Popular Nostalgia

Adverts which we remember from our past. Adverts on TV, in magazines & newspapers, or anywhere else are often the most evocative memories we have! Get nostalgic about them here…

Sometime in the late 1960s the Cadbury chocolate company was advertising a new line which they called Aztec. Their TV campaign used the historically correct fact that chocolate, in some form was known to the aztecs of ancient mexico. I remember a setting of temple-pyramids and actors dressed in ornate feather costumes dancing and singing […]

Do you remember the Luminous Spooks, a set of ‘glow-in-the-dark’ ghostly figures given away with Quaker Sugar Puffs breakfast cereal in the UK in 1965? There were eight of them to collect and they could be mounted in a ‘Super 3-D Haunted Manor’ (as a comic advert put it) constructed from the cereal packet. The […]

You can now catch up with Geoffrey the Giraffe on his special nostalgia webpage which even includes the “Magical Place” song about Toys R Us with old-school computers and roller skates!

Tunnock\’s Teacakes have been around for goodness knows how long but both the TV adverts for them and actually eating one remind me strongly of childhood packed lunches and, as I ordinarily ate school dinner, school trips. Slightly melted Tunnock\’s Teacakes would be consumed readily on the bus to Beamish, where we went at least […]

A 1992 hit with all the prerequisite uniform: perm, big earrings and a lot of PVC. I love the setting for this video – how exactly do you book a missile launch platform? The German duo Snap! were responsible for this club hit and UK number 1 as well as The Power which was another […]

I can push a Push Pop, can you push a Push Pop? I remember these Push Pops being advertised at us very cynically during children’s TV shows so much that my mates and I all rushed out to the shops to buy them. We soon learned that Push Pops tasted pretty horrible and also, probably […]

In line with their striking pedigree of hit adverts and soundtracks, Levi’s took TV by storm once more with a montage of twisty dancers throwing their limbs about and doing Exorcist-style tricks with their necks to the wonderful sound of Pepe Deluxe “Woman in Blue” otherwise known as “Before you Leave” – shown below the […]

Levi’s continued their advertising history with a little yellow puppet that aimed to shift more of their jeans. The music and the furry little fiend took the world by storm – topping the charts and bringing out a popular imitation puppet. The response was so immense that Levi’s broke their one-campaign-only rule and brought Flat […]

The Mr Bombastic Levi’s advert was hugely popular in the nineties as the cartoon was clever and funny, but mostly as the soundtrack was so incredibly sexy. Everyone wanted to use it for their program features, soundtracks and parties. Apparently this is the Sting remix of Shaggy‘s classic. A great excuse to grind and an […]

Don’t you just love this classic? Girl (thinking): I wish, I wish I had a lovely surprise. Boy (thinking): Something to play with -and some chocolate. Voiceover: Kinder is everything a kid could wish for because, inside there’s a lovely surprise to play with, and lovely chocolate, with more milk and less cocoa. Mickey Mouse: […]

This steamy hot summer advert gave hundreds of guys a bright idea for how to break the ice. Stuck on a long-haul journey with a pretty girl opposite? Just hand over half a stick of chewing gum. The music is “All Right Now” by Free (1970).

Nobody really likes them and you get them every Christmas, but somehow Ferrero Rocher exude the aspirations of middle-class housewives everywhere with their gold wrappers and ability to be stacked into pyramids. I have a friend who once mentioned that she was enjoying a particular Ferrero Rocher only to be given an entire box every […]

“Holidays are coming, Holidays are coming” You know it’s Christmas when… Coca-Cola ramps up the advertising. This particular advert has become the signal for yuletide to begin. I heard somewhere that Coca-Cola invented the red coat for Santa Claus but that could just have been a self-aggrandising press release. I know the reindeers are German […]

In 1972 a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else […]

All that chocolate, all that chew. Just right for you, the Riesen chocolate chew! Such a catchy tune and even better toffee. Few sweets (or lollies for our Aussie readers) have such dark toffee or such a demanding chew. Made by Storck, these delectable chewy treats even have their own games.