The image of tar being squeezed from a sponge in one of the most memorable Australian ads is being resurrected by anti-smoking organisation Quit.
To mark its 20th anniversary Quit Victoria is reaching into its archives and airing ‘Sponge’, which was created by John Bevins’ first agency Bevins Slapp and first went to air in 1985.
It’s also relaunching the 1971 ad starring comedian Warren Mitchell that was created by Ogilvy & Mather.
Quit Victoria said that despite its age the effectiveness of ‘Sponge’ continued to be felt with many people naming it as the quit smoking ad they most vividly recall.
“People still talk about the ‘Sponge’ advertisement today and that sends a very clear message that the quit smoking message is every bit as necessary today as it was twenty years ago,” said Quit Victoria’s executive director Todd Harper.
“There is a whole generation of Victorians who have never seen ‘Sponge’. People still retain information from the ad twenty years from its original airing, giving us tremendous faith that people seeing it for the first time this weekend will find it just as relevant as those that saw it for the first time in 1985.”
