@@AdventuresAndNapsAlthough, if you go skiing /snowboarding in the Alps, one of your 7 nights will be a night off for the chalet hosts so you have to make your own plans for dinner! Myself and my mate were cheaping it out boarding once, so we took 3 pot noodles each for that 'dinner out' evening! I'm afraid I could only last 2 pots but my vege friend stomached the 3! Grim! By the way, do you know any Brooks's in Canada? Lots of my family moved out there in the 50's and we've lost contact with them - they'll be hundreds of them now!
The CO2 advert got a lot of complaints because it had already been proved that households and personal vehicles were only producing about 1-2% of the UKs CO2 emissions (not the 40% claimed in the ad) and that most of the emissions came from big businesses, some of which were also making lots of money from so called 'green initiatives'. The ad was pulled due to misinformation but they never apologised for it or showed a corrected version.
@@sarkybugger5009 You are correct it is WWI I do appologise for not twigging there that I had over pressed a letter, much appreciated (No not being sarcastic lol) Point of order re the Naming, for our US friends that watch I used the name from the US, yes known as Dazzle here, Razzle Dazzle in the US (Why? blowed if I know, yanks make abortions of our words and spellings all the time, but adding a word??? Thats new!)
I don't know if it happens in canada or america but here in the UK kids tended to go around the school playground and imitate ads... the one that springs to mind most prominently is the tango orange advert where the short fat orange guy quickly goes up to someone and slaps him round the face, that used to happen at the time that ad was being shown.
Barnardo's is a children's charity that offers refuge to battered and abused children. Hence the ad showing a "typical" story of how children come to them for help and shelter in the first place. And even now, all these years later, I just want to give that poor girl a cuddle.
The reason people complained about the kfc ad was because it encourages talking with your mouth full and if tthere is one thing that offends the most it's bad manners almost anything else can be forgiven
I think it is more likely someone misunderstood it as making fun of how deaf people sound when talking, and told people about this offensive advert doing so, and it got complaints from people who never saw it. I could be wrong, but I've seen it happen with complaints about newsreaders on the BBC, where it's clear people were following a script with their complaint.
@icturner23 It very much did at the time, it had to be changed because kids at school were going around repeating the face slap from the advert and weren't holding back and some kids were really hurt ! And besides this is all subjective, I think it should be included, but that's just my opinion and it was also a hilarious advert at the time.
1:36 I work in marketing - I have no trouble at all imagining that conversation. 'tis quite normal to suggest ideas of the "Oho! Just imagine if we broadcast/published that! Haha!" variety. And just occasionally somebody will respond, "...well... I mean... why not?..." ^_~
Because it is not mentioned, a lot of people not from the UK, do not realise that the 'phones 4 u' advert was made like that because it came out during October, which of course is the Halloween season. So if you think about it, it does make sense.
Regarding the Advert vs PSA thing: in the UK, what might be called PSAs in other countries were called PIFs here (Public Information Films). PIFs were government-funded, usually taking the form of a short-film, and largely produced by small production companies contracted by the Central Office of Information (which closed around 2000, IIRC). The majority of PIFs were supplied to broadcasters free of charge to be shown whenever they wanted, which often led to PIFs being used to fill unsold advertising slots on commercial channels like ITV and Channel 4, or to pad out the schedule with content they didn't need to pay for. While the NHS "Hooked" advert is technically government-funded, they still had to pay for the advertising slot, as did Barnados and Marie Stopes so they wouldn't qualify as PIFs.
One I always struggled with as a kid was a THINK speed advert/psa where a car going down the road at 35 has to brake as a child crosses the road and then you get told that if the car was driving at 30mph it would stop NOW! But because the car is speeding obviously it doesn’t stop in time so just plows through the poor child 😂
The one which shocked me was the one for wearing seat belts in the back seat. The driver (mum), crashed into a vehicle in front and the unrestrained adult son in the back seat flies forward and crushes her to death. It's very graphic.
Yeah, the one where the pigeons take off just as the impact happens to mask the editing. My mum was certain that it was real kid they used. Our micky taking was relentless and ever since, whenever there's a stunt with a small person or child, we shout out 'get the stunt kid'... 😂👍
Haha some good suggestions. Came accross this as rewatching a sitcom that was a UK/ Canadian co production called Spatz that centred around a 1930s Canadian themed fast food restaurant in Cricklewood, London, England run by 2 Canadians and with a mostly downstairs English staff of various backgrounds and had notable actors and guest stars that was shown in 1990s here in UK, worth a watch with episodes on youtube. :)
I worked for Barnardo’s when this ad was released and had to be in big reveal meeting, lots of confused faces, it takes a few watches. Also, I’m sure people have said this, lots of these will be post watershed so after 9pm x Also I love your grow up comment 😂
That was a really powerful one. First time I've ever seen it, but I got it. Then again, I firmly believe in nurture over nature (many do not) so I'm pretty well primed to recognise what was going on.
Late to this party but U.K. advertising is generally superb, especially when compared to Canadian and American TV ads. Creative. Well done and very original. Even the last time we were there (about a year ago) I found even the mundane spots to be superbly produced. Advertising in Canada and the U.S. got very good in the 70’s when a lot of U.K. ad people came to North America to escape really high U.K. taxes. The golden period was from then to the early 2000’s. Then the beancounters took over and combined with the competition from the whole digital world, it all went down the toilet. British commercials are very adult by comparison.
Fun video! I can't wrap my head around actually calling to complain about a commercial, but I hope they watch this and think " yep, one of those calls was me!"
@@Jerrymouse79 I detested that KFC advert for encouraging bad table manners as impressionable kid s do watch them and it was made me feel sick, but to put an official complaint in would be futile, but i just stopped eating KFC from that point on and it was a my favourite fast food. I was not the only one to dislike it either at the time. ps I do have a sense of humour but the said advert was appalling and lazy.
For something a bit different, have a look at the Volkswagen ad featuring the song 'I'm a Man' It's one of many ads around a few years ago that were better than the programs on tv..
"don't speak with your mouthfulll" is a mannerism here. I assume that is why it's most complained. Especially when this advert was a DAYTIME advert specially during children's shows. (Just an offshoot: Now I think it's not allowed to advertise any junk food or takeaways during child hours/daytime.) So I am not surprised it's the most complained in GB to be honest.
Yep, this is totally the reason for all the complains. Some people are SO badly affected by seeing this it makes them feel ill so you can see why they would complain - not entirely rational but understandable.
The problem is that chewing with your mouth open is not harming anyone, just breaking a cultural norm. You can't legislate for this, since it's an opinion rather than a harm, so there's no legal basis for banning it.........even though we all know this leads to excessive masturbation, blindness and then falling into a wood chipper, aged 9.
That KFC advert is disgusting... not because where they work, but because they're singing and talking with their mouths full of food. I was a teenager when it was released and hated it then, too. Gross.
With the KFC one, I remember it because the complaints centred around encouraging children to talk and sing with their mouths full. Apparently lots of kids copied the advert and it made it very hard for parents to discourage their kids from doing it.
'The kind of violence i saw on the internet as an 8 year old doesn't even compare!' That statement nicely illustrates how you've become immune to seeing violence on the tv. I've been watching tv for 60+ years and i've seen the steady increase in tv violence; it is now shown on our screens in almost everything. We have become addicted to it.
Yes, I wasn't at all impressed by her comment on this. It's ignorant. I hope she doesn't ever have children because she won't realise she needs to do her best to protect them from watching violence. And people wonder why the human race just keeps devolving.
@@TheIceMurder2 Yep, some serious hand-wringing 'think of the children' nonsense. Teach your children the difference between reality and fiction and they'll do just fine.
You may also want to check out some commercial series. There have been a number of companies over the years who either used the same characters for their commercials, including 'the Bisto family'. Cinzano adverts featuring Leonard Rossiter and Joan Collins, Campari ads with Lorraine Chase, as well as campaigns like Hamlet cigars, which were very similar and always used Bachs Air on a g string, so much so that for many years that piece of music was referred to as the 'Hamlet Cigar music'. The best of these series was probably the John Smith beer commercials with Peter Kay. The worst two were for instant coffee and were mocked constantly through their entire run
Me too, humour that`s right up my street. And I`m vegan. Dunno how old you are or whether you`ve seen it, but it reminds me of a Monty Python sketch where a bloke had a cat that would fly across the studio and land in a bucket: of water. "By herself?" "err, no, I fling her".
oh god that kfc advert was nostalgic. it used to be on all the time and it was kinda gross, but honestly the most annoying thing about it is the song. I still get it in my head to this day
I remember all of these ads, they were all great… Today people are so weak and easily offended we can’t have good adverts anymore. Why on earth the TV companies and ofcom actually listened to the complaints I’ll never know. They should tell the complainers to use their time more wisely.
A couple of these are more PSA than actual tv adverts. Like the one about drink driving that had people being thrown around a pub which BBC showed after midnight, and the Spirit of Lonely Water, which was creepy to watch a kid during the afternoon in the 80s but that's the point to educate people. Surprised the Pot Noddle "its a bit of a slag" didn't make it onto here, or the old Tango 'happy slapping' add 😂
Great video Alanna as always. I have a friend who worked for a well known UK ad agency back in the 90's and 2000's and some of the ideas he has told me about for tv ads they had would really shock you. If it hadn't been for the good old Advertising Standards Agency ruling they had gone to far god knows what would have appeared on our Tv screens. 😲📺
@@AdventuresAndNaps you will like them, they are silly but well done. John Smith’s is sort of seen as a northern man’s man beer 😂 so they went with “no nonsense” as a marketing tag line and then those Peter Kay adverts play on that 👍
@@kJ922-h3j He wears a blue striped shirt and a brown tank top in at least one of those adverts, they came together as a set from Debenhams. I know this because I had the same set and used to wear it all the time, then saw those ads and figured it was probably time to retire the shirt 😅
Excellent to watch you react to watching CRAZIEST UK Adverts, your expressions are priceless but you are super smart, you generally work out the message before its been revealed, again the sign of super smart young, good looking, Pot Noodle. We British have a sureal sense of humor which advertisers exploit to the max. Its all a game, or is it 😂😂😂
The Hooked smoking one was at the time the smoking ban was coming in in wales and then northern ireland and england (it had come in in scotland the year before). Prior to that although it was prohibited in many workplaces, they would usually have a smoking room and there were still lots of places where smoking was allowed, pubs, restaurants, shopping centres etc so having to go outside to smoke was about to become the norm where before it wasn't.
@@peterjackson4763 I went into the smoking room at work, even though I do not smoke just keep in with the managers and keeping informed, it worked well and to rattle some who did not like me.
Can't believe people have nothing better to do than send in a complaint about an advert because it might encourage talking with you mouth full 😅 I thought the Paddy Power one was the most offensive - the Pot Noodle one made me laugh out loud
I can think of one advert I want to complain about the Reform Party Advert recently 😂 followed by the Conservative one 😂 lol as for the rest as long as they arent breaking the regulations I am not concerned. In some countries in Europe they outlaw showing toy commercials before Christmas to reduce pester power etc……… me thinks thats a good idea especially in financially difficult times for many parents……..
I do not remember the Pot Noodle ad - surreal late-night-strokey-beard idea. There is something odd here because I have watched a lot of UK TV over 50 years and I do not recall seeing any of these.
When I studied advertising we called them in Spain those adverts that don’t sell but are part of the government or charities as public campaign awareness… but again everything has a limit
You should do one on banned adverts. My all time fav banned advert was for xbox where a bany was fired from a cannon. Whilst flying through the air, the baby aged aged right through to an older grown man and ended with the man dropping into a grave
@@muls9571 lol, I did say, it was for the Xbox. The advert was back in 2002. I am not sure how many countries it was available in, but I do know it was in Britain. It is on RUclips... Just search for Xbox banned commercial and it should come straight up
It's a grey area that's occupied generations of philosophers but a PSA is _usually_ some _general_ danger (drink driving, death by dangerous frisbee-ing, flagrant carrying of a fishing rod within 500 yards of power lines etc.) whereas the Marie Stopes ad was for a _specific_ organisation and Act on CO2 was a _specific_ ad campaign (relating to energy efficiency, home insulation etc.). The smoking one though, yep, agreed - it's no frisbee (obvs.) but it _is_ still a _general_ danger.
I vaguely remember you could actually buy a pot noodle horn around the time of that advert. They also did a fork with a rotating head at one point. Also each advert had the reason for the complaints under the number of complaints. I don't know how you missed it
If you watched at the very very start of the KFC advert you would see that the complaints were about people talking with their mouths full (like children that you are trying to become nice members of society). Obviously talking with you mouth full is okay for you and your partner but really not for the rest of the people.
You appear to have missed the reason given for the KFC ad complaints. It was related to bad manners and not disparaging emergency services, so British that us colonials did not even notice.
Alanna seemed surprised a group of advertising execs in a boardroom would come up with an idea based on having "the horn". Well, most young execs in boardrooms are pretty dirty-minded these days! It's not like the old days of stuffy old men in pinstripe suits in wood-panelled rooms.😅
I'm not quite sure when it happened but there used to be an organisation called the ITCA (Independant Television Companies Association) which vetted all scripts and finished commercials shown on British TV. This was done away with in the interests of... I don't actually know. Sometimes it was a bit of a battle of wits to negotiate to get a script passed. It was a good discipline because sometimes commercials like the pot noodle one sank into rather infantile humour and most creative directors would tell you it was 'tacky' and turn it down. Looking back, they were usually right!🙃
The thing with Barnardo''s is they got caught up in the institutional responses to child abuse inquiry as like other organizations working with children they tended to cover up abuses by staff.
The reason's given did not fit the adverts and it sounds that it was the start of weaponizing certain words to the masses, hence offensive was the first response, look at the travesty nowadays.
It does come up. In 2019 there was no executive in Northern Ireland, and the UK government (Conservative) first decriminalized abortion in NI, and the follow year established a legal framework for it. (up to 12 weeks without condition, up to 24 week with certain conditions, like the rest of the UK). In 2021 there was a court case to force the provision of abortion services in NI. The NI Department of Health was given a deadline of April 2022 to do so. It failed to meet that deadline so the UK government passed regulations telling the DoH to ignore the NI Executive, followed up by a directive to do so in December 2022. Meanwhile the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children have challenged the regulations, lost, appealed to the Supreme Court, and lost again in 2023. This year there were proposals both to liberalise the law and to restrict it, including to say that no woman acting in regard to her own pregnancy could be prosecuted and to reduce the limit to 22 weeks. I believe the whole bill was cancelled because of the general election.
Until relatively recently, Pot Noodle adverts were come up with by the staff at their north Wales factory. They had a wonderfully bizarre sense of humour. This ended after they came up with a coal mining themed one, starring the staff themselves, but the south (generally non-Welsh speaking) Welsh produced several complaints claiming it was “racist” and got their fun (and ours) shut down…
The reason why the KFC ad got so many complaints is because it grossed people out watching people talk with their mouths full. Which narrowly beats having to listen to noisy eaters.
@@lynnegee6814 The commenter did not say she was American, but I wonder if there are certain traits that cross the border into Canada and it was a valid observation but a tad more direct than people are used to these days.
The Horn one perfectly illustrates how much cocaine there was in the advertising industry at the time. The Stock Exchange yuppies also used to talk about "the market having the horn". I would only complain because the ad was stoopid, not because it was offensive. I like offensive.
Clearly a lot of people who claim to feel offended don't actually know the meaning of the term. A lot of these commercials seem gross, inappropriate, needlessly violent or scary but none of them strike me as offensive.
Alanna @ 6:15 because of a grape scene. you don't get to see the young girls Crushing of her Soul, And her subsequent downfall, Barbados is a Charity set up to try to catch them as they fall,
A note on the CO2 PSA and my own little PSA rant!!.. I don't think them mentioning the heating was the best way to approach their message, and it's not the most effective PSA in general, but I think the point is valid and really important, and that is we all need to make lifestyle changes to have the best effect on climate change. Or course this needs to be in conjunction with regulations on massive multinational corporations and pressure on the worst emitting countries with developed countries leading by example while also investing in raising up developing countries, among other things. But the point is that nobody is too small to not contribute towards a better future, and I strongly agree with that message. Too many people have the attitude of "I'm just one person so I can't make any difference so what's the point in even trying", but the issue is as a collective, everyone with this attitude can make a real difference together if everyone contributes. The PSA is saying do it for your children's sake. Other examples where we all do a small thing for a larger influence on the betterment of the world: - Recycling - sure your week's worth of waste is barely anything on the grand scheme of things, but when we all recycle it makes a massive difference on CO2 emissions, depletion of natural resources, landfill sizes, etc. - Littering - you throwing one wrapper on the floor probably won't do anything negative, it barely has an effect, but can you imagine if everyone you see on the street dropped their litter how awful the environment would be? - Speeding - sure this isn't as much an environmental thing (although some speed limits in some places are there to reduce pollution) the way you drive is still a lifestyle choice. Even if you do go too fast the chances are you're still not going to harm anyone maybe in your entire life, but can you imagine if all cars went as fast as they liked how many more fatalities there would be on the road? I could go on with more examples but I'm ranting now lol. I'm just passionate about us all making small lifestyle changes to effect a greater collective purpose. Maybe that isn't being guilted into turning the heating off, but maybe it is turning the thermostat down a degree or two, using an extra blanket, not leaving the hot water running when you're not using it, etc. This isn't about taking action to allow the big companies to keep on ruining the planet way more than any of us ever could, but for us to do our part while the government and the corporations (hopefully!) do their part.
A lot of adverts here used to be close to the bone but done as to gue in cheek but now everyone gets upset over everything.i found a lot of the ads funny AF but wasn't interested in the product.i expect they would be upset over the smoking ads where it showed the lungs filling with tar now too.
Paddy Power deliberately court controversy. Outrage-bait gets shared for free online. And if it gets "banned" people share it more and the advert gets shown for free on news channels
The phones4u advert was broadcast around halloween, something that puts it into context more than just being some weird spoof of creepy ghost girl in movies I know it was said in jest but water wars could be coming to england and wales once the monopolies jack up their prices with the blessing of westminster
Re: Climate Change - and others. As someone who has had more than a little contact with 'media' and 'advertising' - ad execs consider the British public collectively has an IQ of -15 , which is a bit like the pot calling the kettle black. Re: VW - violence in films is a one off - long term and repeated/reinforced ads DO affect cognitive behaviour.
I've worked in many businesses with marketing departments. Marketing people have no common sense, intelligence or sense of what is or isn't appropriate. Despite that they are highly paid and management thinks they are wonderful. Sigh...
Phones 4U was basically a mobile phone shop that had deals with (I think) EE and Vodafone to sell phones and sign people up to those networks. At one point they also had a deal with the Dixons group to have cubicles inside certain Currys stores. They went tits up years ago because EE and Vodafone severed ties with them, and I think a lot of their stores were bought up by EE and maybe Dixons. They were similar to Carphone Warehouse or (if you are very old) Peoples Phone in many respects. Since those days the network providers have tended to prefer having their own shops.
Nothing to do with this but British adds can be oddly funny but please please do a drink taste test on buckfast, you'll love it, it's loaded with caffeine so half a bottle your buzzing but a bottle will completely wreck you, have fun
Pot Noodle's prime market is students living away from home for the first time. That ad perfectly reflects their sense of humour.
yeah fair play!
@@AdventuresAndNapsstill insane though lol
also "crude, generally tasteless or offensive" sounds like an accurate depiction of the product.
I believe that they used the phrase "you slaaaag!" at one point. They knew their audience.
@@AdventuresAndNapsAlthough, if you go skiing /snowboarding in the Alps, one of your 7 nights will be a night off for the chalet hosts so you have to make your own plans for dinner!
Myself and my mate were cheaping it out boarding once, so we took 3 pot noodles each for that 'dinner out' evening! I'm afraid I could only last 2 pots but my vege friend stomached the 3! Grim!
By the way, do you know any Brooks's in Canada? Lots of my family moved out there in the 50's and we've lost contact with them - they'll be hundreds of them now!
The CO2 advert got a lot of complaints because it had already been proved that households and personal vehicles were only producing about 1-2% of the UKs CO2 emissions (not the 40% claimed in the ad) and that most of the emissions came from big businesses, some of which were also making lots of money from so called 'green initiatives'. The ad was pulled due to misinformation but they never apologised for it or showed a corrected version.
Rishi Sunak's wife standing behind him as he gave his resignation speech reminded me of the Phones 4 U child.
"Losing a parliamentary majority will haunt you..."
omg you're exactly right 😂😂
Nah Razzle Dazzle Camo from WWII - seriously google a pic straight rip off
@@izzyroberts5518 It was just plain 'Dazzle' camouflage, and it first appeared in world war 1.
@@sarkybugger5009 You are correct it is WWI I do appologise for not twigging there that I had over pressed a letter, much appreciated (No not being sarcastic lol) Point of order re the Naming, for our US friends that watch I used the name from the US, yes known as Dazzle here, Razzle Dazzle in the US (Why? blowed if I know, yanks make abortions of our words and spellings all the time, but adding a word??? Thats new!)
I don't know if it happens in canada or america but here in the UK kids tended to go around the school playground and imitate ads... the one that springs to mind most prominently is the tango orange advert where the short fat orange guy quickly goes up to someone and slaps him round the face, that used to happen at the time that ad was being shown.
Speaking with your mouth full is akin to making tea in the microwave (and having a string hanging out of your mug) 😂
Barnardo's is a children's charity that offers refuge to battered and abused children. Hence the ad showing a "typical" story of how children come to them for help and shelter in the first place. And even now, all these years later, I just want to give that poor girl a cuddle.
That advert stuck with me back then & I knew, 16 years on, who the ad was for. Speaks volumes.
Alanna, if you want to integrate into British Society you have to know about Barnardos (and learn how to pronounce it).
Also that it can be a cycle - which if not broken...
Hurt people hurt people.
PSA ? Ah, Public Service Announcements.
The reason people complained about the kfc ad was because it encourages talking with your mouth full and if tthere is one thing that offends the most it's bad manners almost anything else can be forgiven
I think it is more likely someone misunderstood it as making fun of how deaf people sound when talking, and told people about this offensive advert doing so, and it got complaints from people who never saw it. I could be wrong, but I've seen it happen with complaints about newsreaders on the BBC, where it's clear people were following a script with their complaint.
Alannah there's one glaring omission from this list "where is the tango advert" 😂 the one that encourages the face slap 😂
It’s not missing though as it obviously didn’t get as many complaints.
@icturner23 It very much did at the time, it had to be changed because kids at school were going around repeating the face slap from the advert and weren't holding back and some kids were really hurt ! And besides this is all subjective, I think it should be included, but that's just my opinion and it was also a hilarious advert at the time.
@@icturner23 "You've been tangoed" was a hell of a thing for am month or two.
You know when you've been Tango'd lmao 🤣 😂
@@ngiallag2792 It wasn't a face slap, but over both ears, leading to damaged hearing on playgrounds up and down the country
1:36 I work in marketing - I have no trouble at all imagining that conversation. 'tis quite normal to suggest ideas of the "Oho! Just imagine if we broadcast/published that! Haha!" variety. And just occasionally somebody will respond, "...well... I mean... why not?..." ^_~
Because it is not mentioned, a lot of people not from the UK, do not realise that the 'phones 4 u' advert was made like that because it came out during October, which of course is the Halloween season. So if you think about it, it does make sense.
Regarding the Advert vs PSA thing: in the UK, what might be called PSAs in other countries were called PIFs here (Public Information Films). PIFs were government-funded, usually taking the form of a short-film, and largely produced by small production companies contracted by the Central Office of Information (which closed around 2000, IIRC). The majority of PIFs were supplied to broadcasters free of charge to be shown whenever they wanted, which often led to PIFs being used to fill unsold advertising slots on commercial channels like ITV and Channel 4, or to pad out the schedule with content they didn't need to pay for. While the NHS "Hooked" advert is technically government-funded, they still had to pay for the advertising slot, as did Barnados and Marie Stopes so they wouldn't qualify as PIFs.
Thanks for this, I always wondered why channels had a run of 5 or 6 PIF/PSA in a row around 3 am but you rarely ever saw them during the day
One I always struggled with as a kid was a THINK speed advert/psa where a car going down the road at 35 has to brake as a child crosses the road and then you get told that if the car was driving at 30mph it would stop NOW! But because the car is speeding obviously it doesn’t stop in time so just plows through the poor child 😂
The one which shocked me was the one for wearing seat belts in the back seat. The driver (mum), crashed into a vehicle in front and the unrestrained adult son in the back seat flies forward and crushes her to death. It's very graphic.
Yeah, the one where the pigeons take off just as the impact happens to mask the editing. My mum was certain that it was real kid they used. Our micky taking was relentless and ever since, whenever there's a stunt with a small person or child, we shout out 'get the stunt kid'... 😂👍
Haha some good suggestions. Came accross this as rewatching a sitcom that was a UK/ Canadian co production called Spatz that centred around a 1930s Canadian themed fast food restaurant in Cricklewood, London, England run by 2 Canadians and with a mostly downstairs English staff of various backgrounds and had notable actors and guest stars that was shown in 1990s here in UK, worth a watch with episodes on youtube. :)
I worked for Barnardo’s when this ad was released and had to be in big reveal meeting, lots of confused faces, it takes a few watches. Also, I’m sure people have said this, lots of these will be post watershed so after 9pm x
Also I love your grow up comment 😂
That was a really powerful one. First time I've ever seen it, but I got it. Then again, I firmly believe in nurture over nature (many do not) so I'm pretty well primed to recognise what was going on.
I worked for Phones 4u around the time of the ghost girl ad, and it was about the only time I could say I was proud to work for them!
Late to this party but U.K. advertising is generally superb, especially when compared to Canadian and American TV ads. Creative. Well done and very original. Even the last time we were there (about a year ago) I found even the mundane spots to be superbly produced. Advertising in Canada and the U.S. got very good in the 70’s when a lot of U.K. ad people came to North America to escape really high U.K. taxes. The golden period was from then to the early 2000’s. Then the beancounters took over and combined with the competition from the whole digital world, it all went down the toilet. British commercials are very adult by comparison.
Fun video! I can't wrap my head around actually calling to complain about a commercial, but I hope they watch this and think " yep, one of those calls was me!"
😂
Well look at the comments section as there is at least one guy bragging that he complained about the KFC ad. What a loser
@@Jerrymouse79 I detested that KFC advert for encouraging bad table manners as impressionable kid s do watch them and it was made me feel sick, but to put an official complaint in would be futile, but i just stopped eating KFC from that point on and it was a my favourite fast food. I was not the only one to dislike it either at the time. ps I do have a sense of humour but the said advert was appalling and lazy.
For something a bit different, have a look at the Volkswagen ad featuring the song 'I'm a Man' It's one of many ads around a few years ago that were better than the programs on tv..
Loved seeing the Paddy Power advert again.
"don't speak with your mouthfulll" is a mannerism here. I assume that is why it's most complained. Especially when this advert was a DAYTIME advert specially during children's shows. (Just an offshoot: Now I think it's not allowed to advertise any junk food or takeaways during child hours/daytime.) So I am not surprised it's the most complained in GB to be honest.
Yes the complaints were about people speaking with their mouthful or eating with their mouth open. Capital offence..
Yep, this is totally the reason for all the complains. Some people are SO badly affected by seeing this it makes them feel ill so you can see why they would complain - not entirely rational but understandable.
The problem is that chewing with your mouth open is not harming anyone, just breaking a cultural norm. You can't legislate for this, since it's an opinion rather than a harm, so there's no legal basis for banning it.........even though we all know this leads to excessive masturbation, blindness and then falling into a wood chipper, aged 9.
That KFC advert is disgusting... not because where they work, but because they're singing and talking with their mouths full of food.
I was a teenager when it was released and hated it then, too.
Gross.
Oh dear...
Wait till you see the public info films about playing in electrical sub stations or railway lines.
With the KFC one, I remember it because the complaints centred around encouraging children to talk and sing with their mouths full. Apparently lots of kids copied the advert and it made it very hard for parents to discourage their kids from doing it.
The first lady in the KFC advert became a loved character on Coronation Street. She's only just left the show too!
'The kind of violence i saw on the internet as an 8 year old doesn't even compare!' That statement nicely illustrates how you've become immune to seeing violence on the tv. I've been watching tv for 60+ years and i've seen the steady increase in tv violence; it is now shown on our screens in almost everything. We have become addicted to it.
Not really addicted, but numbed to it.
Yes, I wasn't at all impressed by her comment on this. It's ignorant. I hope she doesn't ever have children because she won't realise she needs to do her best to protect them from watching violence. And people wonder why the human race just keeps devolving.
All three of you guys are such Karens holy crap. Tom and Jerry had more violence than that and that's from the 1950s. 🙄🤦🏾♂️
@@TheIceMurder2 Yep, some serious hand-wringing 'think of the children' nonsense. Teach your children the difference between reality and fiction and they'll do just fine.
You may also want to check out some commercial series. There have been a number of companies over the years who either used the same characters for their commercials, including 'the Bisto family'. Cinzano adverts featuring Leonard Rossiter and Joan Collins, Campari ads with Lorraine Chase, as well as campaigns like Hamlet cigars, which were very similar and always used Bachs Air on a g string, so much so that for many years that piece of music was referred to as the 'Hamlet Cigar music'.
The best of these series was probably the John Smith beer commercials with Peter Kay. The worst two were for instant coffee and were mocked constantly through their entire run
I still think my favourite is the uncensored version of the Volkswagen - dont forget its a diesel advert
Take that back, just noticed you've already done that Bucky test, silly me
As for that Paddy Power one inciting cruelty to animals, anybody know if it was watched by Kurt Zouma? 🤣🤣🤣
I don't think I've seen any of those ads before... The Paddy Power one made me chuckle though.
Me too, humour that`s right up my street. And I`m vegan.
Dunno how old you are or whether you`ve seen it, but it reminds me of a Monty Python sketch where a bloke had a cat that would fly across the studio and land in a bucket: of water.
"By herself?"
"err, no, I fling her".
oh god that kfc advert was nostalgic. it used to be on all the time and it was kinda gross, but honestly the most annoying thing about it is the song. I still get it in my head to this day
The complaints were worse than the ad 😂
The best british ad is mr kipling directed a nativity called Delivery i think
I remember all of these ads, they were all great… Today people are so weak and easily offended we can’t have good adverts anymore. Why on earth the TV companies and ofcom actually listened to the complaints I’ll never know. They should tell the complainers to use their time more wisely.
Missed the best one, Google have a drink have a drive UK advert - that was a shocker.
A couple of these are more PSA than actual tv adverts.
Like the one about drink driving that had people being thrown around a pub which BBC showed after midnight, and the Spirit of Lonely Water, which was creepy to watch a kid during the afternoon in the 80s but that's the point to educate people.
Surprised the Pot Noddle "its a bit of a slag" didn't make it onto here, or the old Tango 'happy slapping' add 😂
*Pot Noodle, it's a slag of a snack.*
I surmise the tango adverts were have been overplayed in the the the last couple of months on youtube reactions, hence the omission now.
@@DavidLee-yu7yz The slap replays or the exploding granny one?
Great video Alanna as always. I have a friend who worked for a well known UK ad agency back in the 90's and 2000's and some of the ideas he has told me about for tv ads they had would really shock you. If it hadn't been for the good old Advertising Standards Agency ruling they had gone to far god knows what would have appeared on our Tv screens. 😲📺
Ahh I bet they had some fun stories! lol
@@AdventuresAndNaps Like you wouldn't believe 😄😄😄
You should watch the Peter Kay Beer (John Smiths) Adverts.
I remember seeing the dog one when I was a kid and it TRAUMATISED me 😂 Used to hide behind a cushion when it came on 😂😂
Have you seen the Peter Kay John Smith’s “no nonsense” beer adverts? Definitely worth reacting to
No, I haven't, thanks for the idea!
@@AdventuresAndNaps you will like them, they are silly but well done. John Smith’s is sort of seen as a northern man’s man beer 😂 so they went with “no nonsense” as a marketing tag line and then those Peter Kay adverts play on that 👍
@@kJ922-h3j He wears a blue striped shirt and a brown tank top in at least one of those adverts, they came together as a set from Debenhams. I know this because I had the same set and used to wear it all the time, then saw those ads and figured it was probably time to retire the shirt 😅
The diving one is my absolute favourite, especially as we've just seen the Olympics 2024.
@@stephenphillip5656 And Tom Daley just announced his retirement...
Could have sworn I walked past you in 'RTW' the other day, but being British, I didn't say hi. Keep up the great work.
I'm having a rough day. This is just the sort of video I needed today. I'm sending peaceful vibes to all of you!
Sorry to hear that pal, hope you're doing OK 🙏🏻
I appreciate that. Your kindness is part of why we all love your channel!
Wow, you're back from Canada! Welcome back! 😊
She was in Portugal, our girl gets around (I mean that in a nice way 🙂)
@@suttoncoldfield9318 It is a big block! Only joking 😂😂
Am surprised that Scampi Fries’ Sweet Smell of Success didn’t make the list…
jeez, u wanna go back a bit further, some of the stuff from 70s & 80s is mindblowing 🤣🤣
Excellent to watch you react to watching CRAZIEST UK Adverts, your expressions are priceless but you are super smart, you generally work out the message before its been revealed, again the sign of super smart young, good looking, Pot Noodle. We British have a sureal sense of humor which advertisers exploit to the max. Its all a game, or is it 😂😂😂
The Hooked smoking one was at the time the smoking ban was coming in in wales and then northern ireland and england (it had come in in scotland the year before). Prior to that although it was prohibited in many workplaces, they would usually have a smoking room and there were still lots of places where smoking was allowed, pubs, restaurants, shopping centres etc so having to go outside to smoke was about to become the norm where before it wasn't.
The smoking room at work was near my desk. Some people who did not smoke would go in to chat to managers whilst they were relaxing.
Remember when Primary School teachers smoked in the classroom? I do....
@@peterjackson4763 I went into the smoking room at work, even though I do not smoke just keep in with the managers and keeping informed, it worked well and to rattle some who did not like me.
Having watched loads of the advert compilations from all over Europe, half of these seem very tame now.
Can't believe people have nothing better to do than send in a complaint about an advert because it might encourage talking with you mouth full 😅
I thought the Paddy Power one was the most offensive - the Pot Noodle one made me laugh out loud
I can think of one advert I want to complain about the Reform Party Advert recently 😂 followed by the Conservative one 😂 lol as for the rest as long as they arent breaking the regulations I am not concerned. In some countries in Europe they outlaw showing toy commercials before Christmas to reduce pester power etc……… me thinks thats a good idea especially in financially difficult times for many parents……..
I believe the Phones 4U commercial was aired around Halloween time, thus the horror and haunting themes.
I do not remember the Pot Noodle ad - surreal late-night-strokey-beard idea. There is something odd here because I have watched a lot of UK TV over 50 years and I do not recall seeing any of these.
When I studied advertising we called them in Spain those adverts that don’t sell but are part of the government or charities as public campaign awareness… but again everything has a limit
You should do one on banned adverts. My all time fav banned advert was for xbox where a bany was fired from a cannon. Whilst flying through the air, the baby aged aged right through to an older grown man and ended with the man dropping into a grave
What was that advertising? 😂
@@muls9571 lol, I did say, it was for the Xbox. The advert was back in 2002. I am not sure how many countries it was available in, but I do know it was in Britain. It is on RUclips... Just search for Xbox banned commercial and it should come straight up
I love that you said Init at the end of your video lol
I thought the dog's breath ad was the most repulsive. The Pot Noodles was simply inappropriate and tasteless (just like Pot Noodles.)
It's a grey area that's occupied generations of philosophers but a PSA is _usually_ some _general_ danger (drink driving, death by dangerous frisbee-ing, flagrant carrying of a fishing rod within 500 yards of power lines etc.) whereas the Marie Stopes ad was for a _specific_ organisation and Act on CO2 was a _specific_ ad campaign (relating to energy efficiency, home insulation etc.).
The smoking one though, yep, agreed - it's no frisbee (obvs.) but it _is_ still a _general_ danger.
I vaguely remember you could actually buy a pot noodle horn around the time of that advert. They also did a fork with a rotating head at one point. Also each advert had the reason for the complaints under the number of complaints. I don't know how you missed it
She addressed this issue at the end of the video by saying she thought using offensive was taking the word out of context, and i agree.
If you watched at the very very start of the KFC advert you would see that the complaints were about people talking with their mouths full (like children that you are trying to become nice members of society). Obviously talking with you mouth full is okay for you and your partner but really not for the rest of the people.
The last one was more to do with eating with your mouth open, then talking with your mouth full. That one just went against all my sensibilities.
I was one of the people who complained about it to the ASA.
Yeah it was kinda grotesque…How that sells KFC I can’t fathom.
I nearly skipped the coffee shout-outs, but the last segment made me glad i didn't
You appear to have missed the reason given for the KFC ad complaints. It was related to bad manners and not disparaging emergency services, so British that us colonials did not even notice.
I think the Pot Noodle marketing executives must have been smoking pot for that one.
Alanna seemed surprised a group of advertising execs in a boardroom would come up with an idea based on having "the horn". Well, most young execs in boardrooms are pretty dirty-minded these days! It's not like the old days of stuffy old men in pinstripe suits in wood-panelled rooms.😅
I think it was "bring your teenage sons to work day"
Not Poodle..
@@coldwhite4240 Do you think stuffy old men in wood-panelled rooms aren't the biggest group of perverts ever to walk the planet?
The people at the ad agency for that Pot Noodle advert must’ve had more lines than Gordon Ramsay’s forehead.
I'm not quite sure when it happened but there used to be an organisation called the ITCA (Independant Television Companies Association) which vetted all scripts and finished commercials shown on British TV. This was done away with in the interests of... I don't actually know. Sometimes it was a bit of a battle of wits to negotiate to get a script passed. It was a good discipline because sometimes commercials like the pot noodle one sank into rather infantile humour and most creative directors would tell you it was 'tacky' and turn it down. Looking back, they were usually right!🙃
The thing with Barnardo''s is they got caught up in the institutional responses to child abuse inquiry as like other organizations working with children they tended to cover up abuses by staff.
Maybe if you actually read the reasons for the complaints which are listed before the ads, you'd understand better.
Yes, it's not all about being offended.
The reason's given did not fit the adverts and it sounds that it was the start of weaponizing certain words to the masses, hence offensive was the first response, look at the travesty nowadays.
12:00 I don’t know really cause we really aren’t as anti abortion here as the US for example, it actually never comes up politically or anything
It does come up. In 2019 there was no executive in Northern Ireland, and the UK government (Conservative) first decriminalized abortion in NI, and the follow year established a legal framework for it. (up to 12 weeks without condition, up to 24 week with certain conditions, like the rest of the UK). In 2021 there was a court case to force the provision of abortion services in NI. The NI Department of Health was given a deadline of April 2022 to do so. It failed to meet that deadline so the UK government passed regulations telling the DoH to ignore the NI Executive, followed up by a directive to do so in December 2022. Meanwhile the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children have challenged the regulations, lost, appealed to the Supreme Court, and lost again in 2023.
This year there were proposals both to liberalise the law and to restrict it, including to say that no woman acting in regard to her own pregnancy could be prosecuted and to reduce the limit to 22 weeks. I believe the whole bill was cancelled because of the general election.
Until relatively recently, Pot Noodle adverts were come up with by the staff at their north Wales factory. They had a wonderfully bizarre sense of humour.
This ended after they came up with a coal mining themed one, starring the staff themselves, but the south (generally non-Welsh speaking) Welsh produced several complaints claiming it was “racist” and got their fun (and ours) shut down…
The "Marie Stopes" complaint was from anti-abotionists saying it promoted abortions.
The reason why the KFC ad got so many complaints is because it grossed people out watching people talk with their mouths full. Which narrowly beats having to listen to noisy eaters.
Or watch Americans trying to use cutlery.
This obviously went right over her head. I wonder what her eating habits are like...
@@letsrock1729 Well she's not American, for a start.
No need to be snarky.
@@lynnegee6814 I didn't say she was American. You've replied to the wrong person.
@@lynnegee6814 The commenter did not say she was American, but I wonder if there are certain traits that cross the border into Canada and it was a valid observation but a tad more direct than people are used to these days.
The Horn one perfectly illustrates how much cocaine there was in the advertising industry at the time. The Stock Exchange yuppies also used to talk about "the market having the horn". I would only complain because the ad was stoopid, not because it was offensive. I like offensive.
Each clip told you what the complaints were about at the start
Clearly a lot of people who claim to feel offended don't actually know the meaning of the term. A lot of these commercials seem gross, inappropriate, needlessly violent or scary but none of them strike me as offensive.
The start of weaponizing words and taking them out of context.
Alanna @ 6:15 because of a grape scene. you don't get to see the young girls Crushing of her Soul, And her subsequent downfall, Barbados is a Charity set up to try to catch them as they fall,
lol I loved this! Got a good laugh :)
thank you! ☺️
Some of the ads from the1980s were FUNNY - eg the Audi ad, the Heinneken ads (parodies of art-films).
The last ad, people were bothered about them speaking with their mouths full! Brits like etiquette and would not like that for that reason! x
Glad you are back from Portugal
I think a few of these ads were only shown post watershed.
Many of these adverts only surprise you the first time you see them and after that you really don’t pay much attention to them.
Welcome to the world of strange British adverts, and there's plenty more where these came from 😂
A note on the CO2 PSA and my own little PSA rant!!.. I don't think them mentioning the heating was the best way to approach their message, and it's not the most effective PSA in general, but I think the point is valid and really important, and that is we all need to make lifestyle changes to have the best effect on climate change. Or course this needs to be in conjunction with regulations on massive multinational corporations and pressure on the worst emitting countries with developed countries leading by example while also investing in raising up developing countries, among other things.
But the point is that nobody is too small to not contribute towards a better future, and I strongly agree with that message. Too many people have the attitude of "I'm just one person so I can't make any difference so what's the point in even trying", but the issue is as a collective, everyone with this attitude can make a real difference together if everyone contributes. The PSA is saying do it for your children's sake.
Other examples where we all do a small thing for a larger influence on the betterment of the world:
- Recycling - sure your week's worth of waste is barely anything on the grand scheme of things, but when we all recycle it makes a massive difference on CO2 emissions, depletion of natural resources, landfill sizes, etc.
- Littering - you throwing one wrapper on the floor probably won't do anything negative, it barely has an effect, but can you imagine if everyone you see on the street dropped their litter how awful the environment would be?
- Speeding - sure this isn't as much an environmental thing (although some speed limits in some places are there to reduce pollution) the way you drive is still a lifestyle choice. Even if you do go too fast the chances are you're still not going to harm anyone maybe in your entire life, but can you imagine if all cars went as fast as they liked how many more fatalities there would be on the road?
I could go on with more examples but I'm ranting now lol. I'm just passionate about us all making small lifestyle changes to effect a greater collective purpose. Maybe that isn't being guilted into turning the heating off, but maybe it is turning the thermostat down a degree or two, using an extra blanket, not leaving the hot water running when you're not using it, etc. This isn't about taking action to allow the big companies to keep on ruining the planet way more than any of us ever could, but for us to do our part while the government and the corporations (hopefully!) do their part.
Thank you.
That VW one was just a fight scene from The Matrix
The expression on Alannah's face at that slap......priceless!
The act on c02 ad got banned from posters
A lot of adverts here used to be close to the bone but done as to gue in cheek but now everyone gets upset over everything.i found a lot of the ads funny AF but wasn't interested in the product.i expect they would be upset over the smoking ads where it showed the lungs filling with tar now too.
The ghost advert must have come out at hallowe’en.
Paddy Power deliberately court controversy. Outrage-bait gets shared for free online. And if it gets "banned" people share it more and the advert gets shown for free on news channels
The phones4u advert was broadcast around halloween, something that puts it into context more than just being some weird spoof of creepy ghost girl in movies
I know it was said in jest but water wars could be coming to england and wales once the monopolies jack up their prices with the blessing of westminster
Your reaction to the dog breath advert killed me 🤣
I,m absolutely lovin it. Brings back memories absolutely hilarious🤣🤣🤣😎🇬🇧
Re: Climate Change - and others. As someone who has had more than a little contact with 'media' and 'advertising' - ad execs consider the British public collectively has an IQ of -15 , which is a bit like the pot calling the kettle black. Re: VW - violence in films is a one off - long term and repeated/reinforced ads DO affect cognitive behaviour.
Lets not forget at one point you could even get a pot noodle horn from buying packs 😂
Unbelievably, the complaints were because they were talking with their mouths full
meanwhile in Canada.... whole series of Molson adds making flagrant beaver jokes and everyone just laughs :D I want to move back :P
I've worked in many businesses with marketing departments. Marketing people have no common sense, intelligence or sense of what is or isn't appropriate. Despite that they are highly paid and management thinks they are wonderful.
Sigh...
I've never seen any of these adverts.
They were brilliant. Though the PSA was a shocker
Phones 4U was basically a mobile phone shop that had deals with (I think) EE and Vodafone to sell phones and sign people up to those networks. At one point they also had a deal with the Dixons group to have cubicles inside certain Currys stores.
They went tits up years ago because EE and Vodafone severed ties with them, and I think a lot of their stores were bought up by EE and maybe Dixons. They were similar to Carphone Warehouse or (if you are very old) Peoples Phone in many respects. Since those days the network providers have tended to prefer having their own shops.
Nothing to do with this but British adds can be oddly funny but please please do a drink taste test on buckfast, you'll love it, it's loaded with caffeine so half a bottle your buzzing but a bottle will completely wreck you, have fun