Food ads: Five of the best slogans
We've nosed around YouTube to find ads from yesteryear with classic slogans - see if you remember any of these.
For mash get Smash
The 1960s was all about Harold Wilson’s white heat of technology, and in the food world, than meant no more peeling and chopping. Instead, you just added water to things and, hey presto, instant coffee, and instant mashed potato. It was all about saving time.
What’s interesting is that it was Cadbury – a firm known for their chocolate – who invented and launched Smash. Now owned by Premier Foods, Smash was relaunched in 2008 apparently. Meanwhile, here's a great recipe from Jose Pizarro for chicken and mashed potatoes.
Go to work on an egg
The newly formed Egg Marketing Board encouraged working Britain to ‘go to work on an egg’, which had only come off rationing in 1953. Brace yourself - this advert is what passed for comedy in 1957.
In the noughties eggs came under fire for apparently having too much cholesterol and the daily eating of them breached the advertising guidelines. These claims have since been debunked, so you can go to work on a healthy nutritious egg. We have Gizi Erskine’s guide to how to cook them to perfection too.
Made in Scotland from girders
Ah, Irn-Bru. Loved - adored even - north of the border, yet met with a certain non-plussed shrug in the south. There are two countries in Europe where a ‘native’ drink outsells Coca-Cola, one is Irn-Bru in Scotland, the other is... well if you know tell us in the Comments section below, much kudos if you do. This ad from the 80s features parodies of many of the slick ads for American drinks that were on our screens at the time.
Made in Scotland from girders stressed the strength-giving power of the rusty beverage. Over the years Irn-Bru have ran consistently edgy and funny adverts, most of which have been banned.
Have a break, have a Kit Kat
Everyone had their own little Kit Kat opening ritual. Mine involved me sliding the bar gently out of the paper sleeve, rubbing my finger over the word Kit Kat in the centre of the bar, then running a nail down the groove to split the foil as neatly as possible. At some point in the last decade the packaging was changed and this little routine wasn’t possible anymore. I don’t think I’ve had a break and enjoyed a Kit Kat since.
Beanz meanz Heinz
Voted one of the most memorable advertising slogans ever, Beanz Meanz Heinz came to ad man Maurice Drake in 1967 when he spent an afternoon in the pub. If that’s not a ringing endorsement of the creative potential of a quiet few hours in a boozer I don’t know what is.
Heinz subsequently kept the slogan for the next 30 years. Drake is on record as saying, "I still find it incredible that over 40 years later, the seemingly timeless slogan continues to have relevance and brand power, still appealing to different generations in an ever-changing world."
What was your favourite food advert slogan? Let us know in the Comments section.
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