McCain Oven Chips With Valerie Singleton

[si]

I don't get it..?

[mackenzie]

At first I was as thick as shit and thought it actually WAS from 1979. Then she mentioned the bit about a Russian Chelsea boss and I realised that obviously it had been filmed in 2004. Which renders the whole thing a bit pointless, really.

[klee]

Massive PR stunt. Looky . . .

Dispatches

Monday October 11, 2004
The Guardian

TV advertising


And here's an ad we made 25 years earlier
The latest love tussle between Steve, Karen and Amy was not the only interesting thing about last night's Coronation Street. Viewers were treated to what is believed to be the longest commercial in UK primetime television - a three-and-a-half minute ad dedicated to another great British institution, the chip.

The story behind this £3.75m extravaganza, which marks the 25th anniversary of McCain's oven chips, is a tale of PR spin and technical trickery. Behind it all are Trevor Beattie and his agency TBWA\London.

Beattie hit upon the idea of "discovering" a promotional film, supposedly created by McCain at its Scarborough headquarters in 1979, to celebrate the invention of the oven chip. It would be presented by a 70s icon: Blue Peter's Valerie Singleton.

The publicity for the film began a fortnight ago when an ad was placed in the Scarborough Evening News asking if anyone knew where the "lost" film was. The paper, unaware of the stunt, ran a story when McCain bosses offered free chips for a year to anyone who came forward. A few days later, the paper revealed that a local man had apparently found the film.

A march was subsequently organised in Soho in which "Valerie fans" called for the film to be aired on television. This was followed by radio and press ads encouraging people to watch ITV at 7.45pm on Sunday.

Opening with an intro from Singleton as she is today, a silver-haired 67-year-old, it then cuts, apparently, to her in her Blue Peter heyday. In a low-tech studio, Singleton investigates what the turn of the 70s will be remembered for. After seeing clips of 3-2-1 and The Bernard Manning Show, her face says it all. No, the only thing worth noting in 1979 is, she says dramatically: "the abolition of Fry-Days!"

Then follows the original 1979 ad before Singleton speculates on a future when we will have "300 channels, distressed denim and speed bumps". She even ventures that a Russian billionaire will buy Chelsea FC.

The director was Duncan ZH Jones, more famously known as Zowie Bowie, son of David. The director is reluctant to play on this fact but no doubt he and Singleton will fan the flames of publicity for some time.

As for the future of the 30-second ad? Could it have had its chips?
Dawn Daniels

Very, very clever stuff I thought. We were all drooling over that campaign in the office, but that may have something to do with the fact our agency is a touch braindead on the PR front lately.

[zaffra]

Advertising celebrating itself, what a load of crap.

I saw the ad last night and it was obvious that it wasn't Valerie in '79, she left BP in '72 anyway. The ad looks cheap (in the wrong way) and isn't funny.

Leslie Judd would have made it a bit more authentic for the Blue Peter crowd or perhaps Judith Hann for the Tomorrows world vibe.

I hate these ads that somehow get a bit of press and there's the underlying message of how clever they are and how stupid the public are.

Remember the Honda (mousetrap) ad, there was some press release doing the rounds saying it took about 1000 takes to get it to work, bollocks, it was all CGI.

I think most of this goes over peoples heads anyway and it isn't news to anyone that advertising agencies are full of smug twats

[si]

klee said:

Very, very clever stuff I thought. We were all drooling over that campaign in the office, but that may have something to do with the fact our agency is a touch braindead on the PR front lately.

Yes, very clever on paper. In practice, it doesn't work one bit. It just looks a bit embarrassing and leaves me thinking So What?

[klee]

Oh well, I stand corrected then.

Still wish my wishy washy bosses would let me do something vaguely interesting with my crappy client list though.

[QuincyMD]

I heard tha advert on the radio and thought "I aint watching Corrie just to see a marketing gimmick for chips."

[QuincyMD]

I went to the website and entered the win £25,000 competition and I then received an e-mail from Valerie Singleton.

[Lita]

I think that ad was obviously waaaaaay better on paper. I thought it was really dull, badly produced and not particularly funny.

It's just another ego-trip for the most arrogant man in advertising, Trevor "I acame up with fcuk! isn't it hilarious!" Beattie.

zaffra - are you sure that Honda ad is CGI? I'm pretty convinced it isn't.

[zaffra]

lockedintheattic said:

zaffra - are you sure that Honda ad is CGI? I'm pretty convinced it isn't.

Well it wouldn't be the firt time I was wrong, but what I do remember is that there were press stories about how clever it was and how they had to do about 1000 takes before it all worked, which I'm posative were untrue.

Even if it's not CGI it isn't one take as we were led to believe at the time.

My point really being that I hate it when advertising thinks it's so clever and has pulled the wool over our eyes.

Yes the Honda ad was good, a bit different, well executed. But it wasn't genius.

[rondette]

but all those Bunnies with Crossbows and Penguins with mallets? And the flying engines? Explain how they did that all in one take!!





oh.



wait......

[mikemk]

I finally got to see this last night and I just can't see what all the fuss is about. I thought it was poorly produced and not even funny. It didn't help that I thought it was a Val lookalike, rather the real thing.

And why would it make you buy the stuff in the first place?

[David Hunter]

I can't really watch this as Val looks like she died in 1979 and is decomposing on some sort of Beetlejuice channel.