One British television advertising campaign which flopped disastrously was the 1960 commercial for Strand cigarettes.
Based on the Frank Sinatra film, Pal Joey, the advert was directed by Carol Reed (who had directed The Third Man) and showed actor Terence Brook as the mysterious man lighting up a Strand cigarette on a street corner and a voice-over declaring, “You’re never alone with a Strand – the cigarette of the moment”.
The commercial was filmed on a cold and foggy night in 1960 outside Australia House in London.
It was hugely popular, and Brook became a celebrity overnight, with the accompanying Lonely Man Theme reaching #39 on the charts. Yet, as much as people loved it, they didn’t buy the product and the campaign was soon discontinued.
The theory was that viewers believed that if they smoked Strand, they would end up as lonely as the chap on the deserted street corner in the commercial.
Strand cost 3s 2d for a packet of twenty at the time.
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