Iconic Ads: Araldite

While media spending on advertising may be decreasing, the excitement that advertising can bring to a brand’s positioning remains great & effective if done right.

In 1983, when Richard French made Ian Potter the Creative Director of FCO Univas, they had a meeting to discuss the agency’s accounts and the work being done.

Araldite was one of the brands they handled. The brand had been with the agency for years. For advertising, they were doing 6-inch doubles in D.I.Y mags featuring broken teapots and cups.

”It would be good if we could do something more exciting than these” Potter said to French.
” Like what?” French replied.
”Maybe we could stick something to a poster…
Bingo.

The hard bit was finding the right poster site and keeping it secret for the next six months till it appeared on Cromwell Road, London W4

The 48 sheet poster ran only for one week. And it was a real Ford Cortina, using Araldite to stick it on (but the local council insisted that there had to be belts and braces supports to support the care and thereby meet safety requirements).

It was just one site; for just one week.
Then they had another poster at the same place.
But this time with 2 Ford Cortinas.

And finally a poster with a big hole in it

This series was created by Ian Potter along with Robert Kitchen

Advertising does not have to be expensive. The key is to make a lot of noise and appear more expensive than you are by saying something dramatic, intriguing, and entertaining.