It Also Sticks Handles to Teapots
Araldite1983
It Also Sticks Handles to Teapots is a 1983 billboard with a real car glued to it for Araldite, created by FCO Univas, London.
Why it works
The ultimate product demonstration: a real yellow Ford Cortina glued to a billboard on London's Cromwell Road, with the understated line "It also sticks handles to teapots." The 1983 poster won D&AD Gold, and the campaign kept paying off its own premise — a second car was stacked on top ("The tension mounts"), then both were removed leaving a torn hole ("How did we pull it off?"). It is studied as the benchmark for demonstration advertising and single-site media thinking: one poster location, engineered as a public event, generating fame far beyond its media cost. John Hegarty has cited it as "the ultimate product demonstration, and the ultimate demonstration of value for money."
Techniques
- Demonstration A real car glued to a billboard proves the adhesive's strength in public, far more vividly than any claim could.
- Humour An understated line about also sticking handles to teapots, and later follow-ups, add a dry joke to the spectacle.
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