Five Iconic Television Campaigns From Food And Drink Brands

They can be slick, sensuous, colourful, cheeky, high-tech, heart-warming and mouth-watering, but what all food and beverage advertisements really need to be is memorable. 

The advertisements that stick in your mind for decades are those that really do the job. Where TV advert production companies meet big ideas and great products to produce something iconic. 

When was the first television advertisement for food?

In the US, the first food product advertised was Swanson & Sons frozen ‘TV dinners’ in 1953, but the UK was slightly behind. The introduction of ITV provided the platform for the first airings of food and drink adverts in the UK in 1955. 

Early campaigns included ads for Saxa salt, and Bird’s Eye Frozen Peas bagged the first TV slot in colour in 1969. Among the early adverts were the Heinz Meanz Beanz campaign starting in 1967, McDonald’s Happy Meals and Mars Bars. 

The 1989 ‘Accrington Stanley’ milk advert combines football lore and a mention of Ian Rush with a cheeky conversation between two boys.  

But, without further ado, here are our top five food and drink industry commercials. 

1. M&S, Not Just Food (2004)

You know you’ve made it with an advertising campaign when people spoof it. That’s exactly what happened with the M&S ‘Not just Food’ campaign. The high street store got us all hot under the collar with its slo-mo shots of puddings and a sultry voiceover.

The advert clearly worked as M&S claimed the sales of the melt-in-the-middle chocolate pudding went up by 3000 per cent. It focused on perfect advertisement production, filming the food in its best light in close ups so it looked good enough to make us drool.

Though technically not M&S, Aldi’s trolling of the company makes for excellent humour in an advertisement. Fake Colin the Caterpillars abound and Aldi manages to tread a fine line when parodying M&S slogans. It’s not just food advertising, it’s funny food advertising.

2. The Diet Coke Break (1996)

Another television commercial that used a little sex appeal to sell products was the ‘Diet Coke Break’. It was a different era then so perhaps the boldness can be excused! The aim, like the M&S advert, was to make viewers drool, though in a slightly different way. 

Featuring office workers taking a break and watching a shirtless construction worker drinking a Diet Coke as the highlight of their day. Etta James’s rich, bluesy vocals of ‘I just wanna make love to you’ make it truly iconic.

The combination of storytelling, aspiration, a bit of cheekiness, a great soundtrack, and an uncomplicated strapline works in harmony to make it memorable.

3. Galaxy’s Audrey Hepburn and “why have cotton…?” (2013)

In a genius use of GGI, Galaxy resurrected Audrey Hepburn, seen travelling along the Amalfi coast with a bar of chocolate. The brand also resurrected its old strapline, “why have cotton when you can have silk?” for the occasion, which was originally launched in 1987.

The commercial is all about 1950s nostalgia and aspirational viewing, positioning the chocolate as a premium option. It sets the scene with Moon River as the music and a narrative about Hepburn wanting to eat her Galaxy in peace and luxury. 

4. McCain’s family campaigns (1996 onward)

The frozen chips brand has been on our screens for decades, from the very memorable Daddy or Chips? 1996 advert to today’s messy moment campaigns. McCain focuses their television adverts on real-life dinner time interactions. 

McCain’s family-based campaigns often use real families rather than actors and the heart-warming moments take centre stage over the product itself. The Little Moments campaign, in partnership with charity Family Fund, is designed to tug the heartstrings too.

The Father and Son advert has a dad distracted by his phone and brought back to the dinner table by a little silliness involving chips. McCain’s adverts work because they’re highly relatable and imply that their oven chips can bring families together. 

It seems that McCain’s is also not afraid to push boundaries with ad campaigns either; they hit the headlines for using a gay couple in 2017. McCain stood by their decision despite the online abuse. 

Also, spoiler alert, little Sophie chose chips over Daddy.

5. Guinness, The Surfer (1999)

The Irish stout brewer knows how to create a memorable marketing campaign, from the early My Goodness, MY GUINNESS and the pelicans, which still appear on vintage replicas. 

In the world of television advertisements, there are many Guinness moments to choose from. The 1999 Surfer advertisement stands out as beautifully directed and powerful in its messaging. 

A weather-beaten surfer waits for the perfect moment to paddle, the white tips of waves turn to white horses as he surfs to the sound of a thick drumbeat, while a voiceover tells us “Here’s to waiting”.

However, Guinness's Welcome Back advertisement for a post-pandemic audience was the most emotionally hard-hitting of them all.

Soundtracked by an acoustic cover of Always On My Mind, it shows the socks, garage doors and rubbish bins whose proportions of black and white remind the viewer of a pint of Guinness. Pass the tissues, it’s getting emotional. 

In each advertisement, Guinness marries an impactful strapline with bold visuals and a great soundtrack to deliver ads that stick. All this while playing very lightly on the qualities of the actual pint of black and white.