PG Tips celebrates 75 years with Aardman

Aardman Animation have completed a new commercial as a celebration for 75 years of PG Tips, and included a series of vignettes of the last three quarters of a century.
Five different decades were chosen to be represented, reflecting events during great ‘tea-drinking’ eras: the 1930’s & the abdication of the King; VE Day in the 1940’s; the massive popularity of the Beatles in the 1960’s; the introduction of mass tourism in the 1970’s; right up to the present day and the nation’s obsession with gaining a tennis champion.
Darren Robbie, the Aardman director of the commercial, explained the thinking behind it: "One of the main concepts was that this cupboard should be in the same position in the same house throughout the 75 years, so we could see the changes around it over the years. So using a fixed camera position throughout, each time the cupboard door was opened we could see the kitchen outside changing styles & fashions with the times. Also, the characters were given the right hairstyles & clothing for each decade. The PG packs reflected the correct period represented. To really accentuate & emphasise the differences between each separate vignette, we thought it would be great to use contrasting film ‘styles’. So, we go from the 1930’s shot in scratchy, grainy black & white with a dose of sepia; through various film changes to the 1970’s which has a very bright heavily saturated feel; and the present day shot back to how we would expect it to look like now.”
Post production was done at Rushes who had to make sure that in each vignette the room was comped and graded to give it the unique feel of sepia tone, heavy grain and scratches or black and white.
John Woolley, senior producer at Aardman, concluded: “The important thing was not necessarily how historically accurate this was, but to show a definite change and progression as the commercial was viewed, a sense that we were moving through the last 75 years and that despite all the changes, PG Tips has remained a constant favourite.”
(GB)