Adverts B

Who wouldn't want one of these as a pet then? A jolly little animation, advertising the drink Babycham in the 1980's, with their famous animated character.

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An advert for Johnson's Baby Shampoo, advertising it as 'for the whole family'. Come to think of it, they've always promoted the shampoo this way! Why didn't they just call it 'Family Shampoo' in the first place!

A later advert for the same shampoo!

From the late 80s, and DIY chain B&Q puts together a nice little ditty to celebrate the fact 'You can do it if you B&Q it'. The music may long since have disappeared, however the retailer continues to use the slogan to this day.

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A new logo, but 8 years on, and the same song for B&Q is still going. Different scenes make for a different set of lyrics this time round.

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One of several ads from the early 90s where spirits seem to have been employed by Barclays. In this spot, he's helping someone open a bank account so they can get on the rental ladder, despite the slightly questionable landlady.

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From the same 'spirit' campaign, another advert for Barclays Bank in 1991. This time featuring the Ghost of the Headless Baron... or a close approximation in the form of someone from the bank.

Throughout the nineties, to promote their credit card, Barclays commissioned several adverts starring Rowan Atkinson as a bungling agent for the fictional government department MI7 alongside his sidekick 'Bough' who would usually come to the rescue with his Barclaycard. The idea behind this was to form the basis for Atkinson's later film Johnny English in 2003.

Rowan Atkinson stars in another advert for Barclaycard, this time self-charged with protecting the shopping for the beautiful Economic Adviser to the UN. In this advert, Atkinson's character is actually named as Richard Latham. Although the character idea would be largely the same in the later movies that followed, this name was not carried through.

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The daily routine of a man who remains positive as his house is a moment away from collapse is shown in this 1997 Barclaycard ad, complete with the slogan 'Don't put it off, put it on!'.

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Angus Deayton has taken up the helm of advertising Barclaycard by 2001, showing the benefits of using the card while abroad in Paris.

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Mimicking adverts for indulgent jewellery collections in the mid 80s comes this advert for pasta.

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The States - Nice Place, shame aboot the beer! One of several similar-style ads for McEwans Best Scotch from 1990. There's a hilarious song, which a lot of local knowledge references which probably make much more sense to those from the North East.

The people of Portsmouth feature in a slightly bizarre advert for defunct clothing and homewares chain BHS in 1994. Cramming in as many nautical jokes as possible to promote their latest 'sail'...

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Samantha Womack (at the time Janus) stars in this advert for the shortlived Bingo bar from the mid 90s. Admittedly with the internet age looming, choosing a generic name which would be nigh on impossible to search for mightn't have been the best marketing choice, but there you go.

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The late John Hewer played the famous Captain Birds Eye (or Birdseye, depending on your point of view) from 1967 through until 1998. The concept never changed much over that time - A jolly sea captain would ply a crew of children with plates of his finest fish fingers. In this advert from 1990, the children are looking a bit older, and the shape of the fish fingers is somewhat rounder.

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Discussing parents either getting back together or remarrying... over a nice meal with Bisto gravy naturally.

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Julie Walters stars in this humorous Advert for Bisto from the late 90s.

Julie Walters again, this time getting tongue-tied over new Chicken flavour Bisto.

A famous ad for Boddingtons from the 90s. In a spoof of all those stylish trainer ads, an athlete runs through the desert to catch up with an Ice Cream truck driven by Melanie Sykes.

In 1999, Boddingtons switched to animated adverts, featuring a cow character Graham Heffer as the face of brand. Here they appear in a parody of movie The Shining.

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Another 2001 animated Boddingtons ad where that cow teaches us pint survival during parachute failure.

Boots employ the skills of TVC London, the animation studio famously behind The Snowman, to produce their 1990 Christmas campaign. Featuring their animation of a Raymond Briggs style Father Christmas, a whole year before their follow up animation on the character would air on Channel 4.

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The run up to Christmas 1991, and the festive advert style from Boots that year followed an animated style for Santa and his friendly elves, who look like the remaining members of a comeback tour for the seven dwarves.

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A few years later and Boots are now using live action for their Christmas campaign. Although in those 4 years their actual selection of gifts doesn't appear to have changed massively!

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1996 and a non-festive advert for Boots. The 'Someone Cares' advertising style present in the 1995 Christmas campaign continues through to their summer range.

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A tropical paradise complete with scantily clad men and women makes up another typical Bounty advert from the early 90s.

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A friendly reminder of the possibly hallucinogenic effects of coconuts, courtesy of Bounty in the late 90s.

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Mrs Collins wouldn't just trust anyone, so she certainly knows who to trust with their important financial needs - The Bradford & Bingley. I wonder how that one panned out for her in the long term!

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From Christmas 1992, and British Airways let everyone know how special they make people feel... and apparently how their staff are some sort of giant omnipotent Gods in the sky! All whilst showing considerably more shots of sailing boats than of any planes.

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Don't you just love to be in control, with British Gas.

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A long 1989 advert promoting the rail industry in 1989, featuring footage shot around the country. A fun game is spotting how many of the same trains can still be seen in use 30 years later.

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From a few months before BSB and British Sky Broadcasting were forced to merge to avoid bankruptcy of both companies, a promo for the new 5 channel service from BSB. Showing just what amazing things could come from the sky in the night.

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Maureen Lipman stars in one of her many Beatie adverts for then-named British Telecom, that ran throughout the late 80s and into the early 90s. In this adventure, a new carphone is the focus using one of those modern 'mobile' networks. We're pretty sure the idea will never catch on!

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Another advert for British Telecom starring Maureen Lipman as Beatie. This time the wonders of a fax machine for allowing you to work from home are being explained.

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1993, and Mel Smith is enlisted to promote the BT share offer.

ET, the alien from Spielberg's famous film, has popped up in numerous advertising campaigns over the years, most recently for Comcast/Sky in 2019. Here, some 20 years earlier, he's busy advertising BT, reminding Mum there's always a good reason to call for no reason.

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ET is back for another BT advert, and this time he's found a way to get into a children's birthday party without drawing too much attention.

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By 2001, BT were still using ET for their ad campaigns, but the friendly alien alone was no longer enough. Here someone in marketing spins the 'who else is popular at the moment then?' wheel and chucks in an appearance from S Club 7 too!

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An ad from the famous Budweiser Frogs set from the late 90s. The concept itself was very simple - three frogs just repeat the name Budweiser over and over again.

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A later advert from the Budweiser Frogs campaign. This time round, some lizards who weren't able to get screen time due to those showstealing frogs begin plotting their revenge.

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