Pot Noodle advertising

Media and advertising

Early Pot Noodle advertising portrayed it and its sister brands as a convenience food. However, Pot Noodle has since achieved notoriety for some outrageous and sometimes controversial advertising campaigns. They conatin a British sense of humour, and often make allusion to the consumer feeling dirty or improper for spurning traditional food in favour of something completely manufactured and artificial.

Recent advertising campaigns include...

* Pot Noodle Mines As part of a rebranding process, the latest set of adverts revolve around the fictional "Pot Noodle Mine" in a small Welsh village called Crumlin (where Pot Noodle is actually produced). We see various miners (all with thick Welsh accents) extracting dry Pot Noodle in large hunks from underground, and singing in Welsh male voice choirs when on the surface. The strapline is 'Fuel of Britain, isn’t it'. One advert also stars Gareth the Pot Noodle sniffing sheep, who finds a Pot Noodle vein during a 'fuel' shortage in Britain and saves many starving people.

* Pot Noodle Horn The 'Pot Noodle Horn' is the urge for Pot Noodle. This is shown from a large horn emerging from underneath a persons trousers, giving the impression of an erection. The campaign was accompanied by a token-collect promotion in which four coupons could be collected from special packs, and exchanged for one of 1 million Pot Noodle horns. Unfortunately, these horns were unable to emulate the "Horn Noise" represented therein. In April 2006, the advert was included in a list of the most complained about television adverts in the United Kingdom by the ASA.[3].

* Big Dave was written for the 'King Pot Noodle' range, portraying a man and his imaginary friend 'Big Dave', who would share his food (so as not to make him seem "a fat bloater").

* The Slag Of All Snacks portrayed Pot Noodle as a snack which could only be purchashed from seedy outlets. A man attempts to purchase Pot Noodle from various said outlets with little success, resulting in being slapped by many of the shop attendants. The shops in which Pot Noodle can be purchased show Pot Noodle as a taboo. The advertisement was moved to be broadcast after 9pm after early complaints, but still attracted 300 complaints and was found to be offensive by the regulator, the Independent Television Commission, which said that the word slag was unsuitable to be broadcast in an ad at any time.

* Not Poodle For a limited period, Pot Noodle was renamed to 'Not Poodle'. The adverts parodied the contemporary campaigns of many No Win No Fee legal companies, and featured the fictitious stories of claimants who were 'damaged' by finding a poodle in their 'defective' Pot Noodle; the presenter invited viewers who had also found a poodle in their Pot Noodle to call in, and instruct his company to 'take them to the cleaners'. This was part of a real promotion: anyone lucky enough to find a small model of a poodle in his or her 'Not Poodle' could claim a prize.

* Lambshank Redemption (a play on The Shawshank Redemption) first viewed in 1998 told the story of a prisoner who was punished after smuggling Pot Noodle into prison.

* Too Gorgeous Shown mid 1990's, Welsh comedian Peter Baynham of The Friday Night Armistice and Fist of Fun fame was the sole advertiser of Pot Noodle. His catchphrase that they were "Too Gorgeous" was pronounced in a comedic Welsh accent and became a playground favourite. Sardonic comedian and former colleague Stewart Lee still encourages people to shout "Too Gorgeous" at Peter Baynham whenever they see him in the street.

* On The Radio HHCL/Red Cell created a series of radio ads for Pot Noodle in which different voices were heard reading out instructions on how to prepare it. The straplines for the ads were saucy: "Pot Noodle. The curious cheerleader of all snacks;" "Pot Noodle. The lonely housewife of all snacks;" and a last advertisement, featuring a man and a woman with German accents, describing the food as the "filthy fräulein of all snacks." As the voices spoke, they became more and more excited, culminating in shrieks of "stir again, stir again". They were found to be in breach of the advertising codes by the Advertising Standards Authority, because they were unsuitable material broadcast at a time when children would be listening. There had been four complaints.

* Stay Hungry! A mid/late eighties TV commercial featuring Phil Hartman as a newsreader in front of (literally) epileptic fit-inducing graphics, accompanied by Motörhead's Ace of Spades. The original version had to be withdrawn due to the excessive strobe lighting effect.

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