Golden brands of 1993

'Right from the beginning, I said I wanted to be more famous than Persil Automatic,' said Victoria Beckham. In 1993, she joined three other unknowns to form The Spice Girls. The public weren’t to hear from them for several years but Beckham’s ambition to be more famous than the country’s best known washing powder was astute.

This was also the year that BSkyB gained real momentum. Three years after it began, the satellite channel launched its first multi-channel package, offering 14 basic subscription channels.

Thanks to BSkyB, the British TV audience was developing a voracious appetite for American television shows such as The Simpsons.

It was a vintage year for advertising. Dunlop’s Dali-esque ‘Tested for the Unexpected’, ad directed by Tony Kaye, won awards for its epic campaign, mesmerising viewers with surreal images of gold Buddhas, desert explosions and masked women and children.

A Levi 501's ad showed two girls entranced by a man washing in a creek. The soundtrack to the black-and-white spot, by Stiltskin, topped the charts the following year.

Boddingtons beer successfully transformed itself from a regional to a national brand with regional roots: 'The cream of Manchester.' Before Melanie Sykes became the face of the brand, its award winning campaign featured a glamorous woman applying face cream, which turned out to be the frothy head of Boddingtons: 'By ’eck, you smell gorgeous tonight, Petal.'

The Intel Pentium processor became a household name with the ‘Intel Inside’campaign, featuring its well-known sonic logo.

Taken from the January 2014 issue of Market Leader. Browse the archive here.