Old Silk Cut cinema commercial

[buckshotlafunk77]

I love the way they took classic bits and pieces from "ZULU" an incorporated them into the ad.

[wafu1975]

Fantastic blast from the past!

[pikenic]

Awesome !!

[cqde]

I loved this commercial when I saw it in the 70's.

Back when you could smoke and drink at the movies.

A bar... in the Cinema? (another commercial).

Thank you so much for posting this. I have told my friends about this in the past but was never able to show them it.

Your old man was awesome.

[whotaughtyou]

SHORTCUT

BITMAP IMAGE

CONTACT

MICROSOFT OFFICE WORD DOCUMENT

MICROSOFT OFFICE POWER POINT PRESENTATION

TEXT DOCUMENT

MICROSOFT OFFICE EXCEL WORKSHEET

COMPRESSED (ZIPPED) FOLDER

COMPRESSED FOLDER

[spottybott]

a killer drug being advertised in cinemas with a u rating so this could be shown at matinee shows to kids un fucking believable when u actually think bout it

[cqde]

And people knew smoking was bad for them, but they did it anyway.

At least then we had the freedom to choose.

I loved this commercial and I was a teenager. But it did not make me smoke.

[thatguywiththeegg]

Holy shit, British humour at its best.

[TheBeatleman66]

when i used to go to the cinema at the time this commercial was run, audiences would say the words out loud like one big karaoke.The same went for the Piccadilly king size cigarette,everyone knew the words of the commercial it was a laugh. Cheers from Gibraltar

[srdjan455]

Hmm how do you make a john constantine out of this (seeing how this is his favourite cigarettes)

[charliesheenwinner]

An Actor friend of mine (Quentin Seacomb) told me he was auditioning for a part in, what he thought was a Zulu remake type of film, it turned out to be this commercial. he is in there somewhere

[lympia3]

i remember this at odeon manchester,im sure i went to see a bond film.then again im not sure,but great comercial.

[crockyoshighty]

I remember my mate and watching this at the Odeon and how very popular it was and even to this day, I still use "And by de way man!". Ta for the wonderful memory ! :o)o:

[bobestes]

Good memories..Thanks

[MACHAWK123]

A gem of a commercial

[JoeSparma1968]

VERY un-PC!!!!!...........but possibly the greatest cigarette commercial of all time.

[drift1879]

not sure it was like this at the drift lol

[drift1879]

not sure it was like this at the drift lol.

[hal9001]

Fantastic, haven't seen this add since 1980 at Studio 5.6.7 in Sheffield.

[pitchwhiteawi]

that's funny shit

[chardlb]

Magnificent! One of the best ads ever. I remember the days when this ran in the cinemas, a cheer used go up whenever this ad started.

But the writing was already on the wall, the end frames show the first Government Health Warnings. Ads like this were the tobacco industry's last ditch attempts to stay in the public eye. Hopefully, tobacco will soon be classified as the drug it is.

[neilo86]

Wow this is brilliant!

[FrostyA1]

Bloody Larf or What ? John Bird ex-`That was the Week` etc.etc, at a time when Brit Blacks & Whites could take the piss out of each other, but more importantly Themselves, & `Crease Up`. Neither One were going anywhere without the Other. To be Commonwealth is to be that SPECIAL, so splash me with matt whitewash or black gloss it doesnt matter a fart, only that Britain & Hers knew how to laugh & enjoy LIFE...F.

[Dragonrdh]

I also liked the Benson & Hedges cinema ads with Spike Milligan.

[aziziekam]

i'm from malaysia, studied in uk from mid 70's to early 80's & i remember this ad quite well. 2 wks to get used to the extra mild taste of silk cut. great british humour here & thanks for the upload. brought back lots of memories of my time in uk.

[BrianCrawford58]

Probably my favourite cinema ad ever. I remember it like I saw it yesterday and it must be 20 years since I've seen it. Thanks for uploading it. Yeah, the PC brigade would go mad now, but it's so funny. John Bird as the Zulu chief, the Brits say "Sorry" after bayoneting the Zulus, Zulus wearing glasses in 1879, the bugler playing Flight of the Bumble Bee, the Zulu chief saying "Carry on, Sergeant", and to cap it all the washing powder bit at the end. A masterpiece !!

[daxwax75]

My old man was one of the creatives who came up with this ad. I've uploaded a few others from CDP (the ad agency). They don't make 'em like they used to...

[ijmsmith]

Hi - I yearned to work in the ad business but they didn't seem to be recruiting when I left art school (even applied to CDP) so I've been a freelance designer ever since instead. They certainly don't make 'em like this anymore (shame!)

[fishbehindthesofa]

@daxwax75 My Old Man was playing Mr Benson (or Hedges) he's over John Birds shoulder at 0.23. They =certainly don't make em like they used to... I'd forgotten how un pc this was. It was directed by Alan Parker...

[Redrobot17]

Ah, the good old days. We'll never see blackface again - despite it's comedic potential!

[JBonthebase]

lots of catch phrase's here actually took! ''not on yer nelly'' was one !

[jaynottz]

seriously went down hill once gallaher aquired brand

[incubus990]

i love this ad

[agfagaevart]

John Bird blacked up! Speaking in a supposed West Indian accent, even though he's suppost to be an African. Total fucking shit!! Thank god the creatives decided to be more surreal in advertising.

[Dragonrdh]

What do you mean by surreal in this context? Can you elaborate, and give us an example of surrealism in advertising?

[StephenFiorentini]

love the way he actually says 'benson and hedges fag making company'

[KnockoffNigeI]

Hey that's John Bird from Rory Bremner, I wonder if Rory's seen this?

[ydhkku]

I enjoy a silk cut silver

[badsport]

mbongoland!!!!!!! Theyd go nuts now!!!!

Awesome ad I remember well ........ and dats about how long you got!!!

[marcusaedenellis]

...the fag making company in the Uk in England. Bloody brilliant!!

[thepiper84]

Fuck the PC brigade, a bunch of nobodies who want to make a name for themselves by being gooddoers, noone is going to thank hem at the end of the day, least of all the ethnics.

[grantfester]

What a shame the PC Brigade have prevented the likes of this Ad, I remember it well, & it's still as funny as ever! I don't think it actually offends anyone, but that could be my age talking! :-) Thanks to ijmsmith for posting it.

[routemaster88]

fantastic

i remember this at the local flea pit some great memorys.there was another one with john bird for silk cut.all i can remember about it was it was in a prisoner of war camp with a jcb does anybody remember that one

[MkVII]

It had a fat Commandant character plus Jack Hedley from the BBC 'Colditz' series, and various other stereotype characters doing a song and dance routine with an ill-concealed JCB digging a hole in the background.

[sledge1uk]

Hilarious! I never thought that I'd see this advert again. Sure brings back memories from the 70's. Brilliant! Thanks mate.

[Dragonrdh]

Hilarious! I always loved this ad: reminds me of youthful days at the pictures with my boyfriend.

[VicarageRoadBoss]

Lol my dad told me to type this advert in and what you know, it came up! He remembers watching this old add in the cinema. The posh Zulu is brilliant!

[Widdle70]

If you find this funny, you should track down a copy of another John Bird classic, "The Collected Broadcasts of Idi Amin". Its a comedy classic.

[QfromAirdrie]

Please tell me they haven't blacked up for that advert?

[lsdpond1]

They don't make em like they used to...

[jonivegas]

Funny enough I remember seeing this at the Quadrophenia feature too.

[classic2cv]

I saw this when I went to see Quadrophenia

It was one of the many adverts between the films

It was a carry-on style send up of the film Zulu dawn that was out at the time (1979)

I thought that the chief was played by the late Michael Robbins (Arthur in on the Buses)

It was very funny back then and more than 25 years later it's still hilarious :)

[DianaBlackwell]

Not Zulu Dawn; Zulu.

[Dragonrdh]

I think it was Zulu Dawn, which was released about the same time s this ad, in the mid or late 70s 'Zulu' starring Michael Caine was made around 1964.

[1viasha]

so funny, so wrong, lol

[benham3160]

Wrong on so many levels....

Yet.... I'm laughing!

[speffity]

The chief is John Bird, as in Bremner, Bird and Fortune.

[judgedredd123]

I was talking about this ad to someone today,thought I'd try and see if it was on youtube, and lo and behold there it is, fantastic, every bit as funny as I remember it

[tpwombat]

Thanks very much!!! I remember this so well!

Where did you get it?

[jm3s]

this was my favourite cinema advert. was that melvin "gloria" hayes as the chief?

[chuftain]

cheers mate.

[wilster200]

I first saw this at the Odeon Leicester Square. Everyone cheered when it came on and applauded when it was over! Bloody fab.

[djaaron1988]

Funny.

[ijmsmith]

It's amazing isn't it? Especially the 'chief' who is obviously a white guy blacked up for the part! On the other hand, the real black guys have very funny English accents. Love the bit at the very end where it almost goes into another commercial....

[longbow2211]

at cinemas it continued with a mock soap powder ad that got bloodstains out vvvv funny

[longbow2211]

I remember this fondly: many thanx to whoever posted the original

[shoobydoob]

1978/1979

[longbow2211]

saw it at release of Rollerball in UK if that helps date it

[stevenwilson1959]

brilliant my favorite all time commercail thank you smithy

[atomclub37]

Absolutely Brilliant! One of my favourite commercials ever.

[afcblandi]

thats well good, im have a silk cut right now

[colletts23]

70s commercial not 60s

[BTEXPRESS1000]

Great one! Actually from 70s not 60s. Any more UK tobacco ads to upload?