The Age of the Train
The InterCity 125 train
AgencyAllen, Brady & Marsh
ClientBritish Rail
MarketUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
MediaTelevision
Product
Release date(s)1980
Slogan
  • "This is the Age of the Train"
Written byRod Allen
Starring
Followed by"We're getting there"

"The Age of the Train" was a television advertising campaign in the United Kingdom created by British Rail in the late 1970s to promote its InterCity rail travel service. The adverts were presented by DJ and BBC presenter Jimmy Savile and featured the then-new InterCity 125 high-speed train.[1]

Background

Although a state-owned corporation at the time, British Rail was under pressure to operate on a more commercial basis. In an attempt to revive its loss-making business, BR chairman Sir Peter Parker commissioned a series of commercials from Peter Marsh of the advertising agency Allen, Brady and Marsh (ABM).[2][3] The agency reportedly won the pitch to BR by keeping their visiting executives waiting for a long time in a dirty room, surrounded by overflowing ashtrays and coffee-stained furniture; after the executives' patience came to an end and they were about to leave in disgust, Marsh entered the room to greet them, explaining that their treatment had been a ruse to illustrate the customer experience of BR, and that his agency would be able to put it right.[4][5] The campaign helped to challenge the image of British Rail from a stale and lifeless nationalised industry into a vibrant commercial tool ready for the Thatcherite 'enterprise culture' of the 1980s. The campaign appealed to this growing Conservatism by promoting images of British Rail's sound financial competence, comparatively cheap operation compared to European railways, and an attempt to demonstrate how railway travel helped to reinforce security in the average family.[6]

Savile was selected to front the advertising campaign because, at the time, he was perceived as being both a popular and family-friendly television personality.[7] The slogan, "This is the Age of the Train", is credited to Rod Allen of ABM.[8]

The advertisements continued to be produced until 1984, when they were replaced with a new campaign based on the slogan, "We're getting there".[1] In 2012, during the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal, a former BR lawyer alleged that the decision to drop Savile from the adverts had been made due to suspicions he was a necrophiliac.[9]

References

  1. 1 2 Moran, Joe (2008). Queuing for Beginners: The Story of Daily Life from Breakfast to Bedtime. London: Profile Books. p. 27. ISBN 9781847650658.
  2. ↑ "How Jimmy Savile helped revive rail travel 30 years ago". BBC News. 20 September 2012. Archived from the original on 3 November 2012. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
  3. ↑ "TV Commercials". Southern Railway Publicity. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
  4. ↑ Williams, Luke (2011). "Making a Disruptive Pitch". Disrupt: Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: FT Press. p. 151. ISBN 9780137025145.
  5. ↑ "Obituary: Peter Marsh". Herald Scotland. 19 April 2016. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
  6. ↑ Smith, Lewis Charles (December 2019). "Marketing modernity: Business and family in British Rail's "Age of the Train" campaign, 1979–84". The Journal of Transport History. 40 (3): 363–394. doi:10.1177/0022526619848549. ISSN 0022-5266.
  7. ↑ Jackson, Tanya (2013). "Some sort of an Organisation". British Railways: The Nation's Railway. Stroud: The History Press. ISBN 9780752497426.
  8. ↑ "Obituary: Rod Allen, Advertising 'jingle king'". The Independent. 13 September 2007. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
  9. ↑ Faull, Jennifer (26 November 2012). "The ad that was axed when British Rail heard rumours Savile was a necrophiliac". The Drum. Archived from the original on 3 July 2015. Retrieved 30 June 2016.

Further information

  • "The Age of the Train". The Age of the Train. 13 September 2012. 60 minutes in. BBC. BBC Four. Retrieved 2 July 2016.
  • Smith, Lewis Charles. "Marketing modernity: Business and family in British Rail’s “Age of the Train” campaign, 1979–84." The Journal of Transport History 40.3 (2019): 363-394.
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