Adverts

by **hazel** » Thu Feb 17, 2011 5:01 pm

Many of you will know the 1960s Sugar Smacks and Lyons Maid adverts featuring Captain Scarlet. I would imagine that few know about a much later advert, made in the early 90s to coincide with the 1993 BBC revival of the original Scarlet. I only remember seeing the advert once. Much to my joy, I found it again today on YouTube… and realised why I only remember seeing it once…

Pizza Hut
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDdrJ9L3dwg
Love Destiny’s giggle at the end, there.

If you haven’t got the Scarlet DVDs with the adverts, here they are. Again from YouTube, so the quality isn’t great:

Sugar Smacks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9PGICdACHU
(One Scarlet, one Thunderbirds, then another Scarlet)
What on earth is up with Destiny’s voice at the end of the first one?

Lyons Maid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzQUChBDJ7E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MswzoQ4u7es

by **Intensity Angel** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 1:58 am

I've seen all of those adverts on TV at some point but I also recall another advert very vaugely. It came on tv during the late nineties just before the BBC news.

by **Marion** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 6:32 am

The BBC don't show adverts and never have. It might've been a trailer for the shows which were being shown on BBC2 at 6pm, if I recall rightly.

by **Intensity Angel** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 8:37 am

They do and did, during breaks between the shows but not during actual shows. And this particular advert came on before the news. The reason I remember it at all is because my Dad made a comment about it.

by **Scarlet Lady** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 4:49 pm

They might not advertise products, Hazel, but they do advertise things like paying your licence for your telly.

What was the advert, Intensity?

by **Marion** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 8:23 pm

It wasn't Hazel said that the BBC don't run adverts, it was me. They may run public information pieces - like pay your TV license or else - but they do not advertise commercial products, and to me an 'advert' is trying to sell you something - be it shampoo or life assurance.

by **hazel** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 8:34 pm

I worked at the BBC, in radio and television, for 35 years. In all that time, it remained staunchly non-commercial, in the popularly understood, ITV sense of advertising. Occasionally, things would sail a bit close to the wind as far as product placings were concerned, but the BBC has never broadcast adverts for anything other than its own products, and the TV licence.

In the last few years, satellite/cable stations originating from the BBC, such as UK Gold, have taken advertising. These stations were referred to in my hearing as "the commercial arm of the BBC". However, the "UK" branded stations were not available on free-to-air and took no funding from the licence fee, after their initial start-up.

by **Marion** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 8:41 pm

I was referring to the terrestrial channels because - firstly, I only ever think of TV as being the 5 terrestrial channels and we don't have cable or satellite and, secondly, in the 1990s (albeit the late 1990s) it would never have occured to me there was anything but the terrestrial channels.
What may happen on the non-terrestrial channels is a mystery to me.

by **Scarlet Lady** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 9:13 pm

Freeview confuses me, I must admit, what with the "plus one" catch up channels, American channels, bonus BBC and ITV channels... Not to mention things like QVC!

By the way, Marion, sorry about that mistaken identity. I find names rather hard to read on my little phone screen and the avatars don't show up either.

by **captain canary** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 11:55 am

Oh, come on! I've had cable FOREVER! Scarlet Lady, you must be really old if you don't know how to use Freeview. It's easy!

by **Scarlet Lady** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 11:59 am

I didn't say that I don't know how to use it! I just don't like having to search through the many channels to find something worth watching before it finishes. I'm under 30 years old, thank you; how old are you?

by **captain canary** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 12:04 pm

Maybe you should be called Touchy Lady. OK, I'm 25 but I've had cable since as long ago as I can remember so maybe I've got an advantage. By the way, I didn't mean to ruffle any feathers. I was kidding when I said you were old.

by **Scarlet Lady** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 12:14 pm

Perhaps you should be more careful while you use the forum. Our emotion can be lost in the text because only a very small percentage of speech is made up of the words we say while talking face to face. It would be wise to bear that in mind.

by **Elentari** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 1:46 pm

captain canary wrote:Oh, come on! I've had cable FOREVER! Scarlet Lady, you must be really old if you don't know how to use Freeview. It's easy!

I'm old (a baby boomer and proud of it...heheh) and don't have cable or in fact any kind of digital TV....which is going to get interesting in 2013 when analogue is expected to be turned off in the city where I live.

I'm sure I'd get the hang of it (Freeview or whatever), but looking at the selection of programs on all the extra digital channels, it looks like double or triple - or more - of the rubbish that is currently screened on the five existing analogue channels.

In fact TV is so dire at the moment that I am considering not getting a set top box at all. My time could be better spent watching the backlog of DVDs I never seem to have the time to view, when analogue TV closes down.

by **captain canary** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 3:40 pm

Yeah, I guess if you don't like some of the stuff they show it can be hard to find something you'd want to watch. I guess it's harder for people that aren't used to having more than five channels to remember when and where something good is being shown too.