A Chip is Just a Chip: ITV (Grampian) adverts, 28th September 1988 скачать в хорошем качестве

A Chip is Just a Chip: ITV (Grampian) adverts, 28th September 1988

The last break from Sharky's Margarine (but there's more to come) begins with that Press and Journal advert with the Northern Lights and such. Is this really news in the Grampian region? I mean, I live in a slow news region. Ours is mostly idiots falling off cliffs, flood warnings and the occasional stabbing, so I get it. Then, the Bank of Scotland announce a new account of some kind which they swear carries no risk whatsoever, but which they still can't be arsed to spend more than £50 on advertising. Well, it is the Bank of Scotland. Drop a brochure on the floor, shoot for twenty seconds, fade up a spotlight for ten, super on some telegram-looking text with annoying noise, done. Next, that bloody lager again. It is, supposedly, Scotland's favourite, made with pure Scots barley and water from Loch Latrine. I'm sorry, I'll read that again - Loch Katrine. Still just lager, though. This is the one with the hip young Hue and Cry-looking Scotsman about town and his puffy old working-class dad played by Tony Caunter, who isn't even Scottish. Then, a faintly unsettling set of friendly advice from British Gas about how to save money this winter, which these days would be called "life hacks" because we're idiots. Fairly obvious stuff, really: get loft insulation, get a coat for your boiler, don't turn your thermostat too high. It's as if they don't even want your money. There's definitely something offputting about the eerie calm and dead-eyed reassuring smile. Maybe that's the point. Maybe they're trying to put you off saving money on a visceral level They're here to help. Triumph of the Chip. It can't be easy finding ways to advertise staples like these that are new and interesting. You can end up with quickly-dated nightmares like the "most excellent" animated one from the mid-nineties featuring chips pumping iron on the beach. In 1988 they've come up with this more abstract and stately approach, with the chip as a work of art being scrutinised by an actor with a pretty thankless task - look at a chip for a full forty seconds and pull faces on cue. Harder than it sounds. Anyway, the point is that this chip is great because it's a McCain Oven Chip and has less fat, and is also kind of soft and dry and unappealing mouthfeel-wise unless you cop-out and fry it after all, although they don't say that bit. Chips! Then, Head and Shoulders with their "no, you idiots, there's no stigma, it means you don't have dandruff" shtick. The problem with this campaign was finding plausible ways for people to casually notice what brand of shampoo the other person was using. At least, it should have been a problem, but I'm not sure they actually cared. Finally, beds. Beds need advertising too. Silentnight just came out of a protracted strike (18 months, the longest action against a single company in British history). The bosses won, partly because the founder was a personal friend of the Prime Minister. Still, the beds were quite good, as demonstrated here by metaphor and Tom Baker. The unlikely hippo/duck family unit (yes, they have children) remain Silentnight's logo and mascots to this day.