An ingenious commercial from Cadbury’s was launched in 1968, advertising Smash instant mashed potato.
The first commercial showed the ordinary potato as a rival, but those that followed moved on to the famous Martian series, where a whole family of Martians, including the cat and the dog, would laugh at earthlings peeling and boiling potatoes.
Viewers were not insulted at being called “a most primitive people” by the metallic creations – sales soared, and the Martians received so much fan mail the agency which made the commercials, now known as BMP DDB, had to prepare special literature to reply to them.
In 1999 the advertising trade magazine Campaign named the 25-year-old Cadbury’s Smash commercial its favourite in its top ten of the century. BMP DDB celebrated the accolade by showing the original 1974 commercial in Channel 4’s final advertising slot of the year at 23:55 GMT on 31 December 1999.
An ingenious commercial from Cadbury’s was launched in 1968, advertising Smash instant mashed potato.
