70 Years of UK TV ads: the creatives’ creative (1955-2025)

It’s been 70 years since the first-ever UK TV advert, and to mark the occasion, Creative Moment canvassed the creative industry to discover their favourite campaigns.

It’s been seven decades since the UK’s first-ever television advert aired on 22 September 1955 during the launch of ITV.

The advertisement, for Gibbs SR toothpaste, while very much of its time, contains many tropes that would become ad mainstays—from diagrams to slightly surreal imagery. The voiceover accent is less ‘now’, it’s safe to say, but it’s a fun watch.

To celebrate this milestone, we asked some of the industry’s sharpest minds to share the TV ads that left a lasting impression on them. From nostalgic jingles to surreal storytelling, these ads demonstrate what makes an ad not just great but unforgettable.

Enjoy the creatives’ creative.

Heineken, ‘Majorca’ (1985)

“Not sure if it qualifies for the best ad of all time, but I’ll nominate ‘Majorca’ from Heineken in 1985. This rattled around my primary school playground way more than ‘Kum Ba Yah’. A throwback to the good old days when you could flick over to ITV for ‘Home & Away’ and catch a few class ads for beer and fags. Simpler times.”

— Kat Thomas, founder and global chief creative officer, One Green Bean

Milky Way, ‘The Red Car and The Blue Car’ (1988)

“My favourite of all time remains the same after 35 years: Milky Way’s ‘The Red Car and The Blue Car.’ Aside from being an absolute banger of a tune, it’s wonderfully single-minded and still head and shoulders above all confectionery advertising since for memorability.”

— James Cross, CCO and founder, Meanwhile

Honda, ‘The Cog’ (2004), Wieden+Kennedy (Director: Antoine Bardou-Jacquet)

“A few iconic ads come straight to mind, from Cadbury’s drumming gorilla to the dancing eyebrow kids, and that sweet corner shop moment where a little girl buys a bar for her mum using her toys. All memorable in their own right, but my all-time favourite has to be Honda’s ‘The Cog.’

“Released in 2004, I remember seeing it as a child and being completely captivated. Despite its longer runtime, I couldn’t look away. This meticulously planned, single-take masterpiece (created without CGI, and before AI was even around) reportedly took 605 attempts to perfect.

“Through a hypnotic chain reaction sparked by a single cog, every part of the Honda Accord comes to life, showcasing the precision and beauty behind its engineering. It was pure artistry: a clever, seamless way to highlight the car’s features (including electric windows, which felt revolutionary back then). Smart, satisfying, and unforgettable—it’s an ad that’s still lodged in my memory 22 years later.”

— Olivia Rawal, mid-weight creative, Pangolin

R Whites, Secret Lemonade Drinker (1973), Rod Allen

The lemonade drinker is often erroneously identified as John Otway, though Otway did appear in a later R. Whites advertisement in which he drank it in a phone box.

“The simplicity and charm of the jingle make it so memorable, and really, it's just lemonade that is worth secretly getting your hands on. No insane strategy, No overly complex messaging. The simplicity is truly iconic.”

— Naresh Subhash, freelance social and earned creative director, We Are Dumpling

Clarks, ‘Princess Shoes’ (1988)

“This was the first ad I remember seeing on TV and I was completely enchanted by it. It must have looked so different to everything else that was on at the time. Watching it now, it’s very dated in its vision of what it means to be a girl, but it’s strategically interesting—here was an ad that was building a whole world around a very specific audience. And my God, did I want those shoes with the key embedded in the sole. Never got them...and still bitter.”

— Gemma Phillips, creative director, freelance (ex Saatchi & Saatchi)

Levi’s, ‘Odyssey’ (2002) — Bartle Bogle Hegarty (Director: Jonathan Glazer)

“This was the TV ad that made me want to get into advertising. It’s the juxtapositions that are so powerful here: the aggressive dynamism alongside intense stillness, the latest jeans set to Handel's ‘Sarabande’. The mixture was so powerful that I imagine every household in Britain falling silent as these magnificent 60 seconds played out.”

— Gemma Phillips, creative director, freelance (ex Saatchi & Saatchi)

Old Spice, ‘The Man Your Man Could Smell Like’ (2010), Wieden+Kennedy (Director: Tom Kuntz)

“What made the Old Spice ads stand out to me was the clever insight that many men were secretly using women’s body wash. The campaign humorously encouraged women to buy Old Spice for their partners so they could smell more masculine, effectively turning women into the gateway for men to discover the brand. It was funny, strategic, and memorable.”

— Herman Dias, senior creative, NewGen

Yorkshire Tea, ‘Where Everything’s Done Proper’ (2016), VCCP

“Favourite ad of all time? Whoa, where to start? So many iconic works. From Apple’s fabled ‘Here’s to the Crazy Ones’, to the famous Cadbury Gorilla, to pretty much anything by Guinness or Specsavers. And that’s before I’ve even started on ads created for digital-only spaces – like much of Dove’s and Always’s work, and Volvo’s iconic ‘Epic Split’ (all of them top-drawer, inherently talkable PR stunts wrapped up in an ad). Emotional, artful, insight-led – everything I’ve mentioned so far has been intelligently designed to make people feel something, and to resonate deeply in their own way.

"But when it comes to my personal opinion, I’d pick Yorkshire Tea’s ‘Where Everything’s Done Proper’ ad, featuring the Kaiser Chiefs playing the hold music. Surprising, hilarious and manages to deliver brand personality, values, and product USPs without so much as whispering a word directly about it.

"What’s more, it’s a rich enough construct and platform to allow evolution, with subsequent, equally hilarious iterations featuring Sean Bean giving a motivational talk, Sir Patrick Stewart giving an emotional leaver’s speech, and Sarah Lancashire investigating who stole someone’s biscuits.

"More and more, it’s proven that comedy and humour are part of the key to unlocking creative effectiveness and long-term brand building – it’s obviously not right for every brand, but the Yorkshire Tea gang have nailed this. I raise my cup of tea to them. And – not that I’m tea-obsessed – but on that note, I’ll also give an honourable shout out to the Taylors of Harrogate ‘Why didn’t we think of them before?’ coffee tea bags ad. Equally hilarious and insight-led, but just pipped to the post by Yorkshire Tea due to its clear and strategic longevity play.”

— Fran Langdon, creative director, Splendid

Guinness, ‘Surfer’ (1999), AMV BBDO, Jonathan Glazer

“The one I keep coming back to is the 'Guinness Surfer' ad, with the unforgettable white horses in the waves. I can not think of that ad without my brain pumping out that that Leftfield bassline "dum, duhduh dum, duhduh dum". It's also the first advert that I can remember that felt truly cinematic.”

— Steve Monk-Chipman, head of creative, Bottle