Classic Commercials

This one looks delightfully camp and with some of TV’s biggest names, it must have cost a fortune.

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I remember the Canberra Television commercials, and yes they did mostly seem to play around the time of the Logies each year.

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Lots of great commercials in the past

The scary but very effective Grim Reaper AIDS commercial from 1987. Created by Siimon Reynolds as part of a 3 million dollar education campaign by the National Advisory Committee on AIDS.

Does this count?

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I seem to recall this Vita Weat commercial ran for years and years. https://youtu.be/ZR3ED0znYRQ

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I loved the way the fillings came out the holes when you squeezed the biscuits together. Like worms. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

You can’t not think classic commercials and not think Franco Cozzo. This ad inexplicably (and I recall seeing it in the flesh on Christmas Evening 2013 when I was on holidays somewhere along the Bellarine Peninsula) re-appeared on screens in 2013 - 2014 with almost no modification (phone numbers and website perhaps!) since its original airing throughout the 80s.

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One of a series of TV commercials for OTC (Overseas Telecommunications Commission) using nostalgia to encourage Australians to make overseas telephone calls.

The series was reported to have resulted in a 600% increase in calls to the countries involved.

It won a Gold Medal at Cannes in 1979 and was named the most effective in (the first) 25 years of Australian television.

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The well-loved ‘Face’ commercial as used by British Airways.
This is the original ninety-second version.

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He even inspired a novelty song.

Australian Drug Ads


A woman told the Australian residents that they will receive a booklet containing the strong defence against drug problem. After addressing the audience she’s says look out for it. Does anyone know why do all Australian residents (even with non-Australian citizens) receive a booklet on drugs and the main problem?

I think we might need a dedicated thread for TV commercials…

Just to kick this one off, here’s the original version of a fairly popular Lube Mobile jingle ad from the late 90s/early 2000s…

Here’s the later, more refined version which is shared around:

(btw, can the mods add a new ‘general’ category under TV History so we don’t have to segregate these topics to the major networks?)

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This reminds me of another OTC ad which I managed to saw on TV after I migrated to Australia in 1988.

I wonder what that kid’s life was like after that ad went to air.

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The Hit Network nights show undertook a quest to find that kid earlier in the year… don’t know it was successful or not

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The latest version of my Reading Writing Hotline ad compilation project, where I basically take all the Reading Writing Hotline ads currently on YT and compile them into a single video.
I also included some images from Alexander Stitt’s “Autobiographics” book (he designed their ads) of ads that are currently not in proper video form on YouTube.
Check which ones you remember.

Also it should be known that Terry Deary did the voiceover on the “Take The Plunge” ads (the as-aired versions).

Comet Transport. As far as I know they were subsequently bought out by TNT

Newcastle Permanent 1979

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Classic Cadbury Ads

Classic KFC Ad

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