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Benson & Hedges 'Iguana' cinema ad from the 70's?
Back in the seventies, I used to go to the cinema a lot and there was a fabulous ad with a lizard in a swimming pool and a helicopter. The music used to send shivers up my spine and I have since researched this in an attempt to find a copy of the ad on the internet - but to no avail.
This ad cost £2m to produce and won awards and it appears I am not alone in trying to find it as there are forum questions asking the same thing.
I have scoured Youtube and all the compilations of cinema ads - but strangely it isn't included in any of them.
Does anyone know where I can access this footage??? It is actually called 'Iguana'.
2 Answers
- PenelopeLv 61 decade agoFavorite Answer
For those who were curious after reading the question, here's more info on the ad.
Year: 1978
Title: Iguana
Client: Gallaher
Agency: Collett Dickenson Pearce
Art director: Alan Waldie
Writer: Mike Cozens
Director: Hugh Hudson
Production company: The Alan Parker Film Company
Created by the legendary Alan Waldie during the golden years of Collett Dickenson Pearce, this classic piece of surrealism inspired many a creative director who, on first seeing the ad at the cinema, vowed to get into advertising. The commercial was shot by Hugh Hudson and is imbued with an ominous atmosphere and mounting tension which are only released at the dramatic climax. Audiences had never seen anything like it. Why is the helicopter there? The guana? We never found out, which of course was the point. The ad was part of a long-running campaign produced by CDP for Benson & Hedges which demonstrated how advertising restrictions could in fact fuel creative potency rather than restrict it. Indeed the lack of a traditional idea in this commercial openly mocked the ban on saying anything about cigarettes in advertising. An ad that changed advertising.
