Hmmm. I can imagine what Jayne would say about getting a new Hoover for Christmas.

I enjoyed looking through this collection of old advertising. Some funny stuff there, and a bit scary too.

Part of the reason these ads are funny now is because we can see how wrong they are, especially in their reinforcement of the stereotypes of subservient women.  I wonder though.  It is easy to sit here sniggering and feeling faintly superior about being more enlightened – like when watching an episode of Life on Mars – but I wonder what examples of contemporary culture and advertising might be getting laughed at in 50 years, or even sooner, as examples of how backwards we were back in 2010?

Any candidates?

Only 200 years? I suppose I'd have to fork out for a new poster after that...

Saw this advert on Flickr and was immediately drawn to the bit about the posters being fade resistant for 200 years.

I know that you can do all sorts of things with science that are well beyond my understanding so maybe you can prove that somethng will last 200 years but on the other hand…  its an easy claim to make: who is going to be in a position to complain if it fades in only 100 years?

Presumably the Spotify computer notices that in the past I have listened to Gang of Four, Billy Bragg, the Redskins and quite a lot of African music and decided that Eric Pickles would be wasting his time talking to me.

Either that or I have just been lucky.

Last week I tried to pay attention properly and there was an advert for Ford cars in the first break, but everything else was trailers.  Can the income from one advert really pay for an entire programme?  Of course, the show is sponsored, as so many are, and the sponsors get a little spot at each break, but does even that pay for the whole show?

Maybe they are able to sell more spots in soap operas , reality TV and talent shows, but I would have thought that Happy Hour was a reasonably mainstream show that ought to atract advertisers.  It used to be that every show on ITV, no matter how obscure or late at night would have its full complement of adverts.

It has been said that when there is an expansion of outlets for advertising companies do not increase their advertising budget but just spread it around more.  Are companies now putting so much of their advertising spend into cable and satellite channels, websites, and other new channels that there is not much left for old-fashioned terrestrial TV?   Certainly the cable channels have no trouble filling their commercial breaks with commercials.

The only thing that could have made it better is if there had been a close-up of him opening the bottle that featured real hands.

For comparison, here is the far superior original which was probably done for a fraction of the cost.

OK, so its water and not an explosion, but its still slow-motion destruction and music in the style of early 70s Pink Floyd. Is it a rip-off, an homage or just a plain co-incidence?

The commercial features the return of Johnny Vegas and the knitted monkey. Having failed to sell ITV Digital they are now back together pushing teabags. I know this because there was also a story about it in the Media section of the paper. But if you can’t wait until 8:45 you can always watch it online.

We used to joke about some of the adverts being better than the programmes they interrupt and now the world seems to be acting as if that is true – and having looked at the rest of the listings that may well be the case today.

This is not without precedence – remember those coffee adverts with their will-they-won’t-they storyline strung out for many years and the hype about the final one. Ironically I can’t actually remember which brand of coffee they were pushing.

Its all wasted on me anyway. Unless PG Tips are selling Fairtrade teabags I can’t see that I will be tempted by them, not after all the Fairtrade evangelising that Jayne was doing in Asda today. Apparently while she was doing some shopping she persuaded three other people to try Fairtrade tea.