Simples

The power of TV advertising is a very strange and wonderful thing. Some of the best adverts will stay with you for ages. Guinness and Carlsberg, for example, have a real heritage for advertising campaigns going back decades. Other Companies use a particular style, and, dare I say it, IBM is one such with their blue banner wide screen format.

Catch phrases such as 'not just any mince pies....' or '....three weetabix' are instant hits and make their agencies a tidy profit.So too the awful adverts which none the less leave you with an indelible image of the product in your mind. You've been Tango'd, E-Sure and pot noodle all have that cringe factor build it, but boy, we remember the adverts.

The adverts which hit the bar are, if course, the wonderfully produced efforts which fail to burn the brand into our minds. We end up extolling the virtues of the 45 seconds of great TV but have no idea what its advertising. I would give an example, but I can't remember any!!

Then there is the merchandise spin-off aspect, which is what this blog is all about really. The Esso tiger in the tank campaign in the seventies had half the nation driving round with tigers tails dangling from the rear view mirror, self raising flower men from Homepride were found in every kitchen in the land, and, the classic, of course, the Robertson's gollywogs were a class act.

Many special items are issued attached to boxes of tea, and t-shirts can be obtained for a nominal sum and a few box tops, but the latest and greatest merchandise promotion surrounds Alekandr Meerkat, the main man in the comparethemarkets.com advertising campaign.

Harrods have the sole contract for providing the dolls based on Alekandr, they have a limited edition of 5000 and were selling them at £19.95. As is the case with many such limited offers though, demand from around the world has been huge. So the owner of Harrods, in another attempt to get UK citizenship, has decided to withdraw them from sale and present them to a number of childrens charities including Great Ormond Street and the Shooting Stars Hospice. A noble gesture, and one I hope will not generate a black market on e-bay. In the meantime I will have to look for another collectible for my son, this Christmas.

All this talk of adverts reminds me of the way a cruise ship singer gauged the age of her audience. She threw out a few punch lines like bum bum bum bum.... and....you'll wonder where the yellow went.....and waited for the strength of response. Very clever, but simples.....