TV Advert

Memories of the TV ad

As good as the Spooks and cereal packet were, it's what they represented that was so special, and this is what was shown in the TV advertisement, to great effect, as I recall. I probably saw it just once or twice and the details are obviously very hazy after all this time! As far as a I can remember:

At around this time, I had a great fear of witches outside my bedroom window! Perhaps this was prompted by seeing Winnie in the ad, though I don't actually remember her now.

Stewart Reid remembers the ad was: like a horror movie trailer with a booming voice saying that in every pack, "You get a freeee Luminous Spook."

He adds: The reason I can't recall the visual content may be that J.. and I were highly impressed by the voiceover. It seemed to make each word overlap with the next and we had long discussions wondering how this was done. Fairly easy recording technique*, I suppose, but that was what most impressed us.

(*Sounds like an echo machine was used).

Andrew Baker remembers the following phrase from the ad: Luminous spooks - spooks that glow in the dark!

Peter Watson tells me: I do recall the commercial which advertised the spooks.The narrator really emphasised the words "luminous spooks" and it would be nice to think that it still exists somewhere.

'Spooky' Steve says: I'm afraid I only just remember the tv ad. I just about remember the spooky music sounding like those guys who play saws with a violin bow.

Television Mail

Kim Stevens found some information about the advert in a publication called 'Television Mail' for August 27th 1965 and says: Sadly, there were no images from the Luminous Spooks television advertisement, but there were some details about the ad. If the information is correct then it was voiced by David Graham (the voice behind Brains and Parker in Thunderbirds) and the music was by Barry Gray (who did so much of the wonderful music for the various Gerry Anderson series)!

Here are the details from the 'Television Mail':

Duration: 30 seconds

Agency Producer: Erwin Wasey

Production Company Director: AB-Pathe (Bertie Tyrer)

Artists: Simon Milton, Gay Harrison

Commentator: David Graham

Cameraman: Teddy Catford

Music: Barry Gray

Brief Description and Copy Line: Luminous Spooks - Free offer, Luminous Spooks - Sugar Puffs, the honeyest cereal of them all.

A 'Simon Milton', a child actor, appeared in a film released in 1968. It seems reasonable to conclude this was the same person mentioned above. In the TV ad, did he go into the Haunted Manor, I wonder, or did he content himself with eating a bowl of Sugar Puffs and playing with a Spook figure retrieved from the depths of the cereal packet? I've been unable to find anything about 'Gay Harrison'. Was she a companion of Simon Milton's 'character', or was she Tilly? (And Winnie, perhaps as well?) If the former, then that would mean the Tilly 'artist' being uncredited. Is that likely?

Here is a scan of the relevant page from the 'Television Mail':

It shows the ad listed under a section called "Monday's newcomers". August 27th was a Friday, so assuming this was a weekly publication, then the first airing of the TV ad would either have been Monday the 23rd or Monday the 30th, suggesting that the TV comic ads of August 21st marked the start of the campaign.

The Soundtrack

With David Graham and Barry Gray involved, the soundtrack must have been of a high standard.

With Kim's help, I made contact with David Graham, who said: I wish I could help you, but at a distance of 42 years my memory of working on the commercial is very hazy. Of course with the brilliant Barry Gray's involvement, the Gerry Anderson connection must have been responsible for me doing the voice over.

As Kim points out, David Graham would have been hard at work on Thunderbirds at the time, over-shadowing any work on commercials, even this one! Still, it was worth trying and I'm grateful for the reply.

Barry Gray made frequent use of an electronic instrument called an Ondes Martenot. It is noted for its 'eerie wavering notes' , so presumably this is what he used in the advert.  To get an idea of what this music may have sounded like, listen to the first 30 seconds (which also happens to be the duration of the TV ad!) of the Fireball XL5 story called 'The Ghosts of Space', brought to my attention by Kim. 

Search for the TV ad

During an age when TV programmes were routinely destroyed once they had come to the end of what was deemed to be their commercial usefulness, what hope for the humble TV advert that filled the spaces between them on ITV? Presumably the TV stations wouldn't usually keep them once a promotion had ended. Whether a TV ad has survived the years probably depends on several factors, such as the archiving policies of the advertising agency and manufacturer and stability in ownership of the product and companies involved. Thus many Kellogg's cereal ads of the period, produced by JWT, have survived, while with one eception*, no Sugar Puffs TV ads from before 1975 seem to exist any more.  If other ads before that date were in any company's archive, we'd probably have heard about them by now. As such, ANY early Sugar Puffs TV ad would be quite a find. In fact, I'm not the only one looking for one - see here.

*That exception is a Sugar Puffs black and white TV ad from 1968  here, and you can see a late 60s style Sugar Puffs cereal packet at the end as well. It's not tied in to any promotion, so could well have run for years rather than weeks. The ad is on YouTube channel After the break, who also have their own website here. 

Of great, although seemingly unlikely, interest is another TV advert there from the same year for the weirdly-named Luvil detergent, a brand I'd not come across before. Have a listen at around the 25 second mark. That spooky 'music' has to be Barry Gray on the Ondes Martenot and is just what we would expect to be in the Spooks TV ad, based on his work on  the Anderson shows! (And does the voice-over begin to echo slightly at that point too?). As with the Spooks TV ad, there is no reference to the recording in any catalogues (see below). Is it possible that this was a sound-effect licenced for use? If so, was the exact same sound effect also used in the Spooks TV ad? 

Several copies must have been made of the Spooks TV ad for distribution to the regional ITV companies. Is it possible one of these has survived? A couple of black and white TV adverts on 16mm film had turned up on eBay in 2012. One was for Scott's Porage Oats and the other was for Capstan cigarettes. I couldn't find these in the resources listed at the bottom of this page, so before their recent appearance, both could have been considered 'lost'.

However unlikely, I'd like to think that somewhere, there is a copy of the Luminous Spooks TV ad that was put to one side rather than in the bin and that one day it will be rediscovered. In the meantime, ANY memories of it will be most welcome!

These are the resources I've checked: