70 Years of TV Advertising: A Producer’s Look at the Past, Present and Future of the Great British Ad
Seventy years ago, Britain saw its very first TV advert, a 60-second black-and-white spot for Gibbs SR toothpaste. It aired moments after ITV flickered onto the nation’s screens for the first time.
That single ad marked the beginning of a new way of telling stories that would shape our culture for decades.
As Head of Production at Ideas + Outcomes, I have spent much of my career helping brands tell those stories on screen. Looking back over the past seven decades, it is hard not to marvel at how far our industry has come.
When I first started my career in TV advertising, the fax machine was king, we’d shoot on film, and delivery to TV stations involved motorbike couriers whizzing off all over London carrying precious Beta-cam tapes. Now it’s all done with a click of an email, a push of a button, and the upload of a file. Progress has been swift.
The Golden Age: When Ads Became Pop Culture
The seventies through to the nineties were the golden years, when television adverts were not just selling products but creating national moments.
Production meant big crews, big cameras and even bigger ideas. Campaigns like Hovis’s “Boy on the Bike,” (1973 directed by Ridley Scott, no less) became cultural touchstones.
Tangos 1992 “Have you been Tangoed” campaign (a personal favourite) became a viral sensation (back when this meant in playgrounds, not on phone screens!).
And who could forget Cadbury’s Gorilla pounding along to In the Air Tonight? These spots did more than sell; they stuck.
There were fewer channels, but that only raised the creative stakes. Brands had one chance to grab the nation’s attention during Coronation Street, and the best ideas made it count.
For producers, it was about crafting moments, with generous budgets, longer timelines, and storytelling that made people feel something.
The Present: From Primetime to Anytime
Today, television advertising still matters, but the format has evolved. The 30-second hero spot remains, yet it is now part of a much broader ecosystem.
Audiences no longer gather around a single screen. They stream, scroll and swipe. That means production teams think in multiple formats: 16:9, 9:16 and everything in between. A campaign might need cut-downs for YouTube, vertical edits for TikTok and silent versions for digital out-of-home.
The challenge is keeping the same emotional heartbeat across every channel.
Technology has changed production too. Virtual sets, AI tools and data-driven insights are now part of everyday work, but the craft still matters. There is no substitute for a perfectly lit close-up or an actor delivering the line that makes a director smile.
The best campaigns find balance between data and emotion, precision and play. Whether it is John Lewis tugging at heartstrings each Christmas or Aldi’s Kevin the Carrot stealing scenes, the magic still lies where human stories meet craft.
The Future: Smart Screens and Smarter Storytelling
The future of television advertising is fluid. The lines between TV, digital and social will keep blurring. Shoppable ads, personalised content and dynamic storytelling will continue to grow, driven by smarter technology and sharper data.
In the near future, your smart TV might serve you an advert tailored to your interests, starring your favourite footballer, set in your hometown.
It is exciting and a little daunting. The technology will move faster than ever, but the challenge for producers stays the same: to keep things human. The tools will change, but the story must remain.
The teams who thrive will be those that use technology to elevate creativity, not replace it. Because no amount of automation can outshine a great idea, beautifully produced.
Seventy Years On, the Story’s Still King
Seventy years on, television advertising still has a heartbeat. The screens may be smaller and the attention spans shorter, but the mission is unchanged: to make people feel something in thirty seconds.
That is what keeps producers hooked, turning a brief, a storyboard and a few shoot days into something that lives in people’s minds.
At Ideas + Outcomes, we help brands do exactly that, producing TV commercials and social video campaigns that connect with audiences wherever they are watching.
If you are ready to bring your story to life on screen, we would love to make it happen.