I am mostly referring to the mid 1980s to early 1990s campaigns which had the "I bet he drinks..." catchphrase, usually interjected by Arden and Frost a few seconds from the end - for the first 25 seconds of the advert, very little is given away in relation to the product being advertised apart from some very clever advertising - a sort of reverse product placement if you like.
I was thinking about this just now as there was someone who was in my class at school back in the late 1980s, Year 6, (whose birthday it would have been today), had started to sing the Carling Black Label jingle in class, right in the middle of the teacher talking - he must have heard the jingle 1,000 times and had got it stuck in his head!
We all know that alcohol advertising, especially adverts from the 1980s and 1990s seem to look "eccentric" to say the least, almost matching how one would feel if we drank a pint of the stuff (and I only have a tipple at Christmas and New Year). Carling Black Label were the leaders when it came to their advertising.
There were some classic adverts, some of them are on YT, but these are some of my favourites:
1) The "unironic" one where a man goes into a pub and asks for a pint of Carling Black Label, and of course Arden and Frost obviously go "I bet he drinks Carling Black Label" - you have to see all the others to find that one funny!
2) The Mind-reader one where part of the joke was by interrupting A and F who was about to say "Ere, I bet he drinks...", but the Mind-reader knows they are about to say that as it is part of the joke, so he says, "yes, I do".
3) The cowboy one which is three adverts in a row - the second one is an advert for Love Songs, (voiceover by 1970s Radio 1 chart show presenter Tom Browne), and a washing powder advert where the cowboy chases around the aisles.
4) The squirrel and the Mission Impossible music.
5) The parody of the Nick Kamen Levi's Jeans one in the launderette. "Nah, he doesn't wash his underpants" - cue the two men sitting down without underwear with books covering them up.
6) The snooker one with Terry Griffiths and referee Len Ganley who crushes the cue ball into dust on the snooker table. Griffiths is dubbed by some impressionist who I am not sure who it was.
7) The breakdancing pensioner.
8) The pub where it is raining indoors. (Sometimes I confuse this one with the breakdancing pensioner one - it wasn't the same one was it? - the location might be similar).
There are others, but I am certain that most people saw them in the mid 1980s to early 1990s, unless you only watched the BBC at the time.
What was your favourite Carling Black Label advert from this era? Admittedly, the previous era of the early 1980s when they had the "Get it Right" slogan was good, but not quite - various cameos from people such as Peter Bowles and Lennie Bennett were in those ones.
I bet that most people can remember Carling adverts from that era than, let's say, Heineken or Carlsberg adverts from back then - the power of getting a successful advertising campaign going actually works sometimes...
I was thinking about this just now as there was someone who was in my class at school back in the late 1980s, Year 6, (whose birthday it would have been today), had started to sing the Carling Black Label jingle in class, right in the middle of the teacher talking - he must have heard the jingle 1,000 times and had got it stuck in his head!
We all know that alcohol advertising, especially adverts from the 1980s and 1990s seem to look "eccentric" to say the least, almost matching how one would feel if we drank a pint of the stuff (and I only have a tipple at Christmas and New Year). Carling Black Label were the leaders when it came to their advertising.
There were some classic adverts, some of them are on YT, but these are some of my favourites:
1) The "unironic" one where a man goes into a pub and asks for a pint of Carling Black Label, and of course Arden and Frost obviously go "I bet he drinks Carling Black Label" - you have to see all the others to find that one funny!
2) The Mind-reader one where part of the joke was by interrupting A and F who was about to say "Ere, I bet he drinks...", but the Mind-reader knows they are about to say that as it is part of the joke, so he says, "yes, I do".
3) The cowboy one which is three adverts in a row - the second one is an advert for Love Songs, (voiceover by 1970s Radio 1 chart show presenter Tom Browne), and a washing powder advert where the cowboy chases around the aisles.
4) The squirrel and the Mission Impossible music.
5) The parody of the Nick Kamen Levi's Jeans one in the launderette. "Nah, he doesn't wash his underpants" - cue the two men sitting down without underwear with books covering them up.
6) The snooker one with Terry Griffiths and referee Len Ganley who crushes the cue ball into dust on the snooker table. Griffiths is dubbed by some impressionist who I am not sure who it was.
7) The breakdancing pensioner.
8) The pub where it is raining indoors. (Sometimes I confuse this one with the breakdancing pensioner one - it wasn't the same one was it? - the location might be similar).
There are others, but I am certain that most people saw them in the mid 1980s to early 1990s, unless you only watched the BBC at the time.
What was your favourite Carling Black Label advert from this era? Admittedly, the previous era of the early 1980s when they had the "Get it Right" slogan was good, but not quite - various cameos from people such as Peter Bowles and Lennie Bennett were in those ones.
I bet that most people can remember Carling adverts from that era than, let's say, Heineken or Carlsberg adverts from back then - the power of getting a successful advertising campaign going actually works sometimes...
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