Cadburys Milk Tray 1970’s

Milk Tray is a brand of boxed chocolates currently manufactured by Cadbury. Introduced by Cadbury UK in 1915, it is one of the longest running brands in the confectioner’s portfolio. Milk Tray is sold in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, New York City, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

The name ‘Tray’ derived from the way in which the original assortment was delivered to the shops. Originally Milk Tray was packed in five and a half pound boxes, arranged on trays from which it was sold loose to customers.

The pack design has been regularly updated and the assortment itself has changed in line with consumer preferences, and today it is still one of the most popular boxes of chocolates in the UK selling over 8 million boxes per annum.

From 1968 to 2003, and since 2016, the chocolate is advertised by the ‘Milk Tray Man’, a tough James Bond–style figure who undertakes daunting ‘raids’ to surreptitiously deliver a box of Milk Tray chocolates to a lady. The original tagline was And all because the lady loves Milk Tray.A YouGov poll saw them ranked the 16th most famous confectionery in the UK.

Info gleaned from Wikipedia

1980s Atari 2600 UK

Atari_2600Atari Inc. had purchased an engineering think tank in 1973 called Cyan Engineering to research next-generation video game systems, and had been working on a prototype known as “Stella” (named after one of the engineers’ bicycles) for some time. Unlike prior generations of machines that used custom logic to play a small number of games, its core was a complete CPU, the famous MOS Technology 6502 in a cost-reduced version, known as the 6507. It was combined with a RAM-and-I/O chip, the MOS Technology 6532, and a display and sound chip known as the Television Interface Adapter, (TIA). The first two versions of the machine contain a fourth chip, a standard CMOS logic buffer IC, making Stella cost-effective. Some later versions of the console eliminated the buffer chip.

Programs for small computers were generally stored on cassette tape, disk or paper tape. By the early 1970s, Hewlett Packard manufactured desktop computers costing thousands of dollars such as the HP 9830, which packaged Read Only Memory (ROM) into removable cartridges to add special programming features, and these were being considered for use in games. At first, the design was not going to be cartridge-based, but after seeing a “fake” cartridge system on another machine, they realized they could place the games on cartridges essentially for the price of the connector and packaging.

Info gleaned from Wikipedia

1970s Imperial Leather – Tahiti Looks Nice

leatherThe brand goes all the way back to 1768 when a Russian nobleman called Count Orlof commissioned a brand of perfume from Bayleys of Bond Street in London. The perfume was called ‘Eau de Cologne Imperiale Russe’. Russia leather was a high-quality leather exported widely from Russia and recognisable by a distinctive aroma from its birch oil tanning process. In 1921 Bayleys was acquired by Cussons Sons & Co, chaired by Alexander Tom Cussons. It was not until some years later in 1938 that Alex Cussons used the original perfume and created Cussons Imperial Leather soap and other toiletries.  The soap was initially called ‘Imperiale Russian Leather’, but was soon renamed to Imperial Leather. In 1975 the Cussons Group was itself acquired by Paterson Zochonis, recently renamed to PZ Cussons.

1973 – R Whites Lemonade (Secret Lemonade Drinker)

Secret lemonade drinkerIn 1973 the popular Secret Lemonade Drinker advertising campaign was launched, devised by Rod Allen who wrote the slogan. The adverts featured the actor and mime Julian Chagrin, dubbed with the voice of Ross MacManus (father of Elvis Costello, then called Declan MacManus). MacManus wrote the song, with his son providing the backing vocals.

“1973 saw the launch of the brand’s most famous advertising campaign, ‘The Secret Lemonade Drinker’, which remained on screen until 1984. The ad featured a man in striped pyjamas creeping downstairs to raid the fridge for R Whites Lemonade. Ross MacManus (the father of singer Elvis Costello) wrote and sang the original song with his teenage son, providing backing vocals. The ad won a silver award at the 1974 International Advertising Festival.” 

The lemonade drinker is often erroneously identified as John Otway, though Otway did appear in a later R. Whites advertisement in which he drank it in a phone box.

Info gleaned from Wikipedia

1979 WH Smith Christmas

FileWHSmithIn 1792, Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna established the business as a news vendor in Little Grosvenor Street, London.  After their deaths, the business — valued in 1812 at £1,280 —(about ~63764 in 2012, adjusted by inflation) was taken over by their youngest son William Henry Smith, and in 1846 the firm became W H Smith & Sonwhen his only son, also William Henry, became a partner. The firm took advantage of the railway boom by opening newsstands on railway stations, starting with Euston in 1848.  In 1850 the firm opened depots in Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool.  The younger W H Smith used the success of the firm as a springboard into politics, becoming an MP in 1868 and serving as a minister in several Conservative governments.

Info gleaned from Wikipedia

1979 Cinzano Rose

Cinzano_logo1979 Cinzano Rose featuring Joan Collins, Leonard Rossiter, Omar Sharif & Gareth Hunt.

Cinzano vermouths date back to 1757 and the Turin herbal shop of two brothers, Giovanni Giacomo and Carlo Stefano Cinzano, who created a new “vermouth rosso” (red vermouth) using “aromatic plants from the Italian Alps in a [still-secret] recipe combining 35 ingredients (including marjoram,thyme and [a species of Achillea called] musk yarrow)”.  What became known as the “vermouth of Turin” proved popular with the bourgeoisie of Turin and, later, Casanova.

Cinzano Bianco followed, based on a different combination of herbs that included artemisia (wormwood), cinnamon, cloves, citrus and gentian; it was followed by an Extra Dry version.  Exports began in the 1890s, to Argentina, Brazil and the USA, among others.  In Paris in 1912, Cinzano was the first product to be advertised with a neon sign.

Info gleaned from Wikipedia