A Leader Is Born

1975
Sound
2m

Glossy promo launching the Leyland Princess.

All hail the Princess! This glossy launch film introduces British Leyland (Austin Morris Division)'s new range of family cars to potential buyers. The film alternates informative sequences in which the narrator, aided by both graphics and live action, details the Princess' functional features with more purely visual scenes, set to predictably cheesy music and lovingly lingering on her exterior, interior and smooth on-road performance.

British Leyland was nationalised the year this film was made. A final scene plays the patriotic card: supposedly set at a top diplomatic summit, it's replete with caricatured Johnny Foreigners green with envy of the urbane Britisher's shiny new 1800HL.

The Open Road

Whether you're going by road, rail, air or sea, this collection of screen ads doesn’t just get you from A to B, it offers a road map to an A-Z of desirable destinations.

Throughout the 20th century, screen advertising helped transform the car from luxury conveyance for the wealthy to essential commodity, 'hand-built by robots'. It saw out the last days of steam, and made 'the age of the train'. And it presented travel - at home or abroad - as a route to a better life.