our house. I have also enjoyed driving a sporty job owned by a friend.

Graham Weeks ● 6801d

'co-ee mr shifter'

David Archer ● 6801d

My favourite current ads are the brilliant Carling Belong friends in space ad (anyone know what the music is?), and the Ford (either Mondeo or SMax) if birds couldn't fly ad, which is a great example of subtle special effects (and it always makes us smile).One of my favourite ads from the past is the Cadbury Flake phone ringing ad (set somewhere semi-tropical with a geko scurrying about - it may also have been the one with the bath overflowing), it just had such a great sound track.

David Fox ● 6801d

ringing/geko flake ad

David Archer ● 6801d

Go to work on an egg.Shake N' VacR White's lemonadeGrodon's gin and tonic (cinema) makes me desperate for one !!

Penny Crocker ● 6801d

Programme on Channel 4 just now ( I know, TV in the middle of the day, haven't I got work to do?) on brands and they did Hovis and played the Ridley Scott boy on bike ad - and interviewed the boy on the bike too. Rather charming and a great tune.

Sara Nathan ● 6801d

Thanks, David, that's a short version of the Flake ad - unfortunately there doesn't seem to be the long version anywhere (which has a very different feel to it) - and the audio compression doesn't do it any justice either.

David Fox ● 6801d

The current Ford ad with an orchestra made up of various car parts - so imaginative!

S. D. Brock ● 6800d

The "Parts Orchestra" is very clever. Then they do that silly "Dogbot" Fiesta ad.One ad that really gets me at the moment is the Dulcoease "stool softener". I wonder what was going through the actresses minds when they made it.Has anyone used it? Does it work?

Alan Brainsby ● 6800d

ridley scott....original ad

David Archer ● 6800d

h-h-h-hancock and patricia hayes

David Archer ● 6800d

Cant believe no-ones mentioned the Beatie BT adverts.  I love the one with the glum grandson on the stairs not having done his exams well and BT is on the other line putting the final decorations to the celebratory cake and she takes the graduate mortarboard off until she hears him say he passed sociology.  "An ology.  You got an ology, that's wonderful" and she puts the mortarboard firmly back on.Was the first advert ever "pepsodent"?  I can still sing  the jingle and I must have been all of 11 years old then.

Barbara Yerolemou ● 6800d

Very close, Barbara.It was Gibbs SR.Try http://www.zen77094.zen.co.uk/vintagebroadcasting/ads1.htmThe first officialcolour TV ad I think was for Bird's Eye. However colour ads were being transmitted before under the guise of colour test transmissions.Got to go, I'm going Shell!

Alan Brainsby ● 6800d

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGH....DOGBOT!!! My two westies go mad when that comes on....the other one is 'one man and his dog' (specsavers???)...they go beserk as soon as the music starts.....!

David Archer ● 6800d

An Ology!

David Archer ● 6800d

I dispense the prescription equivalent without complaint. have not seen the ad.The ad never made I would have liked was for piles preparastions. The Cash estate refused permission for Ring of Fire being utilised.

Graham Weeks ● 6799d

Took me a while for the penny to drop Beatie and BT.I had a similar delay with Anusol for piles.

Graham Weeks ● 6799d

The Gold Blend romance

Graham Weeks ● 6799d

Ouch!

Alan Brainsby ● 6799d

With the increasing special effects I found the local adverts contrasting more and remember "Empire Motors" and a restaurant advert ended "at the high street". Any memories of those?

Robert Darke ● 6799d

BT also have a good name for their international exchange in  London - "Mondial House".

Alan Brainsby ● 6798d

I think the new skoda car advert made out of cake is pretty impressive!

Wayne Bridges ● 6797d

To Alan:This has been(and still is) a most interesting and entertaining posting - I've enjoyed it immensely! thanks for such pleasant viewing.Sometimes, I think there's much more entertainment in TV commercials than most of the rubbish on view - except of course, for progs like Match of the Day, Bay Watch and Antiques Roadshow.  :-)

Gerry Tan ● 6797d

Oh and I forgot Last of the Summer Wine!  ;-)

Gerry Tan ● 6797d

Bay Watch!!! Gerry,just mind the old Blood Pressure there!!

Colin Vaughan ● 6797d

A very clever advert.I read somewhere that Skoda, or the ad agency, were going to donate the car (cake?) to charity but the heat from the studio lighting made it go off.

Alan Brainsby ● 6797d

Do you remember when Woolworths would run their Christmas adverts for the whole of the ad break?Here's one from 1983....just check the prices...I'm sure most of the featured items are cheaper today!!!

David Archer ● 6797d