All entries for Friday 19 September 2008

If… you're drinking Bacardi

Between about 1985 and 1995 or so, I went to the cinema a lot. Like, every week, and twice a week as often as not. After ‘95, my circumstances and those of my friends started to change, and my enthusiasm waned. But one thing I remember as clearly as any one of the hundreds of films I saw is this:-

It had an extraordinarily long run, and while I started out indifferent to its charms, the endless repetition eventually seared it into my consciousness, and, more weirdly, my affections. It’s presumably intended to be aspirational, to tantalise its audience with the possibility that one day it might be them on a tropical island sitting in a bar with the sleeves of their white jacket rolled up, prior to leaping into their speedboat back to their, er, other tropical island.

That’s Nicholas “Hazell” Ball doing the voiceover, and even before I eventually tracked down the video, I could recite it word for word:-

Peckham, on a wet Saturday afternoon…
Next door’s budgie…
Auntie Beryl…
The Dog and Duck, down the high street… (or more accurately, “dahn the ‘igh street”)
Catching the last bus home…
If… you’re drinking Bacardi.

John Dale : 19 Sep 2008 17:37 |  Tags: Adverts |  Comments (8) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Standoff: XBox 360 advert

Writing about web page http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoA5mC5FgIw

I’m fascinated by this advert for the XBox 360:-

It was never aired, and it’s easy to see why (though it’s had a phenomenal afterlife on Youtube, with millions of views). It’s odd to watch, because it’s at once funny and clever, yet slightly disturbing. Was there ever a time when it could have been shown on TV? Perhaps in the early eighties, when the fashion for violent cop shows on TV was at its height?

John Dale : 19 Sep 2008 10:00 |  Tags: Advert Video |  Comments (8) |  Close comments |  Report a problem