SHAKESPEARE

Synopsis

A series of television, radio and cinema advertisements for Benson and Hedges Hamlet cigars. The campaign was created in 1960 by the Collett Dickenson Pearce agency and launched in the UK in 1964 running until advertising tobacco on television was banned in 1991. The premise is that a man finds himself in an awkward or embarrassing situation and lights a Hamlet cigar. Lighting and smoking this cigar makes him smile and forget his troubles, the slogan being ‘Happiness is a cigar named Hamlet’. The advertisements uses a jazzed up yet restful version of J.S. Bach’s ‘Air on a G-String’. In 2004 a poll on Channel Four voted it the eighth greatest television advertisement. In one of the series a headless figure in white Elizabethan dress walks towards camera holding his own head. In the next shot just the head is seen, lying down he lights a cigar with a candle flame, takes a puff and smiles. This advertisement can be seen free on adslogans.com (accessed 7/2007).

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Medium

Film; Radio; Television

Technical information

Colour / Sound

Additional Details

Production type

Advertising/Trailers/Promos

Plays

Hamlet

Subjects

Media studies

Keywords

Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Sponsor

Name

Benson and Hedges