This is about as woke-free as it gets, A Benson & Hedges Silk Cut cinema ad from 1970 from the clearly over-stimulated psyches of CDP’s Paul Weiland and Graham Fink.
Zulu had been one of the big hit films of the 1960s – launching Michael Caine on the road to stardom – and actually presented the Zulus in a respectful light. British creative departments in the day were no respecters of anything much but they knew how to get a laugh (and sell stuff.)
Defy you not to laugh out loud.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrwhVlHV-28
I think we may be having a MAA Danny Baker moment here, not least because the millennials will want your head on a plate for #justabouteverything and the farts will point out that it was
a.made in 1979
b.art directed by Dave Horry.
But in its time, it was a masterpiece of branding, engagement and bad taste, and maybe this morning, it will be just the thing.
Apologies to Dave – got mixed up, Graham chose it as one of his Desert Island Ads.
Fink would have been 9 in 1970…!
Talented but possibly not at that age
A truly fantastic smorgasboard of nuttiness, all delivered in warm good humour. In fact, it’s the reason I was desperate to join CDP in 1980. I’d seen the spot in a cinema in Brixton in 1979 and it had the locals of all extractions roaring with laughter – especially when John Bird appeared at the end, with the soap-powder commercial intro. Director Alan Parker.