TV Advertisements in Britain

[Ben@Forest]

A good number of well-known film directors cut their teeth on adverts, including Michael Cimino (The Deer Hunter), Ridley and Tony Scott (too many films to pick from); Alan Parker (everything from Midnight Express to Bugsy Malone) and Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast and Under The Skin).

The Hovis ad was directed by Ridley Scott, a long way from an alien stalking a spaceship or a Roman general fighting in the Colosseum:

https://musebycl.io/advertising/ridley- ... remastered

[661-Pete]

Interesting that in that remastered 'Hovis', the loaf is now described as 'wholemeal'. Originally it was just 'brown, with added wheatgerm'. Perhaps they're playing to the 'healthy eating' gallery? Seeing as we make our own, I haven't sampled their product for years, I'm afraid.

One or two things annoy me about that ad. Clearly the faux-northern accent (if that's what it is) doesn't chime well with the Shaftesbury setting. But my main gripe is that the slow movement of Dvorak 9th is played twice as fast as it should be. Dvorak wrote 'largo' and he meant 'largo'. Oh well, I suppose brass bands have a busy schedule...

A propos - not an ad: anyone remember that military band scene from The Ipcress File? As I recall, Michael Caine says 'must we sit through any more of this torture?' I'm afraid 'Hovis' puts me in the same mood...

[Ben@Forest]

One or two things annoy me about that ad. Clearly the faux-northern accent (if that's what it is) doesn't chime well with the Shaftesbury setting....

Surely it can only annoy you if you know it's Gold Hill in the south and not somewhere in the north? I'd say there are more cobbled hills in the north (then and now) and the (single?) thatched cottage is not only typical of the south, many houses were thatched in the north too. Illustrations of Edmundbyers, near Durham and Bellingham near Kielder below, but I doubt there's a single thatched dwelling in either place now - these would have been thatched with heather - as so many moorside properties were - or straw and heather.

[thirdcrank]

At one point, the slogan was

Don't just say "brown," say "Hovis."

[sjs]

Nothing posing as drama these days seems worth watching. At least not the domestic stuff. Soaps beyond the Pale. Apart from rugger and the Boat Race, sport fails to inspire. But there's a whole genre which, just about, makes it worth having a TV. I mean Only Connect, University Challenge and Mastermind, although the latter was never the same after Magnus Magnusson retired. Probably better to have put it out of its misery then. That said, although the general knowledge questions are a piece of cake, it gives me a real buzz to get any of the specialist questions right, especially in some obscure subject. University Challenge is, quite simply, the best programme on TV, although I can never understand why Trinity College Dublin are not in it any more. No shortage of brains there, one would have thought. Perhaps they're trying to live down their reputation as a 'British' university, and a bastion of Anglo-Irish Protestant privilege. Future President Mary Robinson was on their UC team in the Bamber Gascoigne days. She is a Catholic, and needed a dispensation from a bishop to even attend Trinity.

Except for the annoying rule which allows multiple teams from Oxbridge. But not from other collegiate universities, Durham for instance, because their colleges are not real colleges, doncha know.

[Wilhelmus]

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[Jdsk]

Except for the annoying rule which allows multiple teams from Oxbridge. But not from other collegiate universities, Durham for instance, because their colleges are not real colleges, doncha know.

It must be admitted, surely, that Oxford colleges have very distinct identities, not to say histories. Ranging, as they do, from mediaeval to those very recent in foundation, like Nuffield, Wolfson and so on. At least the University of Dublin only has one college, founded, we recall, in 1592 by good Queen Bess as a school of Divinity to counteract popish tendencies.

If Oxford and Cambridge each played as one team the finalists would be rather easier to predict...

Jonathan

[Wilhelmus]

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[Jdsk]

On the subject of Hovis, does anybody recall that some bakers used to sell tiny little loaves, which were perfect replicas of the full-size one, including the embossed Hovis name?

The story of the little loaves, and the early cycling connection:
https://anglotopia.net/british-history/ ... l-britain/

Jonathan

[sjs]

Except for the annoying rule which allows multiple teams from Oxbridge. But not from other collegiate universities, Durham for instance, because their colleges are not real colleges, doncha know.

It must be admitted, surely, that Oxford colleges have very distinct identities, not to say histories. Ranging, as they do, from mediaeval to those very recent in foundation, like Nuffield, Wolfson and so on. At least the University of Dublin only has one college, founded, we recall, in 1592 by good Queen Bess as a school of Divinity to counteract popish tendencies.

If Oxford and Cambridge each played as one team the finalists would be rather easier to predict...

Jonathan

You think? Perhaps all institutions could be allowed to play up to say 20 teams, with those making it through the qualifying process getting on the telly.

[sjs]

There's a current ad, for hotels.com I think, in which a woman is fired towards a castle from a trebuchet, and splats against the wall. I find it quite horrible.

[Wilhelmus]

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[661-Pete]

At one point, the slogan was

Don't just say "brown," say "Hovis."

We had an Art master at school whose name was Mr Brown. No prizes for guessing what his nickname was!

[Stevek76]

I suspect there's an element of nostalgia here. Only the good adverts from the past are remembered, not the dross that was actually the bulk of advert time. The mostly dross of now is inevitably going to look bad against the 'greatest hits' of the past. This applies to basically everything (music, films, books, video games etc).

Car adverts have always been unrealistic, they're trying to sell you a car, not remind you that your journey will be 90% sat in a traffic jam so the actual car you use is largely irrelevant.

[Jdsk]

I suspect there's an element of nostalgia here. Only the good adverts from the past are remembered, not the dross that was actually the bulk of advert time.

I suspect you're right!

: - )

Jonathan