Don’t see too many commericals these days with the DVR and whatnot, but just from having the local news on in the morning I’ve noticed a small but strange and notable advertising trend: older british women hawking household products. It caught my attention because there were two laws of American TV ads (and in most U.S. media) that I thought were set in stone: A) Americans don’t understand foreign accents so they should be avoided at all costs, and B) accents are HIGH. CLASS. (Exhibit A). No longer!

Anyway, first there’s the cockney-accented (I think?) charms of the Cheer laundress Rose Spires (”the dingies”).

And now there’s these Air Wick commericals — I think produced by Aardman…? — with the elephant married to the centipede, which is maybe more creepy than funny, but ok. It deserves points for eccentricity.

Most interesting I think is the unusual and somewhat brilliant Cheer campaign, which seems to be successfully making a bid to create a new mascot for adults — something we haven’t seen in advertising for a while (R.I.P. Mr. Whipple)…unless you want to count Mucinex’s unnerving Brooklyn-accented goober Mr. Mucus.

Spread the word!