Best ads of 2018: France’s Romance and Rosapark put the Brits in their place

It’s not that there aren’t any good, even outstanding, British ads any more – there just don’t seem to be as many of them as there should be. And even the better ones lack ambition, compared to winners of the past.

But you don’t need to set off with Hugh Hudson in a chopper for a swimming pool armed with a tin opener (see Pip Bishops’s Desert Island Ads) to produce something outstanding – although the budget undeniably helps.

French agencies, arguably, are better at making relatively little go further than their British counterparts and in August we had two winners from Paris.

First up is Rosapark for Skoda, the first decent Skoda ad in ages.

Then it’s Romance for Intermarché, prompting us to eat up our greens.

This is impeccable: real, quietly funny and to the point. Haven’t seen anything nearly as good from a British supermarket in years.