The 1990 NZ-made Commonwealth Games advertisement

[Dave Homewood]

Does anyone else recall the advert made here in NZ but screening around the Commonwealth for the latter bit of 1989 advertising the upcoming 1990 Auckland Games?

It was unique at the time in being big budget and about two minutes in length. It was set in the trenches of WWI and there's an Englishman, an Irishman and a Scot, and an Aussie, Kiwi and others. they're bored out of their skulls and decide to have a running race across no-man's land, around a pole and back to their trench. As they begin the race, they go into slow motion from memory and this rock anthem with bagpipes and electirc guitars kicked in, and as the pack rounds the pole, in comes a Fokker Triplane (Stuart Tantrim's one) and strafes them.

It was fantastic. It purported that this is where the idea for the Commonwealth Games came from but I doubt that was true somehow.

Does anyone recall this? Does anyone have it on tape perchance? I'd love to see it again.

In fact the advert may have actually been made by a sponsor of the games like Lion nathan or something. I'm not sure.

[twilight]

admin said:

It purported that this is where the idea for the Commonwealth Games came from but I doubt that was true somehow.

From Wikipedia:
"A sporting competition bringing together the members of the British Empire was first proposed by Reverend Astley Cooper in 1891 when he wrote an article in The Times suggesting a "Pan-Britannic-Pan-Anglican Contest and Festival every four years as a means of increasing the goodwill and good understanding of the British Empire".

In 1911, the Festival of the Empire was held in London to celebrate the coronation of King George V. As part of the festival an Inter-Empire Championships was held in which teams from Australia, Canada, South Africa and the United Kingdom competed in events such as boxing, wrestling, swimming and athletics.

In 1928, Melville Marks (Bobby) Robinson of Canada was asked to organise the first British Empire Games. These were held in Hamilton, Ontario two years later.

The name changed to British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954, to British Commonwealth Games in 1970 and assumed the current name of the Commonwealth Games in 1974."

Not a lot to do with WW1 there!

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Twilight. As I suspected the advert was not based on fact (no-one in their riht mind would run a race across no-man's land). But all the same it was a great advert. I'd love to see it again.