This was just one of the cheeky sub-titles to accompany the incomprehensable newsvendor’s chanting on the mid-1980s television ads for TSB.
On winning the TSB Scotland account in 1981, when all the regional offices came together to form a single national account, Baillie Marshall Advertising set about creating the first of a series of adverts for the bank, based on our new campaign – Which Bank? We called on the services of TV director Sean Hardy, co-creator, producer and writer (with John Lloyd) of Not The Nine o’Clock News.
The popular, capped, Glaswegian chap, played by Ian McColl, was only one of a number of characters created in the series that would hopefully sell loans to TSB customers in a light-hearted way. The Bank Manager ‘Interrogation’, the ‘Country and Western singers’ and ‘Soothesayer’ were others from a series that introduced such notable Scottish actors as Elaine C Smith, John Hanna (of 4 Weddings and a Funeral), Peter Capaldi (of The Thick of It) and Andy Gray.
They all seemed to go down well with their intended audience and the press (see below) – so much so that TSB Scotland had to drop the ads after a while as they couldn’t cope with the resultant demand for loans!
Much of the credit for these ads ever being produced must go to Roy McGregor, the then (and first) Marketing Director for TSB Scotland, for creating a stir in the Scottish advertising world by choosing this virtually unknown, young bunch of upstart creatives from Dundee to handle his advertising, marketing and design. Indeed, TSB Scotland was Baillie Marshall’s first major, national account win that prompted us to open our first Edinburgh office that year.
More recently, as a small tribute to Roy retiring from the bank after 30 years’ service, I photoshopped the following image of him as the newsvendor with an appropriate caption, framed the colour print, and presented it to him at his farewell party at TSB House. (The red nose and missing front tooth were purely artistic licence as Roy is such a handsome chap, really!)