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TV advert reminiscences

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colchesterken

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Anyone remember " The Esso sign means happy motoring " I am still singing it 60 yrs later
 
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krus_aragon

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'They asked me how I knew
It was Esso Blue,
I of course replies,
With lower grades one buys,
Smoke gets in your eyes'.
An old co-worker crooned that one on occasion*, but they remembered a different couplet:

I of course replied,
With other brands supplied,
Smoke gets in your eyes

*fairly infrequently, though. Once, when I joined in, they were stunned that I knew such an old advert - they'd forgotten that they'd taught it to me!
 

nlogax

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Some of my favourites below that I remember as a kid. For years I've been saving them to a playlist as I stumble across them on YouTube. As much as we may decry modern-day marketing and advertising I truly believe tv ads used to be a form of readily accessible art. Much of the time they were better than the shows they interrupted and bookended.

British Airways - Outer Space (1984)

BR / Network SouthEast - Rush Hour (1988)

McEwans - Alive and Kicking (1986)

Whitbread Best Bitter - Amir and Skavar (1982 - spot the very young Stephen Fry)

Whitbread Best Bitter again - Switcheroo (1987)
 

gg1

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"They're tasty, tasty, very very tasty
They're very tasty"

Only if your definition of tasty is crunchy cardboard.
 

prod_pep

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James Nesbitt's Yellow Pages ad with his disastrous DIY haircut attempt: "Some eejit's cut my niece's hair."
 

Busaholic

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I like to think I'm impervious to advertising now, but from my more carefree days I remember the following, some are classics, others are awful, and some are neither, but all managed to worm their way into my subconscious.:-

The Guinness Surfer ad = made by a teetotal Art Director who'd never touched a drop of the stuff. If any U.K. ad could ever be described as 'iconic' that was. Didn't work for me, I'd once tasted it and spat it out, never to return to it!

Lloyds Bank Black Horse ads - again, didn't persuade me to open an account, but if I ever change from Nat West I think I'd go for them.

Renault Clio Nicole and Papa ads. Must have worked, on my third Clio, now ten years old! And, no, I don't have a daughter for anyone thinking that way!

Fairy Liquid- 'the hands that do dishes can be soft as your face with mild green,,,' should have ended 'fresh vomit' but somehow didn't. Not helped by having the innocuous actress Nanette Newman fronting it for a while.

Liquid Gold building society ads starring George Cole in his 'Minder' role, already discussed. Never opened a B.S. a/c but liked the series of ads.

Jewson building supplies, making full use of a caricature loudmouth builder shouting you could get 'the jewson lot' there. I wasn't their target audience, and maybe it worked for them?

Hamlet cigar ads= happiness is a cigar called Hamlet, with mood music from J.S.Bach and wreathes of smoke! Went on to the bitter end of tobacco advertising. Unimaginable now, but great ads. The idea MAY have evolved from the 'you're never alone with a Strand' cigarette ads from printed magazine days.

Cadbury's Fruit and Nut ads, featuring bow-tied Frank Muir with his famous lisp 'Everyone's a fruit and nutcase'.
 

Gloster

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I have mentioned on another thread that I used to conflate the Esso and Opal Fruits tunes: ‘Esso Blue, made to make you mouth water.’ Not recommended.
 

C J Snarzell

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My favourite advert as a child in the 1980s was the PG Tips chimps. I actually have some of the Robert Harrop figures in a box somewhere. I very much doubt given political correctness and animal rights issues we have now, those type of adverts would never see the light of day again. It is a shame, because at the time, I don't think they were ever intended to cause offence.

CJ
 

Techniquest

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Two of my favourites will always be:

"Autoglass repair, Autoglass replace" which sounds dull but by cripes it was catchy!

"Let's do it, Letsbuyit.com" which, crazy as it sounds, I occasionally still hear myself saying out loud :s Clearly worked on me, although the advert at the time was on when I was too young to buy things online.

Oh! I forgot the Shreddies advert "Hunger...STRIKES!" with that cartoon animal representing hunger, drumming on the man's stomach with spoons, and that catchy little tune in the background.

There's the one2one advert too which I saw in an old adverts video a while back on YouTube, that sure took me back in time! "Who would you like to have a one to one with?" is a question that I have changed my answer to a good few times :lol:
 

colchesterken

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Best ever non P C advert " In days of old fruit was sold that had to be washed at home, but now you can but it ready washed by Whitworths. Whitworths are a girls best friend "
Must have been a good advert I can still sing it
 

Ashley Hill

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I always liked the Kia Ora advert,"it's just for me and my dog. I'll be your dog" etc etc. Totally un-PC today mind you. And Alexi Sayle with "Ello Tosh got a Toshiba?
 

Springs Branch

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One that used to annoy me & has stayed in my memory over the years is an ad from the late 70s or early 80s.

It featured a couple of "dolly birds" (in the parlance of the Sid James era) and a geezer known as Uncle Stan, whose party trick was rolling his flat cap from one arm, across his chest and down the other arm.

I can't explain why this particular one annoyed me so much - and I couldn't even remember which product it was pushing, just the shrill "now cummon, roll us yer cap".

Prompted by this thread, and with the wonders of t' internet I can actually replay it today. Seems it even won awards. Here it is:
History of Advertising Trust.

Having watched the ad again - I quite like it now.
And the product..... ' course it's butter!
Maybe this change of heart is because I now have nieces, one of whom occasionally cooks roast dinners.
Or maybe because I've become an "Uncle Stan" myself. (Must get in some practice. Now where's my flat cap?)
 
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yorksrob

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I remember as a child hearing:

"Trebor mints are a minty bit stronger"

As well as the playground addendum:

"Stick em up yer bum and they last a bit longer"
 

LWB

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Of course
“Opal Fruits… made to make your mouth water”
Was coined by Murray Walker no less in a former job.
He also had a hand in
“A Mars a day helps you work rest and play.”
My favourite though is a seemingly genuine Scottish crofter advertising Pedigree Chum…
“It does not run all over the place like some stuff you can purchase” delivered with particular force and stress on the “purchase” with a broad Scottish accent.
Never met anyone who remembers it but me
 
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