Yahoo News Which of these once-beloved adverts would pass the 2022 test?
To some generations, certain phrases from pop culture are so embedded in the collective psyche that it’s nigh-on impossible to hear part of one without needing to complete it.
“To me”. Yep, to you. If somebody says, “Autoglass repair”? Frankly, you’d give yourself a hernia if you stifled the urge to sing-say, “Autoglass replace” in response. And to anybody over the age of 30, try hearing the word “Papa!” without responding with a desperate “Nicole?!” in an ‘Allo ‘Allo! French accent.
That last one is the fault of Renault, of course. Throughout the 1990s, Britain was gripped by eight adverts created by the French car manufacturer, each of which concerned the romantic adventures of a father (Papa, played by Max Douchin) and daughter (Nicole, played by Estelle Skornik) in Provence.
The premise was simple: Nicole, looking fantastic, would sneak away from her father to drive a new Clio, before meeting a man somewhere for a petit dalliance. The suave and silvered Papa, meanwhile, would in fact be doing much the same thing. So French. So 1990s.
It was all good, sexy stuff, and now, this week, Renault has been teasing a Father’s Day return to Nicole and Papa – rumoured to take place in residential London, and with a Megane, not a Clio – and with a real life, very different, very British Nicole and Papa.
Did Renault deem the old set-up to have aged badly? Did the original actors refuse? Will we get an update and find out the original Papa and Nicole were sent to prison for a series of elaborate honeytrap sting operations in the Marseille area?
We’ll get answers, I’m sure. But for now this seems a fine excuse to nose into the archives and see which other once-beloved adverts would pass the 2022 test…
British Telecom’s Beattie (1988)
The ad
There were many and all involved Maureen Lipman as Beattie Bellman (BT, geddit?), an elderly woman with massive glasses who – in perhaps the most famous one – rings her grandson, Anthony, to ask how he did in his exams. He tells her he only passed sociology. “An ology! He gets an ology and says he’s failed! You get an ology, you’re a scientist!”
The reception
People loved it. Dozens were made. The subject matter was gentle and relatable, Lipman nailed it, and everyone briefly loved BT.
The ageing process
Those glasses make Beattie look like she’s the founding member of a Brooklyn synthpop band now. Other aspects haven’t aged as well. It’s worth noting that Lipman was 42 in 1988, and yet cast as an elderly pensioner. Roles for middle-aged women have improved slightly. But only slightly.
Relaunch potential
Lipman’s the right age now, but who has a home phone in 2022? It’d be like running ads for sundials.
Diet Coke (1995)
The ad
Some women in an office get a call from some pervert, then alert one another to the fact that a local construction worker has removed his shirt in order to drink a cold can of Diet Coke. “Diet Coke break!” they shout, gathering at the window to leer.
The reception
FEVERED. Two further, similar ads were ordered. Along with the famous Levi jeans campaign of the 1980s, the ads were celebrated as an early example of gender roles being swapped in TV advertising. Naturally this morphed into criticism that they were sexist towards men. Which they were but also, come on.
The ageing process
There’s just no way a man with a fixed 11.30am Diet Coke habit also has a physique like that. It’d be Huel and a sneaky vape now, while swiping Instagram. Oh and the gender stuff, that isn’t brilliant.
Relaunch potential
High. But Coca-Cola will be terrified of being accused of objectification, so it’ll just have two fully clothed people drinking Diet Coke in silence, avoiding eye contact, in case HR is watching.
Cadbury Flake Girl (1960s to 1990s)
The ad
Various, really, but the common denominator was always a model eating a Flake in a situation utterly unsuited to eating a Flake. There was one enjoying a Flake in a steaming, overflowing bath (that’s just melting into your bubbles, sorry), another having a Flake on a baking hot day while trespassing across a sunflower field (liquid by the time you unwrap it), one mad fool going for a Flake while wearing a white outfit (maniac)...
As everybody knows, there is no appropriate place to eat a Flake unless it is in an ice cream. “The flakiest chocolate in the world” is not a selling point.
The reception
There are men of a certain vintage who still get red and flustered at the mere sight of that yellow wrapper, so seared into their pubescent retinas were those ads.
The ageing process
I’m coming across as anti-Cadbury by now but the main reason it’s aged poorly is that nobody wants a Flake.
Relaunch potential
Similar to Diet Coke, really: they’re in for a hiding in 2022 if they try to sell their product solely by showing a beautiful woman eating something phallic in slow motion. Also – and I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this – Flakes ought to be retired.
