CLOSE-UP: PEOPLE’S JURY - Catchy tunes please punters. The top two Christmas ads used soundtracks to good effect. Karen Yates reports

Catchy soundtracks were the way to win hearts this Christmas. The

number one slot in our survey of the 20 most-watched ads was filled by

the clothing retailer, Gap, which used a jazzed-up version of Jingle

Bells.

In second place was Bates Dorland’s Royal Mail spot, which featured a

familiar-sounding tune by Perez Prado, the man behind the music in

Guinness’s ’anticipation’ commercial.

Each month, Campaign asks two groups of 500 viewers to rate the 20

most-watched ads. When the British public were asked to vote over the

18-20 December period, the above two singalong commercials very firmly

nudged sex (in the form of the Peugeot 306 ad) into third place. To be

fair, Gap’s Christmas offering was also full of cute babies, which

proved popular among female viewers and contributed to its top score of

6.3 out of ten.

The Royal Mail followed close behind with 6.2 for the latest installment

of its ’what would you send’ series, featuring a man receiving a pair of

sunglasses to protect his eyes from the glare of his gaudy Christmas

lights.

Meanwhile, at number three was Peugeot 306’s raunchy ’car wash’ scoring

5.9. Created by Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper, the ad shows a seductive woman

luring a man away from washing his car for a passionate clinch on the

kitchen table. Fortunately for Mary Whitehouse, they turn out to be

married and are interrupted by their small son.

Next came the Christmas outing for the Cadbury’s Caramel bunny, while

there was a three-way tie for fifth place. Tesco’s Derek the Dodo

lolloped in at number five, courtesy of Lowe Howard-Spink, as did the

latest in Publicis’s Nescafe grind. Euro’s new Citroen Xantia ad,

meanwhile, shows what happens to two moving car pyramids when they

swerve to avoid a frog on the road.

Of the 20 ads reviewed, those for Homebase, McDonald’s Salsa Deluxe,

Nokia 101 mobile phones and Braun Straight and Shape came in last.

Each month, Campaign also poses two topical questions. This time we

asked whether it was inevitable that the BBC would eventually carry

advertising, to which nearly two-thirds (59 per cent) said ’Yes’. Nearly

a third (29 per cent) thought ’No’.

We also asked if anti-smoking advertisements actually worked, and a

depressing two-thirds of the interviewees thought they did not.

Audience Selection carried out the telephone interviews between 18 and

20 December, selecting 1,000 adults from a representative cross-section

of the population.

TOP 20 ADS

RANK  AD CAMPAIGN                    AGENCY                       POINTS

1     Baby Gap                       In-house                        6.3

2     Royal Mail                     Bates Dorland                   6.2

3     Peugeot 306                    Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper           5.9

4     Cadbury’s Caramel              Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper           5.7

5=    Tesco ’Derek the Dodo’         Lowe Howard-Spink               5.6

5=    Nescafe Coffee                 Publicis                        5.6

5=    Citroen Xantia                 Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper           5.6

8=    Royal Mail Business            Bates Dorland                   5.5

8=    Quaker Oats So Simple          Young & Rubicam                 5.5

8=    Stork Margarine                Bartle Bogle Hegarty            5.5

11    Sony Widescreen TV             BMP DDB                         5.4

12=   Hooch Lemon                    Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper           5.3

12=   Kodak Advantix                 Ogilvy & Mather                 5.3

12=   Motorola CD920 mobile phone    McCann-Erickson                 5.3

15    Tiny Computers                 Golley Slater & Partners        5.2

16    Boots Advanced Photo System    J. Walter Thompson              5.0

17=   Nokia 101 mobile phone         Grey                            4.9

17=   Braun Straight and Shape       Lowe Howard-Spink               4.9

17=   Sainsbury’s Homebase           Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO        4.9

20    McDonald’s Salsa Deluxe        Leo Burnett                     4.8

Source: Audience Selection Tel: 0171-608 3618.

LEADING QUESTIONS

Q1: In light of the pounds 101 licence fee, is it

    inevitable that the BBC will end up taking

    advertisements?                              Yes     No   Don’t know

                                                 59%    29%          12%

Q2: Do anti-smoking advertisements work?         Yes     No   Don’t know

                                                 26%    66%           7%

This article was first published on Campaign