Top 10 Adverts That Aged Horribly

<h4>Top 10 Adverts that Aged Horribly</h4>

Welcome to WatchMojoUK, and today we’re counting down our picks for the television commercials that look terrible with what we now know…

<h4>#10: Everyone Should Be More Like…</h4>

Back a few years ago, people had a very different opinion of this television personality. Unfortunately now, people have a very different opinion on Philip Schofield after a series of controversies led to him leaving his most prominent television roles. So when we look back on this advert by “We Buy Any Car”, calling for its employees to be more like the former This Morning host, the instructions are a little bit dodgy…. You have to wonder what happened to that musclebound statue of Schof. Do you think he got to keep it?

<h4>#9: Corden</h4>

Speaking of British celebs who fell from grace, it’s time for some James Corden. First there’s got to be the infamous tango advert in which Corden is harassed by a group of men with ‘tango megaphones’ but the fault doesn’t lie on Corden for this one, as the ad was actually banned because it encouraged bullying. Something Corden allegedly knows a lot about. One where we can blame him is his appearance on confused.com’s series of ads though. The real kicker here is how this one ends, where Corden obnoxiously books a table for two at a restaurant. Corden was famously banned from a New York restaurant after his terrible behavior - and he even had to make a formal apology.

<h4>#8: Outrunning the Press</h4>

Back in the 90s, the royal family was one of the most hounded sets of celebrity figures by the press. This was highlighted in an ad campaign for weight watchers featuring Sarah Ferguson, a.k.a Fergie - the duchess of York. The ad had the line “Harder than outrunning the Paparazzi”. It turned out this was horrible timing as just days after, Princess Diana would tragically pass away when the vehicle she was travelling in crashed in an attempt to evade the press. As such, Sarah Ferguson’s ad with weight watchers was pulled and the company lost a lot of money.

<h4>#7: Yorkie</h4>

This one may split opinion but many have looked back on this old Yorkie chocolate bar campaign with disdain. The series ran the slogan “it’s not for girls”, alluding to the fact that Yorkies are thicker, harder, chocolate bars that women can’t handle. Pretty soon, even the chocolate bars themselves had a no girls allowed symbol on them. While some argue it may not have actually been the intention of the campaign, this sort of laddish humor comes across as in really bad taste nowadays. Excluding women from a chocolate bar just wouldn’t fly.

<h4>#6: Not the Best Spokesperson</h4>

Ant and Dec are pretty much television royalty in the UK, so it’s no surprise that they’ve been used in a number of commercials over the years. That’s all fine and good, but there’s one set that stands out like a sore thumb. The geordie duo were featured in a series of ads where they’d be driving people around as part of ‘Suzuki Surprises’. Sounds pretty cute on paper, but when your advert shows Ant McPartlin behind the wheel of a car and then soon after he’s plastered all over headlines with a drunk driving charge - it doesn’t really inspire much confidence.

<h4>#5: Even Though…</h4>

There’s a history of British ads that use transgender people as a punchline, and they definitely wouldn’t fly today. First there’s the iron bru singing family commercial. It’s unclear what the joke is here - It seems to have just been used for apparent shock value. Then, of course, there was the cornetto ad that was on every five minutes, which relies on pretty much the same joke. The UK was a very different place back then.

<h4>#4: Juice</h4>

This is another one which divides opinion, as the Um Bongo ads are pretty much ingrained into every 80’s and 90’s kid's memories. There’s a good chance you can still recite the memorably catchy tune to this day. But these days, people tend to realize the campaign was a bit racist. And no, they do not drink um bongo in the congo. Arguably worse though has to be the Kia-Ora ads which feature very dated stereotypical caricatures.

<h4>#3: All That Glitters is Not Gold</h4>

There are few people that are as despised as Gary Glitter is in the UK - but that wasn’t always the case. Years before his disgusting crimes involving underaged people came to be known by the British public, he was featured in numerous ads, such as this one for Heinz lentil soup. Safe to say he won’t be making any more comebacks, eh. If we had to pick the one that aged the worst out of his appearances though, it would have to be this ad campaign for young people’s British railway cards… we don’t really need to explain why this is so bad do we?

<h4>#2: The White Stuff</h4>

God, where do we even begin with this one. It’s an advert for milk but it's about a group of kids having trouble with their barbeque. That’s already a bit of an eyebrow raiser, but it gets infinitely worse when the person who turns up to help them is none other than disgraced television personality, Rolf Harris. Harris, as you may be aware, was arrested as part of operation Yewtree for indecent acts, including with underaged girls. So yeah, having him around children here is a bad look. The tagline for the ad is just plain weird. Who’s made of the white stuff? All of us I guess?

<h4>#1: Anything with… Him</h4>

Unfortunately, there was a time where you simply couldn’t escape seeing this man’s face. He was one of the most pushed celebrities in the UK, and as such, he even popped up on a fair few adverts too. Jimmy Savile was used to promote everything from food to road safety. Given all the horrific things that came to light after his passing, it’s safe to say that these companies would love for these ads to be scrubbed from the British public’s consciousness. That won’t be happening any time soon though.

Which of these adverts do you remember? Did we miss any particularly bad ones? Let us know in the comments below.