Adverts (North East)

Agnews was a small chain of Off-licences throughout the North East. For some time, they had used well-known North East comedian Bobby Thompson (The Little Waster) to front their adverts. After he died in early 1988 however, Agnews simply hired a soundalike for their christmas ad that year, in what some would say was pretty poor taste.

A cheap and cheerful ad for travel agents Callers Pegasus in 1988.

North Eastern Co-op show us the ultimate in shoestring budget advertising, though arguably has more charm than some of the national adverts. The clover leaf Co-op logo featured was to reappear in 2016 in an attempt to draw on the Co-operative group's heritage after several years of difficulties.

3 years later, and another Xmas Sale. This time they've managed to stretch the budget a tiny bit further to animate the snow.

A national chain of furniture stores now, with roots in the North East. (Perhaps theres some connection to Durham!) This ad may have been shown in other regions, but the ending listing the stores would have been different!

Hardisty Cycles were a small but successful family-run chain across the North East for many years, before finally closing in the early 2000s. Their jingle, used on both television and radio for years, was so well-known it became synonymous with bikes in the region.

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Some nice liquid gold is used in this ad, as they try to paint Hartlepool as a place for the future.

A short advert for the Designer Room, at Jackson's Landing on Hartlepool Marina.

Whizzbang video effects in a quick North Eastern advert for Leech Homes promoting their latest development in Hexham in 1984. Someone had possibly been watching too much of Blockbusters.

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The Metro is the light-rail public transport system covering a large part of Tyne and Wear in the UK. A 1995 ad for the system here.

A recent advert for the Metro, this time promoting the multi-million pound extension to take passengers to the city of Sunderland. This was one of the things officially opened by the Queen in May 2002.

The Metro Centre is a large out-of-town shopping Centre near Gateshead in the North East. This ad here promotes the opening of shops on Bank Holiday Monday. It's short, but incredibly funny.

This 1997 advert is promoting the late-night opening at the Metro Centre, with it being near Christmas!

A similar style advert to above, only this time its not festive!

A few years later(about 2000), and the advertising style has changed. This is one of several ads where something bad happens, so the person rushes to the Metro Centre for some retail therapy! Some things never change however, so see if you can spot the same weird picture distortion effect, which was also being used in the 1997/8 ads!

An example of how to produce an advert on the tightest budget possible. Get a slide, stick it in front of a camera, and talk over it. Ah, but I suppose it's only a little local company.

A somewhat scary sounding advert for a local festival at the Museum of Science and Engineering in Newcastle. Diggin' those 80s effects on this ad.

Advertising careers advice for young people in Tyneside.

Grotty projector slides still in use at TTTV in 92 for a local ad, just to give us that warm cosy feeling that despite advances in technology and all the corporate changes behind the scenes, some things with Tyne Tees remain the same.

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