Digital TV News

Britain’s favourite TV adverts of 2011

Thursday 5 January, 2012

By Anthony Hill

Old lady beats meerkats and Darth Vader as the most-liked TV ad of the year.

An advert for own-brand teabags has been named the nation’s favourite for 2011.

In a survey by Nielsen, the advert for Aldi, in which a po-faced old lady reveals she’d rather drink gin than Red Label tea, beat celebrities and meerkats to be crowned the most memorable ad of the past 12 months.

Compared with the most-liked adverts of 2010, there have been noticeable changes in tone and content. Just two of last year’s top TV spots featured a celebrity, half as many as the previous year.

Darren Moore, vice president for advertiser solutions at information company Nielsen, said: “This is the year that relatable characters - people like you and me - replaced celebrities in the list of most-liked ads.

“Sarah Roberts in the CompareTheMarket ad, Warren from Halifax in the Foster's ad, and everyday people in the Aldi ads, are now the central characters in the TV ads we love the most,” he explained.

After clinching the number-one spot in 2010, the famous meerkats of Meerkovo proved their resilience by holding onto second place. Third was a boy dressed as Darth Vader for Volkswagen and fourth was a John Lewis effort, which melted even the stoniest of hearts at Christmas.

The UK’s Top 10 television adverts of 2011:

1. Aldi - “I buy this tea for my husband”
2. CompareTheMarket - “Congratulations, Sarah Roberts”
3. Volkswagen - “Little boy dressed as Darth Vader”
4. John Lewis - “Gifts you can’t wait to give”
5. Walkers Crisps - “4 comedians, 4 new flavours”
6. Foster’s - “Warren’s girlfriend gets a new haircut”
7. Skittles - “Everything Tim touches turns to Skittles”
8. Boots - “Christmas Mission Impossible”
9. Dreamies - “Cats bursting through walls”
10. PG Tips - “Put the kettle on”

Meanwhile, research by subscription-free TV service Freeview has found the UK’s favourite TV moments of the past year. In a poll of 1,000 Brits, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s kiss on the balcony of Buckingham Palace was named the best bit of telly from 2011.

The romantic royal wedding scene beat its closest contender by quite a distance, but the two really couldn’t be more different. Britain’s second favourite TV moment was an excruciating scene from I’m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here in which a cockroach crawled up Fatima Whitbread’s nose.

Other small screen moments that captured our imagination include astrologer Russell Grant being fired from a cannon in Strictly Come Dancing and comedian Steve Coogan’s heated exchange with former News of the World journalist Paul McMullan on Newsnight.