Nostalgia ain't what it used to be

[bungeejumper]

How about the Esso ad campaign 'You've a tiger in the tank', which came with tiger striped textile things to hang out of your car boot that rather looked like Tarzan's willy-warmer!

Ah yes, what a brilliant idea that was. Persuade people to stick a wick into the ends of their petrol tanks, and hope that nobody struck a match after they'd just brimmed the pipe with fuel. (Bearing in mind, of course, that many tank caps leaked like sieves in those days.)

My favourite recollection of that motoring era was the fashion for decorating your windscreen with stick-on bullet holes. Could look very 007 if it was done well. Which, sadly, it very rarely was....

The 18 year old lad across the road from us won a Hillman Imp Rally Sport in a national car magazine competition, just weeks after they first came out. He had it for a whole weekend before he rolled it and terminally stuffed it while trying to do something vaguely rally-ish. Easy come, easy go. I expect it was fun while it lasted?

BJ

[DiamondEcho]

Ah yes, what a brilliant idea that was. Persuade people to stick a wick into the ends of their petrol tanks, and hope that nobody struck a match after they'd just brimmed the pipe with fuel. (Bearing in mind, of course, that many tank caps leaked like sieves in those days.)

I think the idea was that you tie the attached cords onto the lock mechanism of the boot, so it would wiggle from the rear/middle of the boot as you drove along.
Wouldn't surprise me though if some people misunderstood 'Tiger in the tank' and hung it off their petrol caps instead...

ps - buuuut wait! Doing a google/image search on 'tiger in the tank esso', you seem to be correct, the hits on page one that come up with the willy-warmer thing DO show it attached to the fuel cap!

[bungeejumper]

ps - buuuut wait! Doing a google/image search on 'tiger in the tank esso', you seem to be correct, the hits on page one that come up with the willy-warmer thing DO show it attached to the fuel cap!

Oh yes, that was certainly what people did with them. And, as I recall, it was the way that the first TV ads showed them being deployed.

Or rather, the early ads actually showed a cartoon tiger whose tail was sticking out from the fuel filler tube. Unsurprisingly, it didn't take long before people were slipping them their petrol caps like a giant and rather floppy tiger-striped condom. And some people used them instead of a petrol cap. (They could be a great way of concealing the fact that you hadn't got a fuel cap at all, something which used to happen more often than you might suppose.)

Alas, the tiger condoms proved to be no more effective than the real thing at preventing leaks, and after a series of fairly bad conflagrations Esso changed its tactics and exhorted its customers to hang them from the boot opening, where they looked slightly less entertaining. But at least the death count was lower.

BJ

[LadyGagarin]

What do you have to do to get a lemon slice? Can someone point me to the back story?

[LadyGagarin]

What do you have to do to get a lemon slice? Can someone point me to the back story?

Ooh, just got myself a pip! I can die happy now.

[Instep]

What do you have to do to get a lemon slice? Can someone point me to the back story?

Ooh, just got myself a pip! I can die happy now.

Pips and slices seem to have emerged from the topic here.
http://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=413

You need 250 for a slice
Instep

[Fatrav]

We got a phone in 1965 , I'll raise you all a party line! if someone was speaking we had to say Sorry excuse me and try again later.

[LadyGagarin]

Thanks, Instep. Yes, I saw that thread but at that point the criteria were all a bit vague.

[redsturgeon]

You need 250 for a slice
Instep

I can confirm that >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>



John

[brightncheerful]

I vaguely recall reading in an analysis of Esso's tiger ads that more people could remember the tiger, not the brand of petrol.

[bungeejumper]

I vaguely recall reading in an analysis of Esso's tiger ads that more people could remember the tiger, not the brand of petrol.

I rather think that you'd get the same result today if you stopped people in the street and asked them which company was behind the ads that feature men wiggling their ample backsides in denim hotpants, or bouncing on their equally ample stomachs.

They'd remember the cross-dressing and perhaps a sense of outrage (it was the most objected-to ad on last year's ASA complaints list), but they couldn't tell you who was paying for the ads, or what they were about. Which makes it, in my book, a failed advert.

BJ

[stevensfo]

We got a phone in 1965 , I'll raise you all a party line! if someone was speaking we had to say Sorry excuse me and try again later.

I still remember being told that the correct way to answer the phone was to say the number. I think cold callers and security put a stop to that.

My late father told me once that he got someone to call his Mum on their new phone (mid 1950s) to warn about electrical problems and the precautions to take. Sure enough, when he got home, there was a rubber mat and wellington boots standing next to the table!


Steve

[Clitheroekid]

Although probably apocryphal this tale amused me at the time:

Many years ago a friend who worked for BT told me of a call they'd received at their fault centre from a woman who said that her phone wasn't ringing when people phoned her.

Not surprisingly, BT asked how she knew people were phoning her if the phone didn't ring.

"Because the dog barks" she replied. "When Fido starts barking it's nearly always because there's someone trying to ring me."

With no doubt a heavy sigh of resignation the BT engineer duly arrived to see what was going on. He made a test call, and, sure enough, silence from the phone but a frenzied barking from the dog in the kitchen.

Intrigued, he investigated, and found the dog chained to the radiator. He looked more closely and saw that the telephone wire had frayed, with the bare wire resting against the top of the radiator.

The small electric current generated by the ringing phone had travelled down the wire, across the radiator and along Fido's chain to its neck, producing a small electric shock.

No doubt some boffin will come along and spoil the story by demonstrating how this is completely impossible, so enjoy it while it lasts.

[Rhyd6]

As some of you may know I run a regular pub quiz but for the past four weeks I've done several others for different organisations and in different locations. To save the hassle I've been using the same table quiz featuring adverts and their slogans and the one and only advert that was remembered by all of the participants was the Levi 501 ad - you remember it ladies, the gorgreous hunk in the launderette removing his Levi's and popping them in the washer. Sigh - they don't make them like that anymore.

R6

[kiloran]

No doubt some boffin will come along and spoil the story by demonstrating how this is completely impossible, so enjoy it while it lasts.

Credible. The ring voltage is around 75v rms so around 100v peak. Add that to the 50v dc on the phone line so it can give you a bit of a jolt (been there, done that!). The radiator should probably have been earthed so that should have offered protection, but I can well believe that the story has an essence of truth to it.

Nice story!

--kiloran

[jfgw]

I still remember being told that the correct way to answer the phone was to say the number. I think cold callers and security put a stop to that.
Steve

And modern telephone exchange equipment has removed the need. Back in the days when the public 'phone took 2p and 10p (I don't remember using the A and B button ones), the mechanical Strowger exchange equipment could make mistakes. You wouldn't want to dial the number for your doctor and inadvertently tell the vicar about your intimate problems!

The dial mechanism of the A and B button telephones allowed the "9" and "0" to work without inserting money. This allowed you to call the emergency services or the operator even if you didn't have the correct change.

Julian F. G. W.

[swill453]

Was in the co-op yesterday, they had piles of the Radio Times on the counter. That brought back memories - Xmas Radio Times for the BBC, TV Times for the rest.

Thought I might buy one for old time's sake, but - £4.50!

I'll stick to the Internet thanks.

Scott.

[jfgw]

Was in the co-op yesterday, they had piles of the Radio Times on the counter. That brought back memories - Xmas Radio Times for the BBC, TV Times for the rest.
Scott.

And "the rest" was ITV. Depending upon where you lived, there may have been more than one region that you could receive with slightly different programming.

At the end of the day, there was "Closedown". Telly finished for the night. After "God Save The Queen", there was a short break before the continuous tone to tell you to get up out of your chair and switch it off. The picture would shrink to a little dot in the middle that would take a few seconds to fade, then that was it until broadcasting began again the next morning. That is assuming that one's television receiver still worked. The TV repair man had to visit a couple of times a year at least. The first colour sets had a mean time between failures of about three months.

Julian F. G. W.

[brightncheerful]

Mrs Dale's Diary

"I'm rather worried about Jim..."

[ten0rman]

At the end of the day, there was "Closedown". Telly finished for the night. After "God Save The Queen", there was a short break before the continuous tone to tell you to get up out of your chair and switch it off

And don't forget Test Card F which used to appear shortly after close down on BBC2