Heinz Ploughman Pickle: Lunch

1979
Sound
1m

An animated ad for Heinz Ploughman's Pickle, reinforcing the image of the logo rather than the well-known product.

Available to this day, Heinz Ploughman's Pickle was designed specifically to accompany a traditional cheddar cheese sandwich, long known as 'the ploughman's lunch'. This sense of centuries-old tradition is underscored by the approach here: instead of showing the contents of the jar, we see two shire horses dragging a plough across a field while the voiceover talks about how their owner 'likes things done the way they should be'. The horses then form themselves into the product's familiar logo.

The animation, with its clean, almost woodcut-effect lines, was created by the Richard Williams Studio, a company whose work has been appreciated by considerably more people than would recognise the name. Like most if not all professional animators, Canadian-born Williams funded personal work (such as his long-gestating, much-abused dream project The Thief and the Cobbler) through third-party commissions, including lots of adverts and film title sequences (The Charge of the Light Brigade, various Pink Panther films) as well as the technically groundbreaking Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Food, Glorious Food!

Peckish? If you're hungry for a snapshot of our changing attitudes to food then dig in.

Whatever your taste - reliable staple or indulgent luxury, square meal or satisfying snack, essential nutrition or guilty treat - there's always an advertiser looking to make your mouth water.