Looking back at advertising

The brilliant Kaleidoscope television archive has been busy in the past few days, uploading reels of UK television advertising from the past 70 years. Of course, many of them are fascinating. Along with the videos (via YouTube), I have listed all of them below and commented on the company behind the ad and/or the ad itself where relevant.

I found them fascinating for all sorts of reasons (particularly the cars!)… although please bear in mind that many of them, in terms of their portrayal of particular people and social types, are very much “of their time” and caution is advised.

1950s/60s A

0:00 Gibbs SR
Unilever — the first ad that ever appeared on UK TV. It was broadcast on the first day of ITV, 22 September 1955, with the Associated-Rediffusion franchise broadcasting it at 8.12pm, just under 1 hour after broadcasting began

1:16 Lyril soap
Unilever — still available as Liril in India

2:14 British Insurance Association

2:46 Dubonnet wine
In the UK this became “Dubonnet Red” in the 1970s

3:23 Rael Brook shirts

3:55 Schweppes drinks

4:25 Daz white knights
Procter & Gamble. This is quite the ad

5:32 Bank accounts

6:18 Esso
Warning: this ad features cartoon racial stereotyping

7:21 Eggs

7:53 Smiths Crisps

8:25 Mother’s Pride
RHM — still available but now eclipsed by Kingsmill and supermarket bread

8:58 Shell
A classic ad here, with Bing Crosby

9:58 Sarongster girdles (!)

10:16 Eggs (Tony Hancock / Patricia Hayes)
See below

British Egg Marketing Board (1958–61)

Bernard Miles plays a Herefordshire farmer and the Lion Mark is represented by a cute little cartoon lion. This is a well-known campaign, featuring the famous “go to work on an egg” slogan, written by Fay Weldon. As per above, Bernard Miles was joined by Tony Hancock and Patricia Hayes for multiple campaigns between 1965 and 1971.

When UK egg production in the 1980s hit a crisis through mass Salmonella infection, comedian Jasper Carrott made the joke “go to work on an egg, come home in an ambulance”

1950s/60s B

0:00 Wool Marketing Board

0:49 Esso as above
See content warning above.
Exxon in the US. Esso was chosen as the UK brand as shorthand for “SO”, the initials of Exxon’s predecessor Standard Oil

1:59 British Insurance Association as above

2:20 Rael Brook shirts as above

2:53 Bank accounts as above

3:39 Bird’s Eye
Unilever; frozen food business later sold to Nomad Foods

4:42 Bio-Tex (Thora Hird)
Unilever; product is still available in Scandinavia. This campaign was used as a question in Shooting Stars. The reason why Thora stays still at the end is to add on some run-out time

5:15 Hoover appliances

5:45 GPO (Irene Handl)
From the days when, as with most other European countries, post, telegraph, and telephones were bundled into one state-owned organisation (“PTT”)

6:17 Meccano
Very much the traditional ad here, about a boy becoming a man through learning engineering

7:03 Parker pens

7:36 Watney Pale Ale (Scaffold)
Changing the lyrics to “Lily The Pink”. The business was bought by Grand Metropolitan (now Diageo) and was closed; its London brewery in Mortlake was taken over by Anheuser-Busch to brew Budweiser and closed in 2015

8:06 Eggs as above

8:38 Gibbs SR toothpaste as above

9:41, 10:42, 11:44 Eggs (Hancock/Hayes as above)

12:46 Lux soap (Diana Rigg)
Unilever

13:30 Frigidaire appliances

14:17 Shippam’s Paste sandwich spread

15:20 Kleenex tissues
Kimberley-Clark / Bowater. This is a really interesting ad stylistically as it is live-action, but bookended by animation

16:19 Hotpoint refrigerators
Associated Electrical Industries, which eventually became part of GEC; Hotpoint is now. owned by Whirlpool

17:20 Capstan cigarettes

17:50 Player’s cigarettes

18:54 Cadbury’s Flake

19:22 Oxydol washing powder
Procter & Gamble, still available in the US

20:25 Flash floor cleaner (Mrs. Flash)
Procter & Gamble. Again, another rather splendid ad in the style of Daz above in, what I think is, Newark-upon-Trent

21:26 Alberto VO5 hair spray
Alberto-Culver, later bought and then divested by Unilever

21:58 Fairy Snow washing powder
Procter & Gamble

1970s

0:00 Hotpoint

1:24 Campbell’s Soup

2:26 Croft Original wine
An early airing for the brilliant slogan “One instinctively knows when something is right”

3:29 Ravenhead glassware

1972

0:00 MacFisheries Dutch campaign
Unilever. You have to watch this, just for the sweet young lady desperately trying to stay still at the end to give some run-out time

0:53 Mace supermarkets

1:24 Pricerite supermarkets

1:54 Tesco supermarkets

2:03 Woolworth — The Andy Williams Album

2:35 Rael Brook shirts

1973 — Car ads

Many of these ads have the same telephone response line: 01 388 1122, set up in Thames Television’s Euston offices. Here’s the background.

0:00 Mercedes / Denham Service

0:48 Toyota

1:32 Toyota

2:33 Bristol Street Motors
Portable TV offer “Gets all 3 channels”

3:27 Opel Rekord
Opel was withdrawn by General Motors in the UK in the 80s, in order to focus on its Vauxhall brand

4:52 Ford / Strakers

5:52 DAF
No longer a car manufacturer; car business bought by Volvo

6:59 BMW

7:43 Renault 6

8:29 Ford Capri

9:51 Ford Capri
A young Geoffrey Palmer in what I think is Marylebone railway station

11:26 VW 1303
This has a brilliant portrayal of London kids

12:13 Chrysler / Hillman Avenger
Hillman’s owner Rootes was bought by US manufacturer Chrysler, and rebranded accordingly (hence the emerging references to the parent company). In 1978, Chrysler bailed out and sold the entire European operation to PSA (owners of Peugeot and Citroen). Eventually, Chrysler, Peugeot, Citroen, the aforementioned Opel and the later-mentioned Fiat and Vauxhall all became part of one company, Stellantis

12:44 Chrysler 2L

13:15 Chrysler / Hillman Hunter

13:45 Chrysler / Hillman Avenger

14:17 Chrysler range

14:47, 15:18 DAF

15:26 Toyota

16:32 VW

17:17 Toyota Corona
Starring a young Colin Baker

18:04 Austin Allegro
Starring a young Bill Treacher, aka Arthur Fowler

19:04 Vauxhall
This is a well-known ad, simply because it’s so weird

20:08, 21:30, 22:52 Audi 80
Very odd, vague slogan here — a car that is “3 to 4 years ahead of its time”. This 80 is only the second Audi to be developed under VW ownership after its purchase from Daimler-Benz

21:11, 22:33, 23:55 Audi 80 / Smith and Gardner Liverpool

24:32, 25:56 Datsun

27:19, 28:14, 29:02, 29:54, 30:44 Fiat
This is fascinating. Fiat had a major issue with body rust, and this tackles the issue head-on but also invites the question “what about the cars that didn’t have the new body treatment”

1981

0:00 Haywards pickles

2:14 Crosse and Blackwell cooking ingredients

3:36 Black Magic chocolates
Rowntree Mackintosh, now part of Nestle

4:45 Warwick Records — Adam Faith

6:10 Warwick Records — Brotherhood of Man

7:31 Harrods