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As we are just under a week away from the big day, I thought that I would talk about the classic Christmas adverts that were on TV in the 1980s and 1990s - many of them are on YouTube if you want to watch them. Children's ITV and Saturday mornings during Tiswas or No 73 were best hunting ground for toy and game adverts during the autumn.
Some classics were the good old Toys R Us one with the middle of the advert used to tell us the toys and games they were selling. Also, supermarkets and places like Argos had the special Christmas adverts prepared in the run up to the season, usually starting in November as soon as Bonfire Night is finished for the year. Woolworths - need I say more? Boots do good ones, mostly as they deal with the perfume and aftershave side of the market. Go back 40 years and we had the sub-St Winifred School Choir doing their best for the Co-op.
There were some adverts that ran for years such as the Yellow Pages one which started in 1993-ish and had the young lad who was too small to kiss his favourite girl so he used the telephone directory (Reading, Berkshire - edition: 1992-93) to stand on and do it properly - and it wasn't Robbie Williams either! The Central London edition would have been better... The Kellogg's Corn Flakes advert which was American in origin and ran for many years from the early 1990s as well - the one with the kids in the living room encounter Father Christmas enjoying a bowlful of the breakfast cereal.
Some companies did an "omnibus edition" of the year's ads such as Country Life butter, and I think that Carling Black Label did a similar one at the end of one year. And of course the "sale starts 10 am Boxing Day" adverts during holiday film ad breaks are just as part of the festive season - I go to relatives on Boxing Day, not go to a sale for a sofa or a wall unit.
Coca-Cola's "Holidays are Coming" was a masterpiece as well, and alcohol adverts increase as well, mostly sherry ones. Just as well that the drinking and driving PIFs are on their as well.
What is your favourite Christmas advert in years gone by?
Some classics were the good old Toys R Us one with the middle of the advert used to tell us the toys and games they were selling. Also, supermarkets and places like Argos had the special Christmas adverts prepared in the run up to the season, usually starting in November as soon as Bonfire Night is finished for the year. Woolworths - need I say more? Boots do good ones, mostly as they deal with the perfume and aftershave side of the market. Go back 40 years and we had the sub-St Winifred School Choir doing their best for the Co-op.
There were some adverts that ran for years such as the Yellow Pages one which started in 1993-ish and had the young lad who was too small to kiss his favourite girl so he used the telephone directory (Reading, Berkshire - edition: 1992-93) to stand on and do it properly - and it wasn't Robbie Williams either! The Central London edition would have been better... The Kellogg's Corn Flakes advert which was American in origin and ran for many years from the early 1990s as well - the one with the kids in the living room encounter Father Christmas enjoying a bowlful of the breakfast cereal.
Some companies did an "omnibus edition" of the year's ads such as Country Life butter, and I think that Carling Black Label did a similar one at the end of one year. And of course the "sale starts 10 am Boxing Day" adverts during holiday film ad breaks are just as part of the festive season - I go to relatives on Boxing Day, not go to a sale for a sofa or a wall unit.
Coca-Cola's "Holidays are Coming" was a masterpiece as well, and alcohol adverts increase as well, mostly sherry ones. Just as well that the drinking and driving PIFs are on their as well.
What is your favourite Christmas advert in years gone by?
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