Has to be has to be my favourite ad in the world ...ever!

These would also be up there in 'Top 10 All-time Ads':

and of course - we all adore...

I'll be your dog

Two that have not left my head are:

1. Tommy Balls. A giant warehouse full of cheap shoes; every six months I'd be dragged there with the family. Excitable voiceover: "Come to TOMMY BALLS, Hart Street, Blackburn!"

2. Warrington-Runcorn. Exciting opportunities for your business. You could ring Eileen Bilton on 32123 to find out.

Until the late 70's most of their local ads were cinema style slides with a voice over. This was one of the few exceptions;

ATV in the Midlands ran collections of obviously bargain basement ads on a Sunday afternoon. They were exactly the same as the old local cinema ads - a generic still image with a short voiceover for a local business.

I seem to remember they were called 'telespots' (??) and had their own introductory jingle.

EDIT: http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/adverts/regional.html is a trove of regional ads from the 1970s.

Unless you live in the Tyne Tees region, you won't have been subjected to the hideous adverts of Frank's The Flooring Store and their grammatically incorrect tag-line that gets bellowed out at the end of each one.

So here's an example:

as it plays havoc with my laptop - even having lots of youtube links on the page slows it right down - but I couldn't resist the lure of Shackleton's High Seat Chairs!

'They've over a hundred to choose from' - yes, but hasn't she noticed they're all exactly the same!

Good old Brentford Nylons. Back in the glorious '70's most things were orange and brown and our sheets gave you static shocks.

I live in the sticks, so I wouldn't know, but Mattress Mick makes me want to have a nice lie-down...

I SAY YER BUY ONE, YER GET ONE FREE!

Double glazing in Granadaland. Presented by a bearded, balding man in a rather bizarre coat. Either a local comedian or the owner of the company himself, depending on who you believe.

No, I've no idea what the company is called.

TRUST ME - IT'S FREE FITTIN'!

The Assembly Rooms in Norwich used to have a cinema in it (I don't think they put it back after the fire). It was not state of the art but was cheap to see films "coming around again" - i.e. the ones you missed when they came out 6 months earlier, or the ones that the big cinemas weren't going to show.

They had adverts. They weren't on film - they use a slide projector. Sometimes the slides were upside down. On one great occassion the local Indian restaurant was upside down - lot's of projection of hand shadow whilst the slide was adjusted. Then it was the right way up, but the wrong way around. More frantic activity, until we could finally read where the great Tandoori could be had "only 5 minutes walk from this cinema".

You don't get that at a multiplex.

Central Television, practically the whole of the 1980s.

A static card of the front of the Hanley branch of Blunts (others in Wolverhampton and, I think, Nottingham), with voice-over. About ten seconds long.

Unfortunately, the card was longer than a TV screen, and so was cropped that, on our TV at least, it read "UNTS SHOE CENTRE." Source of much playground hilarity.

I think I have it on a VHS somewhere round here. Gawd alone knows on which one, though.

Until relatively recently any British chaintore operating in the Channel Islands used a local name. For example, M&S was called Masion Les Riches for years. I thnk it may have been a tax thing.

There was long-running ad for Courts, the carpet people, that we got in the UK in which Bruce Forsyth was dressed as a judge. He'd sign off with 'I'll see you in Courts!'. It all made perfect sense.

But in the Channel Islands Courts was known as Brennans Langlois. So rather than do a new ad they got Brucie, still in judge's wig and robes to say 'I'll see you in Brennans Langlois!'.

It made no sense if you didn't know the Courts connection. Many a Channel Islander was scratching their head over that one.