Page 27 - Fujifilm Exposure_28 Michael Winner_ok

instead. Winner, who could probably ‘pitch’ ice-cream to Eskimos, then ver- bally sketched out the bones of a script which eventually launched a thousand (well, several thousand as it happens) car insurance policies.
And the punchline, as uttered by Winner, who would also star in as well as direct the ads, has now become a national catchphrase from which there is currently no escape. Miss it on TV, it then seems to assail you from high up
on huge hoardings at the side of roads and railway lines.
Altogether now: “Calm down, dear ... it’s a commercial.”
That first ad, titled rather appro- priately Driven To Distraction, first hit our screens in Autumn 2002. As well as Winner, the cars and some pretty girls, the commercial also featured a rather hyperactive woman of mature years. She turned out to be none other than Julia Foster, from Sixties’ films
like Alfie and Half A Sixpence, who had last starred for Winner 40 years ago in The System.
Says Winner, with his usual disarm- ing immodesty: “The ad came out and within a few weeks they had to take on 600 extra staff. Esure was transformed overnight from totally unknown to total- ly known throughout the land. The recognition factor was gargantuan.”
And as if to deflect any criticism of the ad itself – and the subsequent
campaign which has ranged from “excruciating” to plain “naff” - Winner smiles, “the ad was basically a take-off of other commercials.” However, even Esure’s own website seems to have accepted the ads aren’t exactly high art, averring a little defensively, “it was designed to stick in people’s minds even if it doesn’t win advertis- ing awards!”
But that first ad would actually prove a model of restraint compared
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