Wednesday 19 February 2014

COMMERCIAL BREAK: Hamlet Cigars - Dracula (1987)


Gothic horror is so much an integral part of the British psyche and our national identity, that its utilisation in TV commercials was inevitable. This particular ad is an example of that now virtually extinct species, the tobacco commercial. Although cigarette advertising on TV in the UK had been banned as far back as 1965, cigars and loose/pipe tobacco could still be plugged on air until 1991.

Possibly the most famous series of cigar ads (at least with UK viewers) was that for the Hamlet brand, which would inevitably focus on someone encountering a calamity of some kind, before consoling themselves by lighting up the aforementioned cigar, accompanied by the voiceover "Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet...", and presumably inhaling the smoke into their remaining lung.

In these more enlightened times, they really don't make 'em like this anymore...


With thanks to YouTube user HallOfAdvertising for the upload:

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