Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- April 1997 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
1 VHS and part of 1 mp4 file (97.8mb)
Context area
Archival history
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Colour advert with sound, promoting The Observer.
The advert is made in the style of a Bollywood film with a wide screen format. The advert opens with the following tag lines: 'Low budget Sci-Fi', 'Physical theatre', Bollywood', 'Student flatmate from 1982', 'Dwarf thrower', 'A chip pan fire', 'Antidisestablishmentarianism', 'Mullet' and 'Eggplant'. As the tag lines fade away the following change from black, to red and white and enlarge as they remain on the screen: 'Bollywood', 'A chip pan fire', 'Mullet'. A man and a woman dance on the screen and as each line is spoken a small on-screen graphic illustrates each quote, these are a young boy smiling with prison bars superimposed over him after several seconds, the comedian Chris Morris, and the head of Tony Blair, who appears to be wearing a wig of Margaret Thatcher's hair.
Commentary:
"In this Sundays' Observer read about the ten-year-old old with sixty-four convictions who is forcing the law to change."
"And dark satirist Will Self explores the equally dark humour of Chris Morris."
"And Rolf Dahrendorf on why Tony Blair is actually Thatcher's child."
A saucepan containing a chip fire is then covered with a tea towel accompanied by the tag line: 'Interruption', a man and women are then seen as a fish swims across the sleeve with the commentary "Nice mullet!". Lastly, a large letter 'O' pans in to reveal the adverts characters until we can only see a captain's head within the 'O' of the the text 'The Observer', and the following closing commentary: "If you don't get it you don't get it."
The advert ends with an orange screen accompanied by the strap lines: 'If you don't get it', 'The Observer', 'Underage Criminals', 'Thatcher's Blair' and 'Inside Brass Eye'.
The advert starts at 7.28 on the mp4 file. Duration: 35 seconds.
Creator: The Observer Limited, 1917-1993
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Access via GNM Digital Repository.
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Access Status
Open
Closed until
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Also included on the VHS and mp4 file are OBS/9/1/1/78f, OBS/9/1/1/79d, OBS/9/1/1/80b, OBS/9/1/1/81c, OBS/9/1/1/82b, OBS/9/1/1/84b, OBS/9/1/1/85a, OBS/9/1/1/88, OBS/9/1/1/89a, OBS/9/1/1/90c, OBS/9/1/1/91/3b, OBS/9/1/1/91/1b and OBS/9/1/192.