It has been nearly three decades since the fictional author J RHartley first enchanted the nation with his televised search for acopy of his own book, Fly Fishing. Now the classic TV advert isbeing remade for the digital age.
The original 1983 version featured actor Norman Lumsden trawlingthrough bookshops looking for an out of print book on fly fishing byJ R Hartley. He eventually finds it after calling a shop located inthe phone directory Yellow Pages, whereupon he reveals that he isthe author.
Tonight, a modern version of the advert will air, with a DJ insearch of his one time hit Nineties dance record.
The former DJ, called Day V Lately, goes through London recordshops looking for his old dance track "Pulse and Thunder". LikeHartley, it is Lately's daughter who eventually helps him find therecord, but instead of giving him the Yellow Pages she uses an up-to-date Yell smart phone app.
The original campaign became so well-known it was been parodiedby Harry Enfield, spawned a Fry and Laurie sketch, and inspired twoimitation books by Michael Russell using J R Hartley as a pseudonym.It continues to be a popular source of nostalgia on YouTube.
The original Yellow Pages have now been rendered largelyredundant by the internet. According to the Local GovernmentAssociation, unwanted phone books create 75,000 tons of waste papera year.
In truth, the revived advert is a bid to exploit nostalgia forthe old ad and bolster the its online service, as paper directoriesfade into obsolescence. Yell's share price plummeted from 59p to 10plast year as profits slumped.
David Parslow, UK brand and communications director at Yell,said: "What better way to demonstrate how our offering has evolvedover the past few years than to modernise our most iconic advert.The campaign will aim to show that Yell now offers more instantinformation on businesses in the UK than ever before."
Robert Opie, director of the Museum of Brands, Packaging andAdvertising in London, said: "The ad ran long enough to become aclassic. I think people will engage with a new one, but surely thesedays it should be pretty easy for him to find what he's looking forin a couple of minutes on the internet?"
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