118118
generally have great adverts. Especially the first ones, with the original appearance of the marathon runners. Everyone remember?

Good.

Now the boring bit. You may remember the time where 192 was the only directory enquiries number; the reason that it isn't any more is that one guy lobbied for deregulation, saying plenty of companies can do this and provide extra services. Which has worked very well, cinema listings and train times etc etc.

The guy that successfully lobbied for deregulation set up 118888 (who I used to work for). Not 118118. Now why wasn't it as successful (In fact now owned by 118118)? In addition to being staffed by numpties like me and having a number not quite as memorable as 118118, their ads were unbelievably, incredibly shit.

Their first ad was a crap animation of the six numbers, on a desert island, holding crappy instruments, singing a little reggae rhyme in Jamaican accents, consisting of... the six numbers. Get that?

118118: The A-Team.
118888: Shitty racist animations with shitty music.

Following that, they tried to claw back some of the market. How? They got a 'celebrity' in on the adverts and teamed up with the National Lottery. Who? Fran Cosgrave.

118118: The A-Team.
118888: Some dick off some shit reality show and a dream for poor people.

They didn't last long.
(cypherspace is not a toaster, Fri 16 Apr 2010, 1:44, Reply)