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I picked up a box of Bird’s Eye Potato Waffles when doing the shopping the other day, partly because I hadn’t had any in ages, but mainly because they were on a special offer. A day or so later said box of Waffles was taken from the freezer to be cooked for dinner, and whilst waiting I was idly reading the packaging.
There was a little bit on there talking about some bloke called Colin who was the official Bird’s Eye potato guru (what a job title) who has apparently been making sure Bird’s Eye only pick the best potatoes so that Potato Waffles are as good now as they were when launched in 1981.
Suddenly my Eighties sense was tingling, and it made me realise I hadn’t written about a food related subject for a little while, hence the subject for today’s post.
Bird’s Eye Potato Waffles are basically mashed up potato moulded into a rectangular lattice shape. They’re the kind of food that could only be manufactured in a factory somewhere, as you’d never bother to even try and make anything similar from scratch, it just wouldn’t be worth the effort.
They’re tasty enough (especially if you cook them with a bit of cheese on top, that’s my tip) but to this day the thing that always pops straight into my head whenever I catch a glimpse of a Potato Waffle is the TV advert, in particular it’s jingle which gets lodged in your brain and refuses to budge.
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There are a number of classic chocolate bars aimed mainly at younger children (those of around primary school age) which have stood the test of time.
Now here’s another classic and much used public information film! The Get Yourself Seen campaign may have been created in the 1970’s (as the fashion and the presence of a Raleigh Chopper attest) but this ad must have been played many times during the 1980’s as it has been indelibly etched in my brain forever more.
There have been some great public information films over the years, and many of them were aimed at teaching young children about dangerous situations. Whether it be learning to swim, staying away from strangers or not 
I defy anyone to watch this classic TV advert for milk from the eighties without putting on a Liverpudlian accent and joining in with the two little lads. It’s one of those adverts that have somehow got ingrained in the conscious of any Child of the 1980’s.
These days they just don’t seem to make television adverts with sing along jingles at the end, do they? I’m racking my brain to come up with some examples and the only one I can think of is “Compare the Market (pause) dot com“, and even that isn’t really a jingle but the name of the company set to music.
The word quatro (or perhaps more correctly quattro) was strangely popular during the 1980’s for some reason. There was leather clad rock chick Suzi Quatro, and the Audi Quattro, most recently made popular again by DCI Gene Hunt in 
Here’s a little bit of a poser for you. Remember this TV advert from the early 1980’s? A van is leaving a building site. Inside the front seat passenger starts to sing:
