In 1987, the Lowe Howard-Spink Marschalk advertising agency created a campaign that included three television commercials for the Mobil Oil Company to promote the latter's fuel products. Long after the demise of the original 'Dan Dare' from Eagle, these affectionately parodied the Frank Hampson model, rather than later re-incarnations. The commercials were filmed at Shepperton Studios by production company Lewin and Watson. In this parody it is Digby who is the brains behind the team, extolling to a rather dim Dan Dare the virtues of Mobil’s synthetic oil, lead-free petrol and diesel.Number 1: Rocket to Nowhere
Number 2: Passage to Dalmik
Number 3: Mekon Ahoy!
These videos were originally posted on Google Videos by Peter Inns who has three Dan Dare related sites at www.dandare.org, www.dandare.net and www.dandare.net.uk
You might be interested to know that at the same time as these commercials and poster were done, I worked in an ad-agency Doyle Dane Bernbach.
ReplyDeleteI heard from some mates they were doing the DD work, and needed an
artist to help with the poster (and, I believe, some other work, but I can't tell you what).
I immediately told them about
Keith Watson, who I explained worked on the original strip. I got a delightful note from Keith
about a couple of months after the job, saying thanks for putting his name forward. I believe they paid him rather well.
Alastair Crompton
Alastair, thanks for the info. Keith deserved his reward! I've seen it commented somewhere else that the campaign probably did more for Dan Dare than it did for promoting Mobil's products - I wouldn't know about that, but not too long after this, in 1989, Keith was back drawing the real Dan Dare in the 'new' Eagle.
ReplyDeleteWill.
Did DD get more out of the Mobil campaign than Mobile? Very likely.
ReplyDeleteI never had to advertise oil, but when you think everyone knows what it is, where to get it, what it costs, the sizes it comes in, how to use it, and what it's meant to do, there isn't much left for a poor copywriter to say. Best Mobile campaign ever was done by the New York office of Doyle Dane Bernbach. It was all about safe driving, with the slogan 'We want you to live'. The ads were dramatic, emotional, empathetic and vividly memorable. Best oil campaign ever, and it was smothered in Awards. Later it was one of the few campaigns that made the Advertising Hall of Fame.