Product type | Instant mashed potato |
---|---|
Owner | Premier Foods |
Produced by | Batchelors |
Country | United Kingdom |
Introduced | 1960s |
Markets | United Kingdom |
Previous owners | Cadbury |
Registered as a trademark in | United Kingdom (1973) [1] |
Tagline | "For Mash Get Smash" |
Smash is a brand of instant mashed potato in the United Kingdom. It was launched in the 1960s by Cadbury, which was primarily a manufacturer of confectionery at the time. Smash was reasonably successful.
However, it was not until 1974 that Smash became popular in the convenience food market after Cadbury launched an advertising campaign by agency Boase Massimi Pollitt featuring the Smash Martians, who would watch humans preparing mashed potato the traditional way on television instead of using potato granules, and laugh at them. [2] [3]
The adverts of 1970s and their catchphrase "For Mash get Smash" were voted television advert of the century by Campaign magazine, and second-best television advert of all time in a poll of April 2000 conducted by The Sunday Times and Channel 4, beaten by Guinness's Surfer advertisement from 1999.
The brand has since been sold by Cadbury and is now owned by Premier Foods which, using its Batchelors brand, launched a 'healthier recipe' version in 2006. [4]
The original 1970s advertisements have been featured in several "best ever television advertisements" lists.
Creator | Country | Accolade | Year | Rank | Source |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Channel 4/ The Sunday Times | United Kingdom | The 100 Greatest TV Adverts | 2000 | #2 | [5] |
ITV | United Kingdom | ITV's Best Ever Ads (Top 20 List) | 2005 | #1 | [6] |
A television advertisement is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization. It conveys a message promoting, and aiming to market, a product, service or idea. Advertisers and marketers may refer to television commercials as TVCs.
Tango is a carbonated soft drink originating in the United Kingdom, primarily sold in the UK and Ireland. It was first launched by Corona in 1950. Corona was purchased by the Beecham Group in 1958, and Corona Soft Drinks by Britvic in 1987.
Boase Massimi Pollitt (BMP) was a British advertising agency which operated between 1968 and 2004 before being renamed as DDB London. It was purchased in 1989 by the US marketing services conglomerate Omnicom. Its lineage can be directly traced to today's agency operation Adam & Eve DDB London.
Cadbury Dairy Milk is a British brand of milk chocolate manufactured by Cadbury. It was introduced in the United Kingdom in June 1905 and now consists of a number of products. Every product in the Dairy Milk line is made exclusively with milk chocolate. In 1928, Cadbury introduced the "glass and a half" slogan to accompany the Dairy Milk chocolate bar, to advertise the bar's higher milk content.
Pot Noodle is a brand of instant noodle snack foods from the United Kingdom, available in a selection of flavours and varieties. This dehydrated food consists of noodles, assorted dried vegetables and flavouring powder. It is prepared by adding boiling water, which rapidly softens the noodles and dissolves the powdered sauce.
Cadbury Creme Egg is a chocolate confection produced in the shape of an egg. It originated from the British chocolatier Fry's in 1963 before being renamed by Cadbury in 1971. The product consists of a thick chocolate shell containing a sweet white and yellow filling that resembles fondant. The filling mimics the albumen and yolk of a soft boiled egg.
Solo is an Australian, lemonade soft drink currently manufactured under license by Asahi Breweries. It was first launched by Tarax in 1968 and fell to Cadbury after a takeover in 1974. The drink's recognition amongst the Australian population has been attributed to the brand's long lasting "Solo Man" marketing campaign, featuring numerous Australian actors. Solo and Asahi Holdings operates in the soft drink manufacturing industry along with various other brands such as Coca-Cola. The usual 375mL can of Solo contains 43.1 grams of sugar. There are and have been in the past, various versions of Solo available. These include Solo Zero, which uses artificial sweetener instead of sugar and there has also been a lemon and lime flavoured variant of the original recipe.
The Smash Martians were the stars of a series of 1970s and early 1980s TV advertising campaigns for Smash instant mashed potato in the UK. They were a family of Martian robots who would watch humans laboriously preparing mashed potato the traditional way on TV. The robots would then mock what they saw by chortling as they heard how the "Earth people peeled their own potatoes with their metal knives, boiled them for twenty of their minutes, then smashed them all to bits" – instead of using Smash instant mash. The voices were by Peter Hawkins. The catchphrase 'For Mash Get Smash' is still an iconic advertising slogan in the UK. The adverts featuring the Smash Martians were voted TV advert of the century by Campaign magazine.
Birds Eye is an international brand of frozen foods founded in the United States and now owned by Conagra Brands in the United States, by Nomad Foods in Europe, and Simplot in Australia.
Bisto is a popular and well-known brand of gravy and other food products in the United Kingdom and Ireland, currently owned by Premier Foods.
Double Decker is a British brand of chocolate bar currently manufactured by Cadbury. First introduced in the UK in 1976, its name derives from the well-known double-decker bus, with the buses themselves sometimes appearing in advertisements for the product. It is a mixture of milk chocolate, nougat with a hint of coffee, and crisp, crunchy cereal. This has proved to be a very popular recipe, being used in cakes and other confections.
Sheilas' Wheels is a car insurance brand based in the United Kingdom that was initially targeted exclusively towards women, after research showed that female drivers were generally more cautious, made fewer claims and had different requirements to men. This changed in March 2011 however, as a consequence of the EU Gender Directive, which stated that "insurers in Europe will have to charge the same prices to women and men for the same insurance products without distinction on the grounds of sex", giving insurance companies until 20 December 2012 to eliminate any gender bias in their pricing. The brand, named after the Australian slang term "sheila" for "woman", was launched in October 2005 by Peter Wood, and is part of Esure, the insurance group he founded with HBOS in February 2000.
Honey Monster Puffs is a breakfast cereal manufactured in the United Kingdom from puffed wheat sweetened with sugar and honey, fortified with vitamins and iron. The cereal was originally sold as Sugar Puffs, but was re-branded in 2014. It was labelled as Honey Monster Sugar Puffs for a time. The cereal is known for its Honey Monster mascot, a large, hairy, yellow creature introduced in 1976.
"Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet" was an advertising campaign for Hamlet Cigars, which ran on television from 1966 until all tobacco advertising on television was banned in the UK in 1991. The campaign returned in cinemas in 1996, continuing there until 1999, with the final commemorative advert and the modified tagline, "Happiness will always be a cigar called Hamlet."
Fingers are a popular chocolate biscuit in the United Kingdom and Ireland which consist of a rod-shaped biscuit centre covered in chocolate. Fingers are produced at Burton's Biscuit Company in the United Kingdom and sold by Cadbury UK, and are distributed in markets around the world, including North and South America, Europe and Asia. Since March 2013, Cadbury Fingers have also been sold in Australia, with three different varieties available.
Gorilla is a British advertising campaign launched by the advertising agency Fallon London on behalf of Cadbury Schweppes in 2007, to promote Cadbury Dairy Milk brand chocolate. The centrepiece of the campaign was a 90-second television and cinema advertisement, supported by related media purchases in billboards, magazines and newspapers, as well as sponsored events and an organised internet presence. The total cost of the campaign is estimated at £6.2 million. The central television advertisement was created and directed by Juan Cabral and starred the actor Garon Michael.
Surfer is an integrated advertising campaign launched in 1999 by Diageo to promote Guinness-brand draught stout in the United Kingdom. The cornerstone of the campaign is a television commercial, originally 60 seconds long, which centred on a Polynesian surfer successfully taking on a gigantic wave. Shot in Hawaii over a nine-day period and directed by Jonathan Glazer, the piece went on to win more awards than any other commercial in 1999, and in 2000 was voted the "Best ad of all time" in a poll conducted by Channel 4 and The Sunday Times.
Clearcast is a non-governmental organisation which pre-approves most British television advertising. It is originated on 1 January 2008, and took over the responsibilities of the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre. Clearcast is now owned by four UK commercial broadcasters: ITV, Channel 4, Sky and Warner Media.
Thinkbox is the marketing body for commercial TV in the UK. Its shareholders are Channel 4, ITV, Sky Media and UKTV. Together Thinkbox's shareholders represent over 99% of commercial TV advertising revenue through their owned and partner TV channels. Thinkbox's Associate Members are Disney, TAM Ireland, Think TV (Australia), thinktv (Canada), TVN Media (Poland), TV Globo (Brazil), Tenk TV (Norway), DSTv, and Virgin Media. Discovery Networks UK & Ireland and STV also give direct financial support.
"Go On Lad" is a British television and cinema advertisement launched by Premier Foods in 2008 to promote its Hovis brand of bread. The 122-second piece was commissioned as part of a £15,000,000 brand relaunch designed to reverse Hovis' declining market share and profits. The commercial follows the journey of a young boy through 122 years of British history, from the establishment of the Hovis brand in 1886 to the current day. The campaign was handled by advertising agency Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy. Production of the commercial itself was contracted to London-based production company Rattling Stick, with post-production handled by The Mill. It was directed by Ringan Ledwidge. "Go On Lad" premiered on British television on 12 September 2008.
Advertising weekly Campaign named the 25-year-old Cadbury's Smash commercial its favourite in its top ten of the century.