Thursday 15 March 2012

A commercial break

This afternoon, why don't you take a break for a moment... a commercial break, perhaps?

Amongst the collection of bits and pieces of film that the Regal has collected over the years there are lots of short reels which are adverts and trailers. Advertising has always been a big part of cinema; advertising agencies can sell the prime spots before major films for huge sums of money.

Over the years, there have been many different companies who deal with advertising in cinemas; some of the more famous include Rank Screen Advertising, Carlton Screen Advertising and Pearl and Dean. These agencies would have their own adverts that would screen before a film as well, to let you know who had provided the advertisements for the film. Advertising companies still do this today; look out for it next time you visit the cinema.

In our collection we have a couple of reels of the Rank Screen Advertising trailer. This particular one was used in the 1970s and 1980s. We've included a couple of photographs and a film below. Do you remember seeing this in a cinema?






Some iconic adverts have been shown in the cinema over the years. We have adverts from the 1970s, 80s, 90s and 2000s. Can you have a guess at what these might be advertising?


Perhaps if we start singing "Just one cornetto...?"

The next advert is more recent one. Can you tell what it is advertising?



The text says "Out in Paperback from 10th July" - it's a trailer for the release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in paperback!

We've got quite a few advertisements from over the years, so if you'd like us to play a game of "guess the advert from the film strip" then do let us know. That's definitely a feature we can set up for you if you're interested!

Our film archive contains more than just adverts; in upcoming posts we'll be exploring intermission reels, cinema idents and public service announcements! Hope you're looking forward to it...

No comments:

Post a Comment