There are two commercials out at the moment that are excellent for the first 27 seconds. And completely flat for the final 3. Virgin Atlantic and Innocent Smoothies. Both British brands with strong personalities and something to say… Or to try to say.

The Virgin ad is very cool. Camp as hell, but cool because of it. You want to be on a plane immediately, the air steward emerging from the curtains offering you the ice-cream. By the end you’re completely immersed in their world that’s so better than your own. They line their staff up on a plane wing as one last steward soars overhead.

‘Is that Linda?’ one attendant asks another.
‘No, she’s in Miami.’

And the ad drops from the sky in a fireball.

Flick channels and you might catch the Innocent ad. Another send up, this time of Flash Gordon. The smoothies fly through the air with little capes to rescue people from their hunger. It’s daft and likeable and, like the Virgin ad, envelops you in their take of the world.

Until the final voice over. Using the Little Britain shouting announcer clashes spectacularly with what you’ve just seen, breaking the bubble.

Both ads leave you with an unexpected sense of insecurity from the brand. Maybe Virgin want to be ‘down to earth’, but the ad has been so over the top that paradoxically they already are. Maybe they thought it too much for a British audience and that we need a bit of a release. We don’t. We’re the last people who need to be told something is tongue in cheek.

Innocent’s insecurity is over whether or not they’ve been funny. That Little Britain announcer’s funny isn’t he? Let’s be sure and shove him in.

So let’s go the whole hog and stick to our creative guns. The audience is ready and wants to be entertained.