The recall factor

It is so hot (94 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday) that we (my brother and I) are keeping the Kit Kats in the 'fridge. We also keep the lemonade in the 'fridge (I buy diet lemonade as part of a general drive to reduce sugar consumption, not because I need to go on a diet or anything). R Whites Lemonade was a home-made product first retailed in Camberwell, south London, in 1845 by Robert White. The company was so successful it was purchased by HD Rawlings in 1891 (Rawlings later merged into Britvic). R Whites Lemonade was the subject of a TV commercial (Secret Lemonade Drinker) that screened in 1970, and yet still has widespread recall today (it is taught in media courses as a classic of the advertising genre). The singer in the commercial was Ross MacManus (his son became the singer Elvis Costello).

The recall factor of Secret Lemonade Drinker, good though it is, cannot match that of the 1976 commercial for Shake'n'Vac which featured Jenny Logan as a singing housewife vacuuming a carpet. Almost everyone over the age of forty can sing the words to this advertisement. At the time considered intensely irritating, over the years it has acquired a cult following.