Advert of the week : British Leyland
October 29, 2011
· 
Keith Adams · 
12 Comments
Keith Adams
Enjoy one of the strangest BL adverts you're ever likely to see...
Don’t let it be said that national stereotyping is a predominantly British pass time. This European effort (shown in Germany as well as, possibly, Austria and Switzerland) advertising the BL range in 1977 (hence it’s still under the ‘Leyland’ banner) is a charming sideways swipe at the individuals that make up this fine island state of ours. In other words… it’s a light-hearting fun-poking exercise aimed in our direction.
The cars served up in this advert are the usual cross-section of what was BL’s sprawling and mis-matched range – spanning the Mini and the Jaguar XJ, and rather a lot between. However, look closely at the end of the advert, and you’ll see that part of the company’s line-up is the Innocenti Mini. In that respect, mainland Europe had one over on us – and you can imagine many an embattled English BL dealer would have given their eye-teeth for the opportunity to sell the pert little hatch.
Enjoy the advert.
Related posts:
- Advert of the week : Citroën CX
- Advert of the week : Rover SD1
- Advert of the week : Move over to Austin Rover
- Advert of the week : Montego 1.6L
- Advert of the week : MG Rover corporate video
12 Responses
Anybody know if the voice over is by Richard Gibson? (Herr Flick in Allo Allo). Super ad, though I wouldn’t want to be sitting on the back of that Range Rover!
Funny, cos it’s almost true!
BRILLIANT!
This wonderful ad was shown on German television, so it is surely the work of BL Germany. There are also brochures with the same theme. In fact it is the only BL or Austin/Rover advert I can remember ever seeing on TV.
Great, very funny!
They missed out how British managers pocketed bonuses instead of investing in new products and British workers prefered standing on picket lines instead of assembly lines. These chracter traits where also evident in British cars of the time!
1 minutes and 8 seconds of bliss… brilliant advert!
allo allo indeed! listen carefully, i say this only once, very nice advert, shame there are no “britisch autoos” left to make adverts for…
there must be examples of our European cousins’ ability to laugh at themselves? There was a French car advertised in the 20s or 30s (in France) with a delightful watercolour demonstrating how the owner and his wife/au pair/mistress might make use of all the space
Fabulous, shame they dont make adverts about car like that anymore, they are very samey these days.Not individual like B.L.they really did have a lot of talent….
The voiceover was by Andrew Sachs (Manuel)
Have another listen
I’d like to see the state of the Range Rover after that jump….
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