

55 years ago, on October 1 1968, the first brand advertising spot appeared on the French television screen. Over the next three decades, thousands of creative little films would seduce and build our collective memory. Kitschy or cult spots, humor, slogans, music, stars, gimmicks, grand spectacle or sex appeal: during its golden age, how did advertising convince? Thierry Ardisson has brought together almost 400 advertising clips to relive the era of the conquest of minds and wallets.



Self (archive footage)

55 years ago, on October 1 1968, the first brand advertising spot appeared on the French television screen. Over the next three decades, thousands of creative little films would seduce and build our collective memory. Kitschy or cult spots, humor, slogans, music, stars, gimmicks, grand spectacle or sex appeal: during its golden age, how did advertising convince? Thierry Ardisson has brought together almost 400 advertising clips to relive the era of the conquest of minds and wallets.
2023-06-02
6.5
6.0In the summer of 1963, François Mitterrand was going through a deep existential crisis. His political career was at a standstill and, after 19 years of marriage, the couple had grown apart. It was at this point that François Mitterrand met the woman who was to give new meaning to his life. Anne Pingeot, aged 19, was to become the companion of a lifetime, a woman who would be with him throughout his rise to power and who would remain by his side until his last breath. For the first time, Anne Pingeot has agreed to allow the fragments of this passionate love story — hundreds of letters and a diary — to be shown on television, before being donated to the National Library.
7.4Has been an year since Pietro Zinni's gang got caught in the Sopox production laboratory and each of them locked up in different jails. From Regina Coeli jail, Pietro keep warning the authorities a fool syntetized nerve gas and he is ready to make a killing, but no one takes him seriously.
5.9Gary Hart, former Senator of Colorado, becomes the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1987. Hart's intelligence, charisma and idealism makes him popular with young voters, leaving him with a seemingly clear path to the White House. All that comes crashing down when allegations of an extramarital affair surface in the media, forcing the candidate to address a scandal that threatens to derail his campaign and personal life.
5.7When Alex, an infiltration expert with a secret past, accidentally reveals her identity during what should have been a routine heist, she quickly finds herself mixed up in a government conspiracy and entangled in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with a master assassin and his team of killers. Armed with her own set of lethal skills, Alex looks to exact revenge for her murdered friends while uncovering the truth.
6.1A slacker switches up his cleaning job by pretending to be a mental coach's assistant and consults an injured ice skater who has lost her confidence.
7.4Pietro Zinni is asked by the police to revive the old gang to create a task force that will stop the spread of smart drugs.
5.6Asim Noyan swindles people with his lies and games. Asim Noyan and his gang, who no one else has been able to catch, get into a ruse again.
8.6In the continuing saga of the Corleone crime family, a young Vito Corleone grows up in Sicily and in 1910s New York. In the 1950s, Michael Corleone attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba.
5.9Sara Shaw is the type of woman who prefers to sit on the sidelines at work, but when her big idea for a Christmas initiative is stolen, she makes a wish to Santa that she'll finally have the courage to stand up for herself. Santa grants her wish, but only gives her 48 hours. As the clock ticks, Sara will discover how to channel the Christmas magic and speak her mind all on her own.
6.1Neil, Will and Simon receive an invite from Jay to join him in Australia whilst on his gap year, who promises them it’s ”the sex capital of the world”. With their lives now rather dull compared to their hedonistic school days and legendary lads holiday, it’s an offer they can’t refuse. Once again, they put growing up temporarily on-hold, and embark on a backpacking holiday of a lifetime in an awful car, inspired by Peter Andre’s ‘Mysterious Girl’. Will soon finds himself battling with the lads to do something cultural, whilst they focus their attention on drinking, girls, and annoying fellow travelers.
6.2An outcast teenager, Pauline, practices surgical skills and harbors increasingly violent psychosexual fantasies.
6.3A father and son go on the run after the dad learns his child possesses special powers.
6.6A sweeping drama set in the chaotic aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq, where the life of top UN diplomat Brazilian Sérgio Vieira de Mello hangs in the balance during the most treacherous mission of his career.
7.1While on a last-minute European holiday, a young woman finds herself in the middle of a real-life fairy tale when a chance meeting with a handsome local leads to something more. However, things get complicated when she learns that the "local" is actually a prince who is about to be crowned King, and whose mother is dead-set against her royal son's romance with the tourist.
6.1In answer to an orphan boy's prayers, the divine Lord Krishna comes to Earth, befriends the boy, and helps him find a loving family.
5.6Newly appointed CEO of Robinson Tech, Wes Robinson, is looking for new ideas to boost the company's sales. Vivian Blair, a program developer, shares a dating algorithm she has been working on called My Perfect Match. Wes sees potential and an opportunity to turn the company around and launches the service. When the pair is challenged to use My Perfect Match themselves to find love, this algorithm shows some interesting results.
7.7A stage director and an actress struggle through a grueling, coast-to-coast divorce that pushes them to their personal extremes.
6.4A fresh and distinctive take on Charles Dickens’ semi-autobiographical masterpiece, The Personal History of David Copperfield, set in the 1840s, chronicles the life of its iconic title character as he navigates a chaotic world to find his elusive place within it. From his unhappy childhood to the discovery of his gift as a storyteller and writer, David’s journey is by turns hilarious and tragic, but always full of life, colour and humanity.
8.6Marshal Bruce Mathers III, better know by his stage name Eminem and his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter, and actor. His somewhat humorous songs combined with dark and edgy lyrics give detailed accounts of his troubled upbringing, and feature all the personal struggles he went through on his journey to superstardom. Eminem recently released the much hyped and anticipated album The Marshall Mathers LP 2, a sequel to the recordbreaking and multi platinum album The Marshall Mathers LP. There is quite simply no other Hip Hop artist like Eminem, he has been on top of the game since his debut album The Slim Shady LP, and he shows no signs of letting up. This is the story of how a poor kid from Detroit rose to become a Hip Hop Legend. This is….A Shady Story.
0.0Poetic images emerge from everyday life, interweaving with narratives that recall traces of events from the last civic-ecclesiastical-military dictatorship in the city of La Plata.
7.0In the excitement of the roaring 20s, a new kind of movie palace was constructed by the Bay. More than 90 years later, Tampa Theatre has become known as one of the most haunted buildings in the city, This Documentary uncovers the rich history and explores the unexplained events with a Team of Historians, Ghost Hunters and Staff.
7.0Petar Peca Popović is one of the greatest, most famous, most authoritative and for sure, the best, connoisseur of Rock and Roll in the former Yugoslavia. He promoted Rock and Roll in those heroic times. We are going on a peculiar kind of trip with him, along an "emotional homeland", of ex-Yu, "searching for the lost times" and dear friends, the most significant representatives of this culture - rock'n'roll legends.
7.7Our planet is running out of drinking water. Only a vanishingly small proportion of the world's water is available as usable fresh water. This precious resource is beginning to shrink at an alarming rate, as natural water reservoirs are out of balance due to climate change. The documentary accompanies research projects that offer hope.
0.0Candles, tears of crying women, memories: that is how the film In Thy Blood Live begins. David Perlov's camera travels over photographs, focuses on faces that are no more, as in a gesture of parting. The history of the Holocaust is revealed in this film in a condensed, intensive way: first the memorials for the victims throughout Israel, and only then the beginning of it all - the rise of the Nazi regime, the Ghetto with its hunger and death, but with its music and theatre too, the uprising, the death camps; and it ends with the trial of Adolf Eichmann, one of the chief architects of the genocide. The music of Oedoen Partos, blending Jewish, Israeli and European motives, helps portray in sounds that lost world which now belongs to memory alone
6.2Featuring tell-all interviews with insiders and former staff, this exposé traces American Apparel's journey from fashion phenomenon to financial flop.
6.2Inside the dramatic search for a cure to ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). 17 million people around the world suffer from what ME/CFS has been known as a mystery illness, delegated to the psychological realm, until now. A scientist in the only neuro immune institute in the world may have come up with the answer. An important human drama, plays out on the quest for the truth.
9.0A short documentary about the rapidly disappearing era of heritage movie palaces and the film going experience once offered within those hallowed walls.
0.0A 15 minute documentary utilizing archival Super 8 film footage and original animation about a father fulfilling his dream of reconnecting his 5 small children to the steps of his own father when he fought for the Canadian military in WW2 through a trip to Europe in 1973.
7.6Many times during his presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson said that ultimate victory in the Vietnam War depended upon the U.S. military winning the "hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people. Filmmaker Peter Davis uses Johnson's phrase in an ironic context in this anti-war documentary, filmed and released while the Vietnam War was still under way, juxtaposing interviews with military figures like U.S. Army Chief of Staff William C. Westmoreland with shocking scenes of violence and brutality.
5.4Spain, 1970s. A Clockwork Orange, a film considered by critics and audiences as one of the best works in the history of cinema, directed by Stanley Kubrick and released in 1971, was banned by the strict Franco government. However, the film was finally premiered, without going through censorship, during the 20th edition of the Seminci, the Valladolid Film Festival, on April 24, 1975. How was this possible?
Interviews and discussions about children in naturism.
0.0Race/America follows Robb Holland, one of the few Black professional race car drivers in the United States, as he fights for the GT America Championship behind the wheel of a Ford Mustang. After decades of breaking barriers in a sport known for its lack of diversity, Robb builds his own team—Rotek Racing—bringing together a dynamic, multicultural crew that reflects the change he wants to see in motorsports. This high-octane documentary takes you beyond the track and into the heart of a season-long battle, offering unprecedented access to one of the most diverse teams in the paddock. Race/America is a story of speed, grit, and the drive to make history.
7.0In the town of Xoco, the spirit of an old villager awakens in search of its lost home. Along its journey, the ghost discovers that the town still celebrates its most important festivities, but also learns that the construction of a new commercial complex called Mítikah will threaten the existence of both the traditions and the town itself.
0.0Shot at the Cheetah Club in Atlanta, this documentary takes a behind the scenes look of a strip club and the women that make it work.
7.8A biopic of Napoleon Bonaparte, tracing the Corsican's career from his schooldays (where a snowball fight is staged like a military campaign) to his flight from Corsica, through the French Revolution (where a real storm is intercut with a political storm) and the Terror, culminating in his triumphant invasion of Italy in 1797.