Saturday, November 03, 2012

When Jimmy Savile was an authority figure

The internet is full of people saying they never liked Jimmy Savile or understood his popularity. He was a strangely unhip disc jockey and a strangely creepy children's television presenter

But it is even stranger than that. There was a period between these two careers during the 1970s when Savile cut his hair (or at least bought a shorter wig) and became an authority figure.

If you wanted someone classless, down to earth and credible to front your campaign, Savile was your man. You can see him playing this role in his advertisements for British Rail and the Clunk Click campaign to encourage drivers to wear seat belts.

The moral is that the mania celebrity endorsement is nothing new and it was just as absurd in the 1970s as it is today.

2 comments:

Frank Little said...

I'm still trying to find out which ad agency hired Gary Glitter to front its Young Persons Railcard station poster campaign not too long before he had his collar felt in Thailand.

Anonymous said...

Hopefully, the independent enquiries into all the institutions Savile was involved with will restore some sort of credibility to the UK's so-called democratically accountable system. With each further allegation, the UK is beginning to look more and more like the Jimmy Savile protection racket, rather than a proper democracy.

If videos like the one at http://jsavilesexabusetape.celebrityshocks.com/ are genuine, then it is a travesity that nobody ever spoke out while Savile was alive. It just shows the power and influence he must have had.