Ads From Your Childhood #3

Time for another blast from the past.

Remember this ad for Rolo? While my opinions have obviously changed since I first saw this I remember at the time thinking that it was the funniest thing I had seen in my life. I also remember that it very quickly became common practice whenever you had a packet of Rolos to offer one to a friend, quickly withdraw the offer and laugh at them while singing the 'na na na na na' line at them. It became a bit of a catchphrase in my school playground at least.



I had intended on making this an all confectionery blast from the past and showing a classic Milkybar ad as well but they are surprisingly difficult to find. Anything I could find was either too recent, from abroad, or too old. If anyone comes across a Milkybar ad from the UK or Ireland from the late 80s or early 90s be sure to share it.

So I'll have to deviate from confectionary a bit but we won't stray too far, we'll stick in the food category at least. For years the Pat the Baker jingle was probably the best known jingle on Irish TV. I've never actually tried Pat the Baker bread (haven't a clue why) but hearing this song and seeing this ad always makes me think "OK, I'm definitely gonna buy some next time I'm shopping." I always forget about it though. Still, it's a great ad.



I had a bit of fun with an older brother of mine a couple of months ago recording cheesy jingles like this one. I was on drums and he was on guitar and vocals. We spent the best part of a day recording the likes of Pat the Baker, Saved by the Bell, Toys'R'Us, Postman Pat and a bunch of others. We videoed them too but I think it's probably best if they remain hidden, the world's not ready to see some of it's favourite jingles butchered beyond recognition.

Ads From Your Childhood #2

Time for a new installment of Ads From Your Childhood. This is really just an excuse for a good old trip down memory lane rather than showcasing great ads. The following ads are real blasts from the past and they bring me back to being five or six years old, sprawled across the carpet in the sitting room watching Saturday morning cartoons on the DJ Kat Show (which an alarmingly small number of people seem to remember. Please tell me you remember it?). This was long before Spongebob Squarepants made an appearance and Dora the Explorer wasn't even a thought in some animator's head yet. Carebears, Superted, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (even at that young age I fancied April O' Neil, who didn't?) and Alf (OK he's not strictly a cartoon but Alf's so cool he makes his own rules) were where all the fun was at in those days.

It was also a time of cool kids jingles. Who didn't love this one?



And this ad made me envy every single kid in the UK at the time because they had Toys R'Us and we didn't. I remember once in the early ninties we were going to visit friends of my parents in Southampton and for weeks beforehand all I would talk about was the fact that I'd get to go to Toys R'Us. To be honest I'd still love to go and just play in Toys R'Us.



And the last one for this installment, I reckon I'd bop along to this if I saw it for the first time today. We all adore a Kia-Ora.



Ah, the memories!

Ads From Your Childhood #1

So I've decided to start a new series on my blog where I can look back and remember cool ads from yesteryear that bring back memories. I've called it Ads From Your Childhood but of course that's a completely meaningless title because people of all ages read this blog (or so I'd like to think). I could have called it Ads From My Childhood but to be honest there are a lot of classic ads that I really like, and might want to show here, that I don't actually remember seeing as a kid so I decided to avoid that. Apologies for the lame excuse - it was either that or the dog ate my title, and seeing as I don't have a dog I thought that was too big of a risk.

Being an aspiring young advertiser who is hoping to impress people and climb the ladder of success in this industry I should probably choose Apple's 1984 commercial as the first ad to showcase here but I'm not going to, for two reasons. 1. It was before I was born - a pretty good reason I think, and 2. I actually never knew this ad existed until I was on Erasmus in Germany in 2007 and saw it there. I'm impressed by it, and appreciate the balls it took to invest so much money in an ad that was only aired once but it honestly doesn't really feature on my radar when I think of great classic ads. Maybe it should but it doesn't.

The one ad I remember most from being a kid is one that everyone knows and almost everyone loves. I was only 8 when Guinness' Anticipation ad was released so it certainly wasn't aimed at me or my friends. It definitely made an impression on us though and I remember we used to have competitions to see who could do the the best impression of the dance (which usually ended in an argument as we all thought our dance was the best one). I've been told that this was actually filmed in the basement of the studio where a Guinness ad was being shot but there was disagreement between the agency and Guinness over the ad which delayed the shoot. A bunch of the crew then apparently went off and shot this on their own and it ended up being used. I can't say for definite that this is true but the source from which I heard it is pretty trustworthy.



There's something quite timeless about the ad. I reckon if the ad were run now it would be just as successful as it was 17 years ago - a true sign of a good ad.

I'd worry about some of the ads that todays children will be looking back on in 15 or 20 years time. Take the new ad from Jacobs for their range of biscuits.



Apologies to anyone who was involved with this (a bit presumptuous to think that they'd be reading my blog?) but I just don't like it. Actually I can't stand it, not because it has totally ramped up the sex content in an ad that is targeted at a young audience, although I'm sure that offends a lot of people, but because it's cheesy, repetitive, uses a poor jingle and is completely opposite to what people expect from Jacobs. Don't get me wrong, going against people's expectations isn't always a bad thing, in fact it quite often makes for great advertising, I just think in this case it's a bad call. I'd love to see figures for how effective this campaign turns out to be, maybe they'll prove me wrong, but I wouldn't be surprised if it turns a lot of people off. (There is actually one thing I like in the ad - the DJ's headphones, I want a pair!)

Something tells me that people won't be writing about that ad in 17 years time. But hey, that's just my opinion.