10 Funniest UK ads of the 70s
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- Опубликовано: 24 сен 2021
- There aren't many funny ads these days - but there were back in the 70s. Here are 10 from the UK, where agencies CDP and BMP held sway. Dates are a bit vague:
1. PG Tips 'Mr Shifter' - Davidson Pearce, 1971
2. Benson & Hedges Small Cigars 'Istanbul' - CDP, 1972
3. Nescafe Fine Blend 'Tap' - Don't know the agency, 1974
4. Smash 'Martians' - BMP, 1974
5. Parker Pens "Finishing School' - CDP, 1976
6. Heineken 'Caesar Water-skiing' - CDP, 1978
7. John Smith's Bitter 'Hikers' - BMP, 1978
8. Dry Cane 'Ashtray' - BMP, 1978
9. Cinzano 'Tiger' - CDP, 1979
10. Campari 'Luton Airport' - JWT, 1979
Interesting that 7 of them are for drinks of one sort or another.
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Those were the days when they said the adverts were better than the programmes. Nowadays they put you off watching television.
As do the programmes...
How true!!
You are correct Sir.
They're allowed as much as 20 mins of ads in every hour now. Urghhh.
Not allowed to say why.
Back in the days when adverts where as good as the TV programs!
And Tetly had a brewery in Leeds! Goodness knows if and where it is brewed now!!!
They were often better than the TV programmes.
Now, both the programmes and adverts are equally appalling.
@@Hannari-xt6nr oh bore off.
If not better.
You have to be British and of a 'certain age' to appreciate most of these ads. Remembering the actors and the type of characters they played. The Campari ad made Lorraine Chase into a national treasure. 😅😅
Lorraine Chase isn't a national treasure
we used to get a few of these in new zealand{when there weren't enough businesses advertising on the tele TVNZ ould insert some scots/ irish/ english adverts to make up the time.}
I particularly remember the PG tips one.
I remember her from Blankety Blank when I was a kid.
@susanpilling8849 definately
@@jonobrien1339 Lorraine Chase I think
"Dad, do you know the piano's on my foot?"
"You hum it son, I'll play it".
This quote was constant in my school playground XD
The important thing is I remember the ads and the product names after 50 years. The ad agencies of the time were doing something right !
That's a very good point!
“Luton Airport!” 3 channels, 1 with adverts. Next day at school everyone knew the taglines from the adverts. And everyone walked to school!
A golden age before "tattOOOHS, trans madness, anti-social media...
To this day the words "Luton Airport" still associated with this advert
♥️ Lorraine Chase!
@@winsomehaxI was born in Luton , now live in Australia. Brought a smile to my face.
@@youngbess1 Oh dear. You wouldn't recognise Luton now. But I remember it from the 60s and 70s when it was much nicer.
I remember these! Pairing Leonard Rossiter with Joan Collins was a stroke of genius!
Joan Collins has said that they tried to turn the unlikely pairing into a film but couldn't find a script that explained how they came to be together. Pity.
@@Adfanatico Not that Frances de la Tour wasn't perfect, but imagine Rising Damp with Joan Collins!
@@Tishanfas Hilarious!! Alternatively, Leonard Rossiter in 'Dynasty'.
@@Adfanatico 🤣🤣🤣
2:59 Ah, Penelope Keith.
A genuine National Treasure. ❤️💐
Love her.
I love the fact that the pupil's name was Felicity
@@lanslater to the lower orders obviously LOL
@@TishanfasI wonder if this was before or after The Good Life.
Or To the Manor Born.
Sadly ALL of today's ads are humour & character free !
Yes indeed. With so many things banned from advertising all we seem to get are ads about life insurance and funeral plans. Depressing
There just ticking boxes these days.
@@sh-ig9fm They're...
Just like modern life itself.
Not a very PC comment.😂
The rowers on the ship being exhausted after taking Ceaser water skiing is brilliant
Spike Milligan inspired.
Processed potatoes, cigars, tea, weak beer and instant coffee and cheap liquor, how did we make it out of that decade?
Happily, I think, as we didn't know anything else ! Now of course the products all seem so basic and unsophisticated and the voiceovers very staid but I have fond memories of that simpler time. Natural of course, it was my childhood!
Well I'm Irish born and bread and I (fondly) recall all of these ads, except for the Yorkshire one, it must have been shown on a station we didn't get here. These ads featured people who were household names at the time: George Cole, Arthur Mullard, Penelope Keith, Leonard Rossiter, Joan Colins and Lorraine Chase. As a kid I always loved the series of Smash Martians and PG Tips Chimp ads also the various ways that Joan got soaked by Leonard. Great memories.
PG Tips ♥we used to get a few of these in new zealand{when there weren't enough businesses advertising on the tele TVNZ would insert some scots/ irish/ english adverts to make up the time.}
I particularly remember the PG tips one.
"Bred"- so easy to make typos. As to the ads- see my comment.
@@SiliconBong Same .. Loved the pg tips one when in NZ 😂
There was a brilliant Irish ad of the 70s for Baxter's Soups. A chicken fails to answer the question, what is 2 plus 2? "At Baxter's we choose only the thickest chickens..."
@@kevinwhelan9607 Ha ha, I think that was autocorrect - well I hope it was 🤣
Always remember the adverts were better than tv programmes
That's exactly what l used to say 😂
The good old days, which have gone for ever, but not forgotten.
You're damn right
@@deemdoubleu Thank you.
Somebody asked me recently, was it really better in the old days? And I wished I didn't have to say yup. It was.
@@Adfanatico It has it's faults, but I still believe it was better than now.
@@Adfanatico It depends. Life was simple and straightforward. The music, films, TV programs and adverts were much better, but if you were poor, life was a struggle especially for the working class. Nowadays, there are so any opportunities and information is at our disposal. You're only a few clicks away. Social media is exhausting, but it's how you manage it. I like the fact you can access retro programs and escape from modern life for a few minutes or more.
There was a few adverts there i reeled off word for word lol x
Loved all the Benson & Hedges ads, and the PG chimps. "More Tea, Mr Shifter?"
Adverts then told a little story and were very memorable in a good way. Notice all the well known actors who did them
“Stop, stop, we’re going round in circles . . “ 😂😂😂 I died.
A camp Caesar too 🤣
Hilarious ad 🤣
They've just returned from taking Caesar water skiing. Fantastic. :))
The ads are longer too which gives them more time to develop a story. These ads are very clever and entertaining.
George Cole makes me laugh…..whatever he does he always look furtive and guilty !!! 😊
He was a brilliant actor. See him in this Olympus ad with David Bailey: ruclips.net/video/ckSm10LZauA/видео.html
@@Adfanatico : “Are you still with The Tremoloes “ 😂😂😂😂….. Brilliant. Thanks.
No Luton Airport, one of those tag lines forever burnt into my memory along with go get em floyd and a finger of fudge is just enough to give your kids a treat. 😁
I’m America and the first one with the chimpanzee for PG Tips I thought was hilarious!
You need to look up, Tour de France
That’s another classic
There were lots of them.
I tell you, the ads were brilliant. But the US also produced some brilliant ads back in the day.
@@Hannari-xt6nrI agree with you but stop your nastiness against "white Brits" do something for the the tea picker ladies who have lost their farms and homes instead .......
@@Hannari-xt6nr my god, what is wrong with you, you did not have to watch any of this, as I can see you are easily triggered, I suggest you go and find a safe space, along with your safety blanket and have good cry. You are what is wrong in todays society.
Posting the same comment three times is just embarrassing yourself.
You're just assuming those monkeys were badly treated when all that will have happened is that they were filmed playing with those props and were painstakingly edited afterwards.
As for the comment about the lady carrying the tea. What point are you trying to make with that?
The signature jingle for the Cadbury's Smash ads 'For mash get Smash' apparently made the composer Cliff Adams a fortune. Adams was famous for producing and arranging the songs for the Radio 2 programme 'Sing Something Simple' and came up with the notes for the tag line for Cadbury's ad agency . He supposedly got a royalty every time the ads were aired and as we know they went on for years.
Well done to him
Sing something simple-loved that programme! Sunday bathtime!
@@fionaterry-chandler8056 unfortunately my memories of that programme are not so favourable. I went to boarding school and my old man would listen to it as he was dropping me off at school on a Sunday evening!
Oh, my! I hated that program on a Sunday evening before the Archers.
Loved it. Sunday late afternoon, all of us doing jigsaw puzzles and singing along.
The "Smash" adverts caused mass hysteria in 70s England!
Smash, one of the worst products ever but some of the best adverts ever!
Back in the day when you could ask for a coffee and not have someone give you a word salad about the different types 😊
Black or white or tea.
Ye, and it was total instant crap.
I remember asking in a cafe if the coffee was fresh or instant, I was told to f@ck off and asked to leave. The irony of it was a few yrs later they went bankrupt and the unit is now a Costa.
Nothing wrong with being given a choice and if all you want is a plain coffee just ask for a 'white coffee' you still can!
And you'd get a tasteless cup of hot milky water
I disagree because there has always been 'word salad' attached to coffee, in Britain at any rate. Cafés were an incredibly important place for the youth of Britain after the second world war. The Allies may have won WW2 but Britain was devastated and the new youth culture coming through the ranks in the 50's, on the back of 'American Rockabilly', then the 60's with the help of 'British Beat' they all congregated in Coffee shops and Milk Bars. The Drink of choice was coffee and all its varieties. It wasn't until continual grinding poverty of the 70's & early 80's that no one could afford coffee out anymore, or indeed wanted it as youth culture (which I was very much part of) had moved on to the 'discotheque' and pre disco pub. With the mass closure of Milk Bars and Italian Coffee shops and the Wimpy style cafe taking over through the 1970's. It's then that coffee became this awful 'bland milky, made with cheap 'chicory' infused instant dust for the quick stop off in a Wimpy bar while you were out shopping'. This then gave Brits the impression that coffee was dreadful, which it truly was and it stayed on the back burner until money became more abundant and we could afford a couple of quid for a drink!
So, if your getting thin weak milky coffee, then my advise would be change you café. As in most places a white coffee, or coffee with milk usually means a splash of or topped off with milk. Here in the UK back in the 1980's if you asked for a milky coffee in a café what you got was a coffee made with hot milk and a 'big beautiful spoonful of instant Nescafé' mixed into the milk. A kind of throw back to 50's & 60's British Milk Bars and Italian Coffee shops that every town had a number of as alcohol use was very strictly controlled and only served in licenced bars.
So, a 'milky coffee' was a 70's & 80's cheap ass British version of the French Café Au Láit. As.my generation (late Boomer of '62) had lost the taste for either filter/drip coffee, or an espresso based drink all we knew was instant, and Nescafé was the first and best (objective). However, the second you experienced a Rombouts individual mini one cup filter drink the game was over for instant coffee, well it was for me at any rate! The very first time I had a cup of Rombouts drip coffee was in the summer of 1978 in Burkett's bakery cafe in Penrith. I had just left school and had my first job, so I had money of my own for the first time, so a Rombouts drip coffee was a treat on a weekend, also you got a little caramelised 'Biscoff' biscuit on the side, heaven 😎
So, good coffee, or at least a beverage of an improved quality over instant is part of my journey, a small part but still part of my narrative. Having and enjoying a good coffee has been part of my life now for over 50 yrs and this will continue until the day I take my last breath.
Yikes. ‘Fine blend’ instant coffee. Had to make it for the parents. Absolutely revolting
Watching these ads and the wonderful actors and actresses in them has got me a bit teary eyed 😢
Thanks for the upload!
Bring back the smash adverts so cool.
I loved the SMASH adverts
@@enkisdaughter4795 such fun, lets hope one day they may return kind regards.
My favourites 😅. Is "Smash" still a current product anywhere, I wonder?
@@lynnegee6814 you need adverts like this again. They were great.
@@lynnegee6814 Smash is currently still in production in Leeds, but its no longer a Cadbury`s brand
So many stars. Penelope Keith, Joan Collins, Lorraine Chase, Arfur Daley...gosh. Back then we used to change channels to watch the adverts....
"Dad....Do you know the piannas on my foot?" "You umm it son, an I'll play it' 😂😂😂😂
Well thank you very much, Jerry!! 😂
Yes I thought Margo Leadbetter too.
Fred Gee aka Freddie Feast from Corrie in John Smith's. Plus Margo Ledbetter selling pens!
Bloody expensive pens as well. It was always either a Parker or a Papermate, which was more affordable.
And even they were usually a gift from your nan.
I remember Smash
Gawd it was awful stuff, but as a kid i didn't know any better 😂
Really good old adverts. Thanks for uploading.
Many of the adverts are better than todays tv.😉🤣🤣🤣
Was only thinking about Luton Airport ad as I ploughed up the M1 recently 🥰
These were the days when you did not put the kettle on or go for a pee when the ads came on. You sat down and enjoyed them! No wonder making adverts was such a glamorous job, they continued to outdo each other with the best scripts, actors and concepts. They even advertised stuff that people liked!
Maybe we’re going through a sort of dark period of Cromwellian misery, awaiting restoration comedy just around the corner. I bloody hope so.
That English sarcastic humor is great
"Don't forget the fruit gums, Mum". One of my favourites from back then.
Imagine going into a cafe and just asking for a coffee now? Cappuccino, latte, flat white, Americano, espresso….?
You're right, it's a rigmarole!
Yes, I'm sure that in 50 years people will be talking about the great adverts of today, funeral plans, over 50's life insurance, burglar alarms.
… nd mixed race families?
Bloody hell I feel old 😭🤣🤣 But these were good! Simple to tell and understand what they were selling, so much better 😊
Eh? Adverts are hardly complicated today
Certainly remember the Penelope Keith advert, saw in glorious b&w 😜
For my family it was all black and white 'til the mid 80's when my dad could afford a colour telly box from radio rentals, still had to go for a walk to change channel or volume though but no more replacing blown valves thankfully. 🤣😂👍
Miss, is pence spelt with an S or a C?
I don’t think you'll ever have to worry about that.
Classic.
£10 for a pen was a lot of money. Definitely a luxury item.
@@fridayschild Indeed it was. One wanted to say Ya darling! 🤣🤣
Classics all! Don't remember a young Linda Bellingham in the Dry Cane advertisement; that was a bonus.
The amazing thing is, I was born in 1974, and I remember most of these adverts... which shows they were shown well into the 80s!
They also pop up regularly on Channel 5 TV shows about 'Best Ads Ever' so if you feel you've seen some of these ads recently, you probably have!
The AA ad. From around 82/83 where the geezer is calling them because he lost car and he asks his son where he buried it and the kid say "it's in the sand", camera opens up to a 3 mile stretch of beach.
The. Carling advert of the two guys avoiding stampeding elephants on top of a african hut with the classic remark 'they're going to charge oh i thought they were on the house whilst consuming two pints of said lager.
Oh how life was so much better then.
It wasn't
It was shite. Petrol shortages. 3 day weeks. Rubbish piling up in the streets. Terrible food. Everyone smoking.
You were younger, that was all.
IGNORANCE was bliss
@@Cheradanine exactly. and sexism and racism were too often encountered
@@user-te1hi9rx7bso here is the crazy liberal turning an innocent video about adverts into a virtue signalling exercise. You lot just can’t stop can you, absolutely embarrassing.
Was that the lovely Linda Bellingham I spotted? RIP ! Don't forget Leonard Rossiter, so darn funny
Yes, it was the lovely Linda.
Darn ?
Yes, I had to do a double take when I realised it was her.
Smash. Got to be the all time greatest
It's a classic
Definitely .
Indeed - as children we were enthralled by the alien robots laughing at humans for peeling and boiling potatoes!!!
ThEy PeEl ThEm WiTh ThEiR kNiVeS
HWAHWAHWAHWA 😂
The ad was written by a very quiet, bespectacled man who sat in an office on his own called 'The Potting Shed' because he pottered in there. He was called John Webster and he produced ads people LIKED. Even if they never bought the product, they understood that someone was being courteous enough to entertain them while interrupting the programmes they really wanted to see.
Good to see George Cole and Nadim Sawalha in that Cigar ad. I haven't seen that for years. Also anyone notice Fred Feast and Donald Sumpter in that John Smiths ad?
Yes I noticed that in the John Smiths Advert, and there were two clubland comedians, my dad Peter Russell, and Joe Belcher
Penelope Keith, as a school marm, still gives me a semi. 😂😂😂
😆
You been drinking Heineken again?😅
I thought she was very Margo Leadbetter.
You’re a perv!!!
Glad I wasn't Penelope Keith's only admirer.😅
Ahhhh. Memories ❤️
3:01 Penelope Keith. Or is it Margo Leadbetter? And a pen in rolled gold for £9.95? Shows how old this ad is.
That was probably the equivalent of how much you'd expect to pay for a rolled gold pen now.
Very much a luxury item.
Ah, memories of my childhood when Britain was still British. Marvellous!
Oh shut up
@carolinebennett5615 You shut up, Caroline. You're part of the problem.
Pathetic.
Says who?… i grew up in the seventies with these adds too.. remember the “ only the crumbliest flakiest chocolate… taste like chocolate never tasted before “… well ?… & i’m of Indian origin
That kind of talk only gets you placed in the 'old man's ' home. But we all understand the sentiment.
The two chimps as Laurel & Hardy pushing that piano up a flight of steps.
Oh yeah. I didn't realise it was based on Laurel and Hardy
@@Hannari-xt6nr You said that once already.
@@Hannari-xt6nr 50 years after the fact? Rather like preaching to the choir, don't you think.
We all moved on Hannari.
Have you? And you think they're all being badly treated, do you?
Don't forget most ads these days are done with green screens and A.I. What you're looking at is not what is actually happening.
@@fridayschild In fairness, that particular ad was done with real chimps. Were they mistreated? Only in the sense that when they hit adolescence and retired, they had no small difficulty adjusting to life with other chimps. They used a lot of chimps. I understand the last one died around 2014. Adolescent chimps are, even in the wild, prone to extreme violence and, in my opinion, only a fool would adopt one.
Some animals cannot be trained. If you are old enough to remember Skippy, the bush kangaroo, you might recall we only got to see scenes of him running off or just running. No cooperation beyond that. There were a lot of Skippies, just as there were a lot of Lassie(s) the wonder dog.
These days, you don't include animals because people disapprove and legislation makes it very difficult.
Those animals generated a lot of money for the advertisers. Mistreatment would have been counterproductive though I have to qualify, it was the money and not love of animals that motivated the businesses involved. Having said that, Unilever did use revenue to set up a chimp sanctuary.
Long live green screens and AI.
I loved it all! I'd never seen any of them, and laughed and laughed 😂❤
Thank You Mr Collister, for making my day :D
Those were the days, eh?!!
@@thecaplesawards I was born in 85 but I remember when it was still good. It seems this country is slowly dying by a thousand cuts since the 70’s
Heineken makes you row! Lol lol
If only at the end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind the emerging beings were Smash Aliens. 🤣😂❤️
So many famous actors… fantastic!
Remember the PG Tips ads,playedon our tv during late 70s early 80s,funny to watch ,👍 Auckland New Zealand 2024
Topic of conversation back in the day at work, good old belly laugh at most too…
And there it is Rigby and martini.. Luton airport, 😂😂😂
The golden age of UK TV advertising! The PG Tipps' chimps, George Cole, Arthur Mullard, the sexy Penelope Keith- what more could one want? Thanks for posting❤
Thank you for your thank you!
@@Adfanatico Hello, Do you know who played Trevor in the Dry Cane advert please?
@@tiggy4750 That was Royce Mills, one of the nicest actors I ever got to work with.
@@Adfanatico Thankyou for this information.
Arthur Well-'Ard.😄
I was at University and a German student friend who was there stated how he loved the humour in British adverts. He wished they had the same on German TV. Frankly, I was surprised he'd noticed.
Maybe we helped to stir something missing on the other side of the channel.
Or maybe you're just a troll
@@th8257 Thanks for that, thnumbers. Very intelligent and thoughtful reply. I don't like cliches and 'troll' is definitely not a cliche.
Take care.
Such fun!
It takes me back they were fun.
I remember a couple of those! And ending with the quintessential “Luton Airport”!😂😂
Brilliant ... Mr Shifter
@anthonyguillver2880,
Dad Do You Know The Piano On Me Foot, "! You Himm It And I'll Play It, !!!!!!!,.😆♥️👋,.
😝
I remember laughing at the smash ad every time it came on. 😅😅
Jeremy Clyde who appeared with Lorraine Chase in the Campari advert. He was a member of the duo during the 1960s Chad and Jeremy. They made a guest appearance in the TV show Batman.
I have still have their A Summer Song on vinyl, I inherited it from my older sister. They also appeared on the Patty Duke Show.
Campari
When adverts were worth watching
i loved that PG tips one when it was on screen back in the day growing up in NZ
Fred Feast, Donald Sumpter & Keith Barron in the John Smiths ad..
The funniest advert isn't on RUclips any more. It was the "Proper little madam" advert for Clark's shoes.
Loved that one. Always made us smile even though you knew it was coming.
Crazy how some of these ads lasted until the 80s. Like the PG Tips and Smash ones (I thought they were both from the 80s). Most ads these days churn over and are totally immemorable.
The PG Tips commercial with the chimps was shown in Canada. I remember this played when I was a kid.
The 1970s. When things were bad yet good at the same time. You could laugh at stuff back then. Not anymore.
They were the best of times, they were the worst of times...
I think one of the SMASH adverts was voted as the most memorable of all time.
It used to come in at Number 1 in all the Best Ads of All Time TV shows...until Guinness 'Surfer' crept up on it. Four guys in Speedos sit on a beach. Then they rush out into the ocean and end up hugging on a beach. What's that all about? Give me tin men from the edge of the cosmos any day...
"No luton airport" was a cathphrase for a while
Her lovely delivery of that line was perfect.
Who's Cath?
#:01 Penny Keith from The Good Life and To The Manor Born playing a role which is very much both Margo and Audrey. The two characters she's most famous for worldwide.
Nowadays you are none the wiser about what is being advertised, after you’ve seen the ad
Do you have dementia?
Back in a time when life was fun.
Good old days… I remember that too.
Were you truly wafted here from Paradise? No, Luto' airpor' ♥️
For mash get Smash. Great ads, woeful product. Even the dog wouldn't eat it.
😆😆 punchlines from my childhood .. I’d forgotten 😃 will share with mi’sister 😆❤️ Campari 😆😂
When I was a kid and we used to go the cinema - er, sorry, the BIOSCOPE, the ads were almost the best part of the show!
10 UK ads of the 70s is more accurate . Nostalgic
🤣👍👍
Ah, us UK adverts.
Nobody does it better!
The 70s might have been tasteless, but at least is had a sense of humour.
They were not tasteless. The 70’s were fantastic. I wish I could go back. What is tasteless is the trashy way people dress and act these days.
Yeah, there's a lot of "taste" around today, isn't there?
@@harpersmythe658 I think you've got selective memory! A lot of the 70s were awful. Endless strikes, winter of discontent, 3 channels on TV but the music and movies were great.
There may only have been 3 tv channels but as we didn't know any different, that wasn't a problem.
If there was nothing on that you fancied then you read a book or listened to the radio.
I guess it’s a case of we “didn’t know we were badly off until we were told “ 😅
Mashers were brilliant, Joan and Lenard were superb. That alas was back in the days when we still had a sense of humour.
Oh these are good, I remember them all from my childhood in Co Durham.
You've just reminded me of the wonderful campaign of ads for Phileas Fogg, "Medomsley Road, Consett, Country Durham." I feel another compilation coming on...
@@Adfanatico I'll be looking forward to that.
Were shown on RTE advert breaks in Ireland & worldwide too.
Back in the days when the advertisers knew that a memorable advert was good for brand recognition. Today's ads are instantly forgettable because they're all about virtue signalling
Oh get over it, you reactionary whiner
Grumpy old man alert
Those were brilliant takes me back to a simpler time 😊
Thank you for cheering us up 😅😊
I've watched these ads many dozens of times and each one continues to give me pleasure. Thank you for your comment @mmukherjini2161
Do you know the piano's on my foot? --
The late oxo lady on the Dry Cane advert x
Sometimes the ads were more entertaining than the programmes .
I was saying not to long ago, “the naught’s simply roll” never forgotten it!
I hope you said it better than you wrote it.
@@resnonverba137 did that make you feel good? How sad.
@@zebedee267 I don't think anyone with a modicum of intelligence would feel good about the general level of stupidity displayed on Internet comments.
@@zebedee267 Says someone who can't spell a simple word.
@@dmode2793 Actually, two simple words!
Excellent work.