Old TV ads.

TV ARK
Lots of stuff here including Adverts mostly British though.

God simu, that Aer Lingus image you posted brings back memories, alright. That was the ad that used that flute music from the film "The Mission", wasn't it? That has to go down as an all time classic Irish ad, in my opinion.

Does anyone remember the Guinness "Surfers" ad? Would have been from the late 70's/early 80's. Funnily, I was only a wee nipper at the time but I remember it clear as day. There are two parts in that ad in particular that I remember well. There's a shot from behind of a woman in a bikini operating a camera on a tripod with a massive telephoto lens on it and you get a great view if her wiggling her arse at one point!

The second is the music used in the ad. It had this really cool, almost surreal, electric guitar music playing over it. Almost Jimi Hendrix-like in it's surrealness. But there's this one chord or riff or whatever they're called (apologies to any guitarists reading this! ) that's played which sounds exactly like a bit in Don Henley's "Boys Of Summer". And everytime I hear "Boys Of Summer" and hear that bit in the song I think of that Guinness surfer ad. If you listen to "Boys Of Summer" you'll know the bit I'm talking about. It's the instrumental bit before the chorus that starts "Out on the road today I saw a dead-head sticker on a Cadillac." Listen for these two guitar bits that sound like echoing seagulls or something. You'll know it when you hear it. Anyone who remembers the Guinness surfer ad well will know then exactly what I'm talking about in the music used in that ad. Classic ad and I'd love to see it again. Wonder is there anywhere I could download it?

And speaking of surfers, who can forget the classic Old Spice ads with that dramatic opera music playing over the images of the surfers. Not exclusively Irish, I know, but another all-time classic ad, in my opinion.

They just don't make them like that anymore, do they?






*edit - of course, the Guinness "Surfers" ad was immortalised in Christy Moore's song "Delerium Tremens" with the line, "As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad I could never figure out, how your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout!"

There are some great adverts available here. Not all old, though you do get Melanie Sykes.

No sign of the Guinness surfer advert, though checking my Book Of Guinness Advertising it was done by Arks in 1980 and was known both as "Surfer" and also as "The Wave". No idea who did the music. Arks handled Guinness's Irish TV and press/poster advertising for years - they also did "Anticipation" (the dancing Joe McKinney advert) and two years before Surfer they did "The Island", voted Ireland's best advert ever by the marketing droids a few years ago. I absolutely loved "Chain" (done by Ogilvy & Mather and available from the site above) and I remember seeing a cinema advert with an old bloke just chatting away about a great day out he once had and finishing it with a pint. Only ever saw that one once and I';ve no idea which agency did it.

I reckon anyone who was alive in the early 80s remembers the Old Spice adverts aidan mentioned. O Fortuna in the background, it'd almost make you need some Old Spice.

Yup, it had a great track from Dusty Springfield as the soundtrack - "Goin' Back"

People may say that they only ran that ad 'cos they didn't have the money to run any other, but I say Who Cares!

I remember being out foreign for a few years, and when I used come home at Christmas, there were only two things that would really warm my heart.

a) It's a wonderful life
b) That ad!

Normally I tend to rail against pointless ads, (I mean, why advertise Electricity. It's not like we'd want to go back to whatever came before) but I always made an exception for this 'un

One I remember was an ad for the Flake bar, the one with the girl sitting in the bath eating the chocolate bara dn waving her legs around in the air seductively, I used to have these images of her getting her toe stuck in the tap

The words of the song in the background were

Only the crumbliest flakiest chocolate
Tastes like chocolate never tasted before

I was addicted to Flakes for AGES afterwards!!!

I always wondered why they didn't just run with "Electricity Supply Board - we're cool as heck we are"

Electricity - Because Candles are Just Too Wussy

They used to show that ad about once a month until a few years ago.
It looks like its from the seventies. Weird ad.