St Ivel Shape Yoghurt advert - You're the One that I Want music

[George 1978]

Does anyone remember an advert for St Ivel Shape Yoghurt which involved a man and a woman dancing in a kitchen to the tune to You're the One that I Want - the song from the Grease film? - I thought that it was from the late 1990s or early 2000s, but a Google search to an old newsgroup mentions that it was on TV as early as 1995. Tried looking on YouTube, typing in the relevant words, along with approximate years and scanning through ad breaks but no one had captured it. I asked elsewhere a few years ago and got irrelevant answers such as the Arthur Mullard and Hylda Baker version which was no help at all. Looked at other yoghurt adverts from the late 1990s and early 2000s such as Ski and Danone but no luck there - I am certain it was Shape Yoghurt.

I know that it used to be seen in the afternoons on ITV so perhaps anyone who recorded programmes from that time of day might have seen it? - If St Ivel still exists, I might write and ask them.

[wispa lover]

I think I have it on videotape somewhere...

[George 1978]

You don't have a YouTube channel or something that you can download it onto, by any chance?

[wispa lover]

I don't have a youtube channel in case of copyright this and that. I have however recorded the ad on my phone, might not be of high quality but better than nothing right? Want me to email it to you?

[George 1978]

Yes please - I will try and PM you.

I am a bit surprised with regards to the copyright on YouTube - I see a lot of old ad breaks on there.

[George 1978]

Thanks Wispa lover! Managed to play it on my computer - it was the one that I wanted (no pun intended!)

Do you know roughly when it was recorded from the TV? I thought late 1990s.

[George 1978]

Just thought I would mention the synopsis of the aforementioned advert: a Travolta and Livy (or should I say Danny and Sandy for the benefit of this) wannabe appear in the advert - "Sandy" is in the fridge searching for the yoghurts while "Danny" is reading a newspaper (no idea which one, sadly) - Sandy is wearing a long but double split skirt which is indigo with white spots on which was very different from the black Lycra trousers in the film. Danny shakes like a leaf and almost scrunches his newspaper in excitement while singing the Grease song. He crumples the newspaper into a ball and throws it down while singing. Sandy finds the four pack of St Ivel Shape yoghurt from the fridge at last.

Danny sings as if he is on stage in a musical - he then rubs his hands towards his chest and throws himself down on the kitchen table. Sandy dances around the kitchen, almost a la Jenny Logan in the Shake 'n' Vac advert; she then climbs one of those yellow step stools (that shops and offices usually have for staff to reach high shelves) and onto the wooden kitchen table. A yoghurt pot is seen on camera and opened by Sandy (judging the fingernails although I might be wrong!) Danny arises from the table where he has had his face down, and Sandy lifts her feet in the direction of his face - we are then treated by an excited view from Sandy (which I think was the reason why I remember this advert so well - it was on when I was a teenager and it had such arousing actions from what I saw, a la the KP Peanuts "Lucky Number" advert from around 1983). We then briefly see a view of the open yoghurt pot full of strawberry yoghurt.

Sandy continues to seductively point her shoes towards Danny's face (I hope she doesn't have smelly feet, that's what I say!) and continues to dance on top of the kitchen worktop while singing, wriggling her hips and then crouching down at Danny, who fiercely clenches his fists, is spoon-fed the yoghurt into his mouth. Sandy then gets off the kitchen table and into Danny's arms where he rocks her across the room. We then go to a blue "New" St Ivel Shape logo, and we reach the end of the advert. (The word "new" was misleading I believe as the product was around for years before the advert was made, so to call it new was somewhat farfetched). It does make me think how long it took for the actor and actress to make that 40 second advert considering outtakes and mistakes - all in a day's work, perhaps?

Amazing how they packed all that action in just 40 seconds...

[wispa lover]

You're welcome. George. It was recorded on Sky One either spring or summer 1995. If the ad appears on someone's youtube channel, I might let you know.

[George 1978]

Many thanks mate.

[wispa lover]

The advert is in this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIjUG25Oad0

[George 1978]

Thanks for the link - I noticed that it wasn't uploaded until 25th June 2021, hence the fact that I couldn't find it before. If it was dated February 1996 then the advert would have been going for nearly a year.

The "Grease" Shape Yoghurt advert starts in the clip at around 6:17 to 6:59 in the video clip - the same 40 second version. I noticed that there was also an "supplementary" advert to the original one at the end of the same break between 9:42 and 9:56 just like many adverts had in ad breaks back in the 1990s and beyond - I have to admit that I don't remember the extra advert at the end when it was on TV originally, but I assume that the Sky One off-air from the previous year that I viewed also had that as well.

[George 1978]

I know that Dixons (which are now part of Currys PC World) and also a cat food advert have also used that Travolta and Livy song in their adverts as well.

[George 1978]

Funnily enough, I wrote to the BFI about this advert a couple of months ago who emailed me back today, and put a link to this very page on it which came up in a Google search. Amazing how people can put two and two together...

[George 1978]

The advert is in this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIjUG25Oad0

And I must remember (pun intended) that it is the clip with the "woman brushing her teeth while looking in a mirror" thumbnail on YT searches for the benefit of finding it easily.

[tex]

Hi George and welcome back!......thought we had lost you?