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Near Your Local Cinema

Local goods for local people! Screen advertising wasn’t all national brands and chain stores.

Purpose-built cinemas began appearing around Britain shortly before WWI, booming in popularity during the War and developing into the ‘picture palaces’ of the 1920s - when adverts jostled for space alongside newsreels before the main feature. Local businesses were quick to see the potential of a big screen and a captive audience to promote their wares. 

While they didn’t have access to the budgets of the national brands, regionally-specific businesses had the benefit of that personal touch. Products and services evolved over time, but that scratchy ad for your local Indian restaurant, so integral to the cinema-going experience into the 1990s, had its roots in the booming entrepreneurship of the industry many decades before. 
 

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Food for ThoughtFood for Thought

Government sponsored film19405 mins

Grumpy Grandma is put in her place during wartime food demonstration

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Cinema Commercial for JewellersCinema Commercial for Jewellers

Advert19200 minsSilent Location: Frome

It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that bling… early silent cinema advert for a local business in Frome.

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Local Trader's GazetteLocal Trader's Gazette

Advert19309 minsSilent Location: East Sussex

This amazing discovery shows how cinema advertising used to look in Bygone Britain - a truly nostalgic gem of a film for lovers of Britain's past

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Local Cinema Advertisements - AmmanfordLocal Cinema Advertisements - Ammanford

Advert19356 minsSilent Location: Ammanford/Rhydaman

Adverts: romancing the world – and Ammanford - with golden rings and Scandanavian meat, leather soles and coal, Eve's soap and flowers.

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Local Cinema Advertisements - Port TalbotLocal Cinema Advertisements - Port Talbot

Advert19342 minsSilent Location: Port Talbot

The message for cinema-goers in Port Talbot, Neath and Briton Ferry is that they should shop local!

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[Star Picture House Advertisments][Star Picture House Advertisments]

Advert19375 minsSilent Location: Erdington

From drapery and gas fires to pork butchers and hairdressers: vintage cinema adverts from Erdington's pre-war picture palace.

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Castleford Advert 1Castleford Advert 1

19390 minsSilent Location: Castleford

Adverts not to get punters to buy anything, but just to enjoy sports and preserve memories of seaside holidays, in “real” photographs.

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Castleford Advert 2Castleford Advert 2

19410 minsSilent Location: Castleford

Advertisements for tripe, cow heels, trotters and milk – those were the days! It was a time of food rationing, but going to the cinema wasn’t.

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Castleford Advert 3Castleford Advert 3

19390 minsSilent Location: Castleford

No attempt to sell an idyllic lifestyle here in these two cinema ads for local shops, just a simple warning on the irreplaceability of eyesight.

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Castleford Advert 4Castleford Advert 4

19411 minsSilent Location: Castleford

Never mind that the country is at war with a powerful and vicious foe, that’s no reason to stop going to greyhound racing, with a bet on the side.

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Youngers Shoppers' Gazette (Ilkeston ca 1942)Youngers Shoppers' Gazette (Ilkeston ca 1942)

Advert19425 minsSilent Location: Ilkeston

With ration books at the ready, shoppers had to stretch the pennies in wartime Derbyshire.

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Local Cinema Advertisements - Blaenau Ffestiniog and MerthyrLocal Cinema Advertisements - Blaenau Ffestiniog and Merthyr

Advert19427 minsSilent Location: Blaenau Ffestiniog

Who could deny these advertising claims: "Attractive hair is the ambition of every woman", and "Your family will enjoy Lincoln potatoes"?

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Food for ThoughtFood for Thought

Advert6 mins Location: Belfast

Hangry animals demand better grub in this bizarre advert by E.T. Green

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Piping Hot! Eastern Electricity Cinema AdvertisementPiping Hot! Eastern Electricity Cinema Advertisement

Advert19541 mins

1950s Technicolor Pearl & Dean produced cinema advert for Eastern Electricity, aimed at the modern housewife and husband.

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Kennedy's BreadKennedy's Bread

Advert19600 mins Location: Belfast

This family favourite is guaranteed to have you singing all the way to the bread bin

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Buckley's Welsh AleBuckley's Welsh Ale

Advert19600 mins Location: Llanelli

Iechyd da – Your good health! A drop too much of this ale and you'll likely be spouting poetry since it is brewed in the Land of the Bards.

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Dingles of PlymouthDingles of Plymouth

Advert19601 mins Location: Plymouth

A charming regional commercial for Plymouth’s best loved department store.

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Millbay LaundryMillbay Laundry

Advert19600 mins Location: Plymouth

Help keep your relationship on track by outsourcing your laundry!

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Lamtex RugsLamtex Rugs

19620 mins Location: Bowling

There are few things more appealing than the cosiness of relaxing on soft furnishings and woollen rugs, and warmed by a blazing coal fire.

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Red Funnel FerriesRed Funnel Ferries

Advert19690 mins Location: Solent, The

Thrill to the speed onboard a Red Funnel hydrofoil as it scoots across the Solent in this nostalgic advert from 1969

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Son of Plain - Advertising Man's Guide to Tyne Tees TelevisionSon of Plain - Advertising Man's Guide to Tyne Tees Television

Promotional196411 mins Location: Newcastle upon Tyne

Is comedian Clive Dunn the Don Draper of the British advertising world? Watch this imaginative Tyne Tees TV marketing film and decide.

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News in the MakingNews in the Making

Promotional196424 mins

See how stories made it onto the presses - the old fashioned way - in this fascinating and nostalgic film promoting the Portsmouth Evening News

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Cinema Advertisement for Merryweather Menswear, NewmarketCinema Advertisement for Merryweather Menswear, Newmarket

Advert19650 mins Location: Newmarket

Merryweather Menswear 'have the flair to suit you!' A short and snappy 1965 cinema commercial for a Newmarket fashion retailer.

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Local Cinema Advertisements - North WalesLocal Cinema Advertisements - North Wales

Advert19655 mins Location: Blaenau Ffestiniog

Trefro's Milk Bar, Ruthin, has lovable eclairs and the Taj Mahal Indian restaurants in Caernarfon and Bangor offer tables of enchantment!

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Ward’s Shoes: Sealed Leather Soles for MenWard’s Shoes: Sealed Leather Soles for Men

Advert19681 mins Location: Barwell

The Ward's sealed leather shoe: tough enough for any building site.

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Ward’s Shoes: Supa Dukes Commercial – Adventure PlaygroundWard’s Shoes: Supa Dukes Commercial – Adventure Playground

Advert19681 mins Location: Barwell

Supa-Dukes: the boy proof boys' shoe with the all action look.

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Fun at RhylFun at Rhyl

Advert19620 mins Location: Rhyl

Cinema advertisement for Marine Lake & Ocean Beach, Rhyl, a popular destination for crowds set on a day's fun on free rides.

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Yorkshire Post AdvertYorkshire Post Advert

19700 mins Location: Leeds

Headlining with the expulsion of South Africa from the Olympics in 1970, the Yorkshire Post sells itself as much more than a local paper.

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The Big CountryThe Big Country

Promotional197016 mins Location: Newcastle upon Tyne

Tuning into the biggest consumer market for television advertising in Britain with Trident TV.

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"Out West" Norwich Union Cinema Advertisement"Out West" Norwich Union Cinema Advertisement

Advert19711 mins Location: Norwich

It's all hip and happening working in insurance, as this 1971 recruitment advertisement for Norwich Union, made for cinema screening, shows.

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Yorkshire Post: Newsagents with DogYorkshire Post: Newsagents with Dog

19731 mins Location: Leeds

Yootha Joyce and Tommy Godfrey play the role of wife and husband newsagents in an ad for Yorkshire Post.

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Yorkshire Post: Sports FanYorkshire Post: Sports Fan

19731 mins Location: Leeds

An Olympic Games hopeful bundles into a Leeds newsagents, only to be met by a new shopkeeper from The Smoke, bemused by the Yorkshire Post.

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Vistafjord Exclusive CruisesVistafjord Exclusive Cruises

Advert197521 mins Location: Southampton

Enjoy this kaleidoscope of images taken aboard the MS Vistafjord - for an exclusive holiday cruise setting sail from Southampton

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Enterprise - Allen, Brady & Marsh AdvertisingEnterprise - Allen, Brady & Marsh Advertising

Documentary197924 mins

Cameras! Lights! Clapperboard! Documentary about the UK's top ad agency in 1979, Allen Brady & Marsh, and its quirky Chairman Peter Marsh.

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Advertising on Bin BagsAdvertising on Bin Bags

News19812 mins Location: Long Stratton

Anglia TV news reporter Guy Michelmore in Long Stratton, Norfolk attempting to make a local news story about household bin bags interesting.

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Cinema Commercial for Charbonnier RedCinema Commercial for Charbonnier Red

Advert19761 mins

A bottle of Charbonnier Red brings romance by candlelight. 1970s cinema advertisement.

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Pye Cinema & TV Advertisement starring John CleesePye Cinema & TV Advertisement starring John Cleese

Advert19701 mins Location: Cambridge

Actor, comedian, and Monty Python, John Cleese plays to type as a sophisticate loony in this advertisement for Pye Electronics of Cambridge.

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What's Missing from this Picture?What's Missing from this Picture?

Advert19461 minsSilent

Life is looking up! The war is over and the 'Corona Man' can visit his Corona families once more, door-to-door.

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Alarm CallAlarm Call

Advert19552 mins Location: York

A drink for all occasions, but especially to relieve the stress of those brave souls battling fires, floods and well-behaved children.

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Bradford Adverts Reel 1Bradford Adverts Reel 1

Advert19253 minsSilent Location: Bradford

Juno-Junipah, for girls, who “want to be bright, vivacious, attractive and slim”, and Carters Little Liver Pills to rejuvenate the elderly.

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Bradford Adverts Reel 2Bradford Adverts Reel 2

Advert1 minsSilent Location: Bradford

Without trying to be too clever, these advertisements demonstrate the virtue of the uncomplicated: short, sweet and memorable.

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Bradford Adverts Reel 3Bradford Adverts Reel 3

Advert4 minsSilent Location: Bradford

No wearisome overblown advertising for cinema-goers back in 1931, just straightforward advice: don’t risk accidents and “Don’t buy a dud!”

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Jumble JumbleJumble Jumble

Advert19452 mins Location: York

As the war comes to an end, and with an expectation that an end to food rationing would soon follow, why not indulge in a chocolate treat?