Richard Brooks looks back at TV Ads which made their mark on advertising - with innovation, disruption and fun.

2025 marks 70 years of British TV advertising. Times have changed since the black and white, Queen’s English, informational adverts of that time. Now we have connected TVs and the ads served are as likely to be served by YouTube as a traditional broadcaster.

But, the power of great video creative remains, and that’s why Kinase is excited to be generating broadcast quality ads for our clients using the VEO3 platform that the advertisers of the 50s could only dream of.

And it’s also why we want to celebrate some of the great TV ads from the last 70 years.

Carling Black Label- 1989

Mediocre beer, excellent TV ads, and the first time I remember being called back into the room for an advert rather than cos the break was over.

Dime Bar - 1992

Tapping into a wave of fantastic British sketch shows, it may have had Harry Enfield in it, but the real star was the armadillo.

Blackcurrent Tango - 1997

Hits a bit different post-Brexit, but 20 years earlier it was all just a bit of fun, and even picked up a Gold in Cannes.

Guinness - 1999

Getting a bit more arty now but this one’s all about the soundtrack.

Cadbury’s - 2007

Two great ads, both in the same year. I’m not sure how well the gorilla would perform in a world of 5 second ‘skip ad’ buttons but at the time it was a phenomenon.

Jaguar - 2014

Car adverts are terrible. They are all the same, and the cognitive dissonance between the driving experience they’re selling and the reality of sitting in traffic does my head. But just occasionally even a car company can make a good advert.

Haribo - 2014 to Today

Showing that in an era of very earnest adverts, a little playfulness can still go a long way, this campaign still has legs after more than 10 years.

Dishonourable Mention: John Lewis since 2009

It’s not that I hate the ads themselves, it’s that they ushered in the era of mawkish emotional connections and slowed down piano cover versions rather than fun.