Creative Corner Originals: Corona's lime guides, Cillit Bang's Barry Scott and Gillian Anderson complements M&S

This week’s Creative Corner is all about the originals.

Whether that’s a legendary brand ambassador returning to our screens, a beer brand hero-ing its signature ritual, or a retail giant turning a social media success story into a long-term platform. This week’s picks see brands leaning into their own quirks by embracing consumer pain points with a wink, and doubling down on what their audience already loves.

Corona does cutting-edge citrus

Like me, I know you’ll have been pondering that International Lime Day seems to come round earlier and earlier each year. And for 2026’s anticipated celebration, Corona has made it easier to enjoy its signature serve by harnessing a bit of self-awareness.

The struggle of fitting a lime wedge into the neck of a Corona is a universal experience and a ritual that is as iconic as it is frustrating. To solve this, Corona and Grey Global have introduced ‘Lime Guides’ which use food-safe laser technology to etch fruit tattoos onto real limes that act as guidelines for the perfect slice- so that every wedge is the perfect size to slide into the bottle.

Much like the Chupa Chups ‘impossible lollipop’ we saw last week, I love the splash of self-deprecation here as Corona embraces a genuine (and well-established) consumer pain point.

It’s as accessible as it is clever- with 25,000 available across over thirty retailers and three continents. They’ve even accounted for different sizes, so you aren't stuck trying to shove a big bottle wedge into a slimline can. It’s a super simple, tactile piece of utility that turns a piece of produce into a brand asset. Though, a word to the wise: even with a laser-guided roadmap, the success of your drink still rests entirely on the quality of your kitchen knife. Sorry Corona.

Bang! And the King of Cleaning is back

If you grew up in the UK in the 2000s, you’ll still have a slight case of tinnitus from Barry Scott shouting about limescale. 

After nearly a decade in the advertising wilderness, the King of Cleaning is back for a hit of witty nostalgia. Cillit Bang and One Green Bean have brought Barry (real name Neil Burgess) out of retirement for a social-first mockumentary that sees him trying (and failing) at everything from being a librarian to a fan-funded creator, before inevitably returning to his true love: power cleaners.

We’ve seen brands like Itsu having a lot of fun with cult UK meme heroes lately, but Barry Scott is surely the meme before the meme- indeed, before social media teams existed. He even once found himself the subject of a death hoax, as per other characters of British advertising folklore like Howard from Halifax and the Go Compare guy. There are very few brands so tightly lashed to an ambassador that you can hear their booming monotone voice just from its very mention (or Peter Serafinowicz’s ‘Derek Baum’ parody). It’s a brilliant play on nostalgia that understands some things never get old.

Gillian Anderson adds Chief Compliments Officer to her CV (and LinkedIn) for M&S

Marks & Spencer has officially appointed Gillian Anderson as its first-ever ‘Chief Compliments Officer’. Launched via a ‘recorded Teams call’ on LinkedIn, the campaign sees Gillian embark on her first day in the role in a piece of hero content, handing out ‘love that!’ compliments to brighten people's days. It’s the next phase of their "Love That" platform, which started as a viral shoppable social series.

Have we seen the "Chief [Insert Category] Officer" trope a thousand times before? Yes. Does my gut react with a slight eyeroll at the association with flash-in-the-pan PR? Probably. But this feels like a rare organic win. The ‘Love That’ sentiment, which has already racked up 20 million views for M&S on social, is a genuine consumer behaviour (that "Where’s it from?" moment)- and M&S is smart to bottle that.

With a genuine icon like Anderson to lead the charge, who feels wonderfully on-brand, the social media success story grows organically into a full-blown brand platform. I’d quite like Gillian Anderson to tell me she likes my clothes; now I just need M&S to help people actually take a compliment about what they’re wearing and negate that deep-seated British instinct to tell you how affordable/old/mediocre it is the second you say you like it. Perhaps the next iteration?

That's it for this week's Creative Corner!

If you’ve seen something that’s caught your eye, or if you’ve been working on something you’re particularly proud of, please do get in touch via emily.barnes@fanclubpr.com. I’d love to hear about it.”

All images from brand campaigns.