Anomaly and Ancestry jump into the Meghan and Harry show for new campaign debut

Oprah’s interview with Meghan and Harry was the biggest TV viewing event of the year to date, making it a logical place to break a new ad campaign — as long as you’re willing to spend £120,000, the rumoured price for a 30-second ad in the show.

Ancestry’s latest work from Anomaly was potentially seen by 11.3 million viewers on the night, and some of them might have been inspired by the Windsor family row to think about their own heritage. What would the real life suffragette featured in the ad have made of the two-hour interview?

Ancestry was in good company. There was a different major supermarket in each of the many breaks, with M&S Foods, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Aldi, Iceland and Lidl all in there. As were luxury brands like Dior and YSL as well as favourites from P&G (Lenor, Pampers, Always) and Unilever (Dove).

Tech and entertainment brands also got a look in with eBay, Uber Eats, Airbnb, Amazon Prime Video, Samsung and Virgin Media.

With ITV’s annual results showing advertising revenues down 11 per cent and pre-tax profits dropping by 39 per cent to £325m and, the rumoured £1 million the broadcaster shelled out to run the interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex should make some money, at least after all the catch up views are counted.