h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"Hello, my name's Barry Scott, here to talk to you about new Cillit Bang."

This terribly poor advert seems to have remained lodged in the national consciousness. Why? How?

Most poor adverts tend to resonate of "Oh yeah, that mobile phone one" or "The one for the car...", without people ever actually remembering brand names. So how on earth has Cillit Bang remained lodged in the brain. Is it just because of the ridiculous name, or is the advert doing something right? Hell, I can even remember the name of the daft sod hosting it...

B

Cillit what?

Bang!

B

What the Hell's a Cillit Bang?

Apart from a possibly dodgy misspelling?

Is it just me or is Master B making even less sense than usual...



What the flying **** are you talking about man???

I'm assuming it's some sort of catchy ad that's out at the minute. Since you live in France and I rarely watch commercial television, we've both missed it.

"Since you live in France"



**looks around him in confusion**

Damn, you're right!!! I wondered why everone was speaking with a silly accent and reeking of Garlic - I always thought I was in Derby

http://ulterior.razorhead.co.uk/article/535/bang and many others seem to spending a lot of column inches on it.

B

The advert is on every single break in murdochland, but it hasn't worked to the extend of getting me to buy the stuff. Is the presenter supposed to be someone famous or what?

the only reason I remember that advert is due to wondering what exactly they put in it. Must be extremely caustic. The example where it shines a penny merely by dipping the oxidised penny in the liquid and back out again makes me really wonder whether I'd want to have the stuff anywhere in my house. Presumably asbestos gloves are required to use it, and lead lined floor coverings to protect carpets and the like.

lol i think there trying (and failing) at the american shopping channels mentality of stuffing your brain with 700 examples of the fluids cleasing power within 30 seconds


the only thing thats missing is the annoying dude goin' ("really? it really cleans like that? I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE PRODUCT IM PEDDALING IS EVEN THOUGH IM BEING POAID BY THE COMPANY")

Re the penny, there is a brief flash of small print to tell you that the penny was in there substatially longer than shown, but I can't remember how long. Anyone remember (surely everyone did this at school?) how long it takes coke to clean a penny?

About a week. Phosphoric acid is not too strong.

B

My partner thought that it was a spoof advertisemnet it's soooo bad, but not as bad as the toilet roll ad with the 2 sisters, I had to turn over when that 1 came on.
DM

I hope they fired the person who though Cillit Bang was a good name for a product.

It IS a good name for a product and a great advertising campaign I mean we are all chatting about it now and we all know the name so it must do something right.
DM

Hmmm... now that I think about it rubbish names for things DO work. It's like the cliche that if you called a film S**t everybody would go to see it just for the novelty value


–––––––––-–-
Ask Mr. Dreadful: A3473435
I’m Listening.

and if in a couple of years they cange the name from cillit bang to superkleen or something ('cause they find out that cillit bang is a particularly bad insult to someones mother in brazil) there will be a thread on here called 'cillit bang- bring back the old name'
DM

lol