Entertainment Comes First in Top British Ads

They’re definitely commercials, because they pitch everything from perfume and automobiles to cat food and noodles. But the British television ads to be screened Friday at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art aren’t what Americans are used to seeing.

For the second year in a row, the museum’s film department will show winners of the British Advertising Broadcast Awards, with screenings at 7 and 9:15 p.m. in the museum’s Bing Theater.

Viewers can load up on British humor such as the two guys who complain about the bothersome habits of women--while they busily lick their dinner plates clean and return them to the kitchen cabinet. There’s plenty of sex, which is used to sell everything from perfume to cat food. There’s a steady stream of references to icons of the former colonies, including Hollywood star Steve McQueen, rodeo cowboys and civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

There also are labyrinthian plots and special effects that seem designed more to entertain viewers than to sell products. “British commercials do work very hard at entertaining you, so you’ll stay with them,” said Diane Cook-Tench, director of the Adcenter at Virginia Commonwealth University. “And, the idea that someone would try to sell something [outright] is not an idea that consumers or anyone in Great Britain is very comfortable with.”

Even the most ordinary products get special treatment, ranging from a 60-second kung fu fight scene that barely mentions the product to a series of spots where guys drinking the world’s coolest beer solicit hugs from everyone to stay warm.

Cook-Tench maintains that the best British creative departments have surpassed their U.S. counterparts. “Since the mid-1980s, the Americans have been following the Brits,” she said. “Back in the 1960s and into the 1970s, the British really did look at Americans as the advertising leaders. But now the tables are reversed.”

But that doesn’t mean American agencies lack creativity. “In Britain, companies are advertising to a relatively small number of people compared to the U.S., so the risks aren’t as great,” Cook-Tench said. “Here, the dollar figures [in ad campaigns] are so great that people get more conservative.”

While a British firm won’t hesitate on signing off on a commercial that includes a complex story line and only a brief product mention, U.S. agencies constantly are pressured to produce ads where product is obviously king.

“Here, the customer wants people to understand everything immediately,” Cook-Tench said. “But over there, there’s nothing wrong with a commercial where viewers don’t get it the first time. It all goes back to the size of the market.”