When a certain cadre of ad people are asked about their favourite advertising, Silk Cut is a name that often comes out of their (presumably, cigarette bedecked) mouths. The ads are hailed as an example of how greatness is soldered under constraints, the toxic chemicals inside the papers of creative minds, if you will.

The UK banned TV ads for tobacco products in the 1960s, but added further restrictions on what could be shown in tobacco ads in the 1980s. After which, inspired by the slashed canvases of Argentine artist Lucio Fontana1, Charles Saatchi, then still at the OG Saatchi & Saatchi, suggested a similar motif for Silk Cut, though the finished ads are credited to Paul Arden. 

What followed was a years-long campaign of edgy, sexy pictograms2. Silk Cut became the UK's biggest-selling cigarette brand. A cohort of now 50-something-year-olds work in advertising. Oh, and 120,000 people died from smoking each year by 2003.

Why am I bringing this all up? Well, the ads (and their veneration) came to mind as I considered possible repercussions of the new rules governing the promotion of less-healthy foods. Two months in, one of the most significant learnings in the Campaign office was the fact that the McDonald’s “Secret menu” chicken cheeseburger was exempt from the rules3.

There have also been edits to high-profile confectionery ads. We had the incongruous addition of a bright purple envelope and the bizarre phrase “thank you for my Cadbury” to VCCP and Steve Rogers’ otherwise believable film of a “Homesick” Brit abroad4. Maltesers, meanwhile, edited itself out of its 90th-anniversary women’s-lib campaign to make the ad compliant, meaning the annoyed women of history had to cheer themselves up without the aid of a light chocolate ball. The indignity.

So, we have not yet seen a burst of groundbreaking, era-defining creativity. It is early days, however, and Cadbury and Maltesers are part of sophisticated conglomerates adept at developing compliant advertising platforms that translate across the media landscape4. Indeed, on the basis of a 2025 film from Maltesers’ stablemate, Twix, one of Campaign’s Top film ads, there is evidently some fun to be had. And, as the person who usually buys the chocolate at my house, I am a fan of the “Made to share” Dairy Milk packs.

The task for anyone working on a brand is to find compliant ways to sell the product. When I hosted a roundtable on the LHF changes last year, many planners and buyers in the room said they were looking at expanding their use of non-restricted media, such as out of home and cinema, to get around the ban. And yet that is evidently not what the proponents were after. They want to restrict the ability to encourage people to buy these products. 

It will take time for us know if these changes have sparked a new era of creativity. We'll wait even longer for evidence that they served as a propellant for a new generation of ad executives. But I’m not sure we’ll ever know how many deaths they might have fuelled. 

Maisie McCabe is the UK editor of Campaign.

1 When you buy an artist's work, you get the right to appropriate their ideas for commercial gain, I guess. Especially if they are dead.2 I will not look at scissors or metal cans in the same way again.3 I guess the mumfluencers I’m served are right: protein is good.4 Uncovered by the hard-grafting journalistic practice of watching some commercial TV before 9pm.5 Have you ever read a more inspiring clause? 

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