Fable of the Fabrics

1942
Sound
5m

"Gee, old age!" Malicious Father Time doesn't stand a chance against a cartoon cupid armed with a big box of washing powder.

Age comes to us all, even goatherds. A particularly vicious Father Time with a hit-list in his Book of Doom seeks to wipe out characters brought to life from fabric patterns. This neat concept for a cartoon washing powder commercial can be credited to Alexander Mackendrick, who worked at the J Walter Thompson advertising agency before making films at Ealing and then Hollywood.

Halas & Batchelor would grow to be Britain's biggest animation studio in the 1950s and 60s, but their roots were in making cinema commercials at Bush House with JWT. The longer production time for this complex Technicolour animation may have contributed to the fact that by the time it was complete, it was a little redundant. Stick around for the tacked-on ending in which the cupid returns to announce that, like many popular brands, the product would not be available in wartime.

Animated Ads

British animation won great success as an entertainer, but it has long had a lucrative second career in sales

In cinemas and on TV, animated adverts have frequently outshone the main attraction. In the early days of the cinema, animated ads were often relative epics, with five-minute comic encounters leading to a pack-shot punchline. The arrival of commercial television in 1955 brought the animated ad down to bite-size, but if anything they packed an even harder punch. Advertisers found that animation could soften the edges of a hard sell approach, and bring cartoon brand characters to life.