You're Never Alone with a Strand (The Lonely Man)

Why it works

A lone man in a trench coat, hat pushed back Sinatra-style, lights a cigarette on a rain-soaked London street at night while a mournful theme plays: "You're never alone with a Strand." S.H. Benson copywriter John May reportedly wrote it within 24 hours after W.D. & H.O. Wills rejected earlier work, and the 1959 launch was a sensation. Awareness of the brand and its advertising passed 90 per cent within weeks, actor Terence Brook received marriage proposals, and Cliff Adams' theme became the first jingle to chart as a pop record, reaching No. 39. Almost nobody bought the cigarettes: only 0.3 per cent of male smokers ever did, and the brand vanished. It endures as advertising's great cautionary tale, proof that a famous, loved ad and an effective one are different things, and the argument over why it failed still runs: a hero who looked lonely, a cigarette that smoked too hot, or simply a poor product. The line survived as an ironic catchphrase.