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Every so often a television advert comes along that hooks the nations interest. It might be because it’s particularly clever, or very funny, or perhaps it’s just so incredibly annoying that it somehow lodges in your mind and you just can’t shake the damn thing out. The Shake ‘n’ Vac advert is a particularly good example of this phenomenon, as are the adverts from the late 1980’s for Ariston home appliances.
First of all take a piece of electro pop music that sounds like it’s been ripped straight out of an old computer game. Add in a few robotic sounding vocals and top it all off with some flying frozen chickens and a little animated guy made out of some fried eggs, sausages and a couple of cucumbers. For that final finishing touch end with a repeating phrase consisting of just two words – “and on”.
Sounds pretty dreadful right? Well, yes, but so dreadful that you find yourself glued to the television. Whether Ariston sold more washing machines or not I have no idea, but it must have been fairly successful since they used variations on the “and on and on and on” theme for several years to follow.
Check out the clip below for our fried egg sausagey cucumbery friend, and also his mate the pots and pans man with cups for eyes and plates for lips. Classic! If that’s the right word…
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You surely can’t have failed to have heard by now that pop legend Michael Jackson died of a heart attack yesterday afternoon, aged 50. Whilst he may have courted controversy quite frequently there is no denying that he leaves a massive legacy to the music industry, and can be rightly compared to such legends as Elvis Presley and John Lennon.
Downfall was one of those games that I always wanted, but no matter how much I hinted or wrote it on my Christmas list Santa somehow failed to bring me my own copy. Luckily a cousin of mine did get one for Christmas one year, so I did get to play it, but I liked it so much that just made me want my own one all the more.
There were some great TV shows in the 1980’s, and then there were some not so great ones too. Sadly falling into the latter category is the BBC show Captain Zep – Super Space Detective which ran for two series from 1983 to 1984. Actually, it may just have been called Captain Zep, but the theme music called him by this title so that’s what I’m going with.
Think back about the band Bros. If you remember them then I bet you immediately think of Matt and Luke Goss, the blonde twins in ripped jeans and leather jackets. If you weren’t a fan then you may have forgotten that Bros actually consisted of a third member, that being Craig Logan. Well, I’d forgotten about him, anyway.
In 1981 toy manufacturer Mattel released 
