Ah, the 1980s; a fondly remembered decade of big hair, shoulder pads, George Michael, and perhaps one of the cheesiest television ads in existence, of which our very own Isle of Wight was the star.
The Isle of Wight has always been seen by many as a great place to get away, with its sandy beaches, hospitable residents, and beautiful countryside some of the main draws of the area. A long history and timeline of tourism stems back to the Victorian era when Queen Victoria made Osborne her home-from-home.
In the 80s, the Island needed a bit of a bump, and for better or for worse, television ads were produced to explain to would-be-Wight’ers exactly why they should head across the Solent for the holiday of a lifetime. Well, that was the idea, at least…
WATCH: ‘The Friendly Isle’ TV ad uncovered in a time-warp back to the 80s.
The clip, posted on to Facebook by ‘UKADS’, showcases some of the best sights that can be found across the Isle of Wight, including Sandown Beach, Ventnor Esplanade, Carisbrooke Castle, and even the Crab Inn.
Of course, made in 1984, the ad for ‘The Friendly Isle’ could be considered to be ‘cheesy’ by today’s standards, but we’ll let you make your own mind up on that one!
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Can’t even spell Wight right.
4 times i counted.
‘Such friendly people’ and they should have called it the ‘smile of Wight’ now fast forward 30 years and the only smile you’ll get is a crackhead with 2 teeth in his head right before he robs you at knifepoint
to be fair to women we also have female crackheads on the island!
Pile of shite more like it….
Well move then.
Good bye then .,….
Did anyone notice the area code 0983 instead of 01983 on the video? Lovely naive advert. Really good.
All this does is remind us of how the island has been ruined by excessive development. Now the advert would be…come and see our fields of concrete, towns with more empty shops than occupied, and roads that can’t cope with the traffic… oh and by the way you will have to pay about £150 to get across and you will probably have to wait about 3 hours for the ferry as they are regularly cancelled due to technical reasons or staff shortages.
And check for beach pollution before bathing.
How things have changed. Now it’s don’t come to the island