Here are the best UK ads from 2003:
Other very good ones include Tango ‘Postman‘ and ‘Factory‘, Tesco Cherokee ‘Starbursts‘, Sony ‘Thank You’ (can’t find it online), Johnnie Walker ‘Fish‘, VW ‘Bollocks’, London Film Festival ‘Director’ (couldn’t find it online), Honda ‘Sense‘ and Wrigley’s ‘Dogbreath‘.
This was on at 5:30 PM during a screening of Turner and Hooch on the Comedy Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7oMY6sC7wQ
Here are the Hall of Famers from 2002:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCi6YWpbgNk
And the Radio One Extra ad where people around a council estate make sounds in time to urban records. Can’t find it online.
Others include Pot Noodle ‘Slag of all snacks’, Tango ‘Postman’, Audi ‘Hendrix’, The Times ‘Banana’, Nike ‘Enjoy The Weather’, The other X-Box ad, Mercedes ‘Lucky Star’, Think ‘Two Things at Once’, and Barclay’s ‘Samuel L. Jackson’.
Good year for BBH and Danny Kleinman, eh?
Hmmm…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-6njVFEq2A&feature=player_embedded
Here are the Hall of Famers from 2001 (remember this is UK only).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfYmwaf89UE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc4gwCVT4F4
Others of that year include Durex ‘Square’, VW Passat ‘Ice Cream’, VW Lupo ‘Baby’, Kick Racism Out Of Football ‘Dear White Fella’, Paedophiles Online ‘You Never Know’, Stella ‘Plague’, Playstation ‘Wolfman’, and Cup-a-Soup ‘Marathon’, which I couldn’t find online.
I know the anti smoking one seems pretty straight but I’ve seen it about fifty times and I cry every single time I see it, so it goes in the HoF (this is a benign dictatorship, not a democracy).
The Hall of Famers from 2000:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wj-D5iF0oc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOeS9K4-7C0
Other greats include the QTV ‘Danster’ campaign, Heinz ‘Two Minutes’, Lynx ‘Shaver‘, Monster.co.uk ‘Voices’, Stella ‘Hero’s Return’, Audi ‘Wakeboarder’, Skoda ‘Factory’, Weetabix ‘Black Beauty’, Aristoc ‘Subtitles’, Metz ‘Judderman’, VW ‘Smile‘ and Reebok ‘Belly’.
I think that 2000 was the greatest ever year for British TV advertising. Several of the ‘greats’ could also be classics, depending on your opinion, but there’s 18 ads up there and they’re all exceptionally good.
Here’s the 1999 Hall of Fame selection:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zff9hVH3ptY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB9s3Ar2nd8
Others of that year include BA ‘PJ O’Rourke’ and the ones I couldn’t find online: Land Rover ‘Releasing an animal into the wild but it’s actually a car’, Olympus ‘Joan Collins’.
Not such a good year, that one. Maybe everyone spent the whole time pissed to celebrate the new millennium.
Here are 1998’s Hall of Famers:
Other greats from the same year: Supernoodles ‘Baby’, and ‘Wasted Away’, Scalextric ‘Birth’, Yellow Pages ‘Burglary’ and I couldn’t find Lego ‘Box’, BT ‘When you’re on a lampost’, Lynx ‘The one where the two people are standing next to each other on the tube’ or Sony ‘The one where the donut sign falls down’ online. Sorry about that.
Those of us who were around at the time might recall that this was a year when people complained about the dominance of the US, with their quite violent ads being given an unfair advantage through laxer BACC-type regulations, and by the fact that no one had seen them before and therefore their humour was fresher on the day.
But as you can see, the UK produced some real crackers that stand the test of time quite brilliantly.
Hello dear reader,
Tomorrow I will be going to the United States of America for a holiday (in case you’re interested, it’s ten years since I got married in Las Vegas and will be renewing my vows with my lovely wife. Ah, who’d have thought that we’d have made it this far? We actually got engaged after knowing each other for just five days, so there were a few doubtful faces back then. If you were one such doubter: in your face, motherfucker. Anyway, here we are a decade on with two lovely kids and all that jazz. Hooray). If you think that means you can burgle my flat, you are sorely mistaken. There will be a constant supply of builders, neighbours, catsitters and house guests to fend off your thievery, and if you get past them I will hunt you down and pay a really clumsy man to turn your anus into a toolshed.
But you don’t care about that. You care about how you’re going to waste those bloggy hours of the day without a juicy bit of ITIABTWC action to keep you satisfied.
Fear not! I have pre-prepared a whole load of posts to keep you going in my absence. All I have to do is hit the ‘publish’ button and ten minutes of pointless timewastery will be beamed directly into your desktop, lap top or smartphone.
It’s basically going to be a continuation of the Hall of Fame, which will hopefully serve as a little trip down memory lane for those of us who were ‘there’, and an educational resource for the youngsters.
I sincerely hope you enjoy it.
Bx
PS: if you’re in LA/Vegas over the next couple of weeks, drop me a line. I’ll stand you a margarita at the Sky Bar/Bellagio.
For anyone interested, here’s the ad (V/O is Richard Dreyfuss):
(Thanks, T, for the email.)