The end of an era

In a tough Friday morning on the Design Week newsdesk, we’ve been ludicrously busy watching small, endearing, enduring figurines – sheep on skateboards, a slim-legged cyclist gentleman and a volatile pirate.

‘Milk!’ they cry… ‘Sheep’, they exclaim!  The chicken mans the decks, and off they go – a whirling, spinning cavalcade of animated excitement. We learn a valuable lesson: if in doubt, look to the cow with the bright idea.

A still from the Cravendale tribute video
A still from the Cravendale tribute video

But it seems this Plasticine passion may be finally spent. Our motley crew are pulling their last shapes to their beloved jukebox; slurping their last pints of the white stuff at the milk bar; skateboarding their way jauntily across our screens for the last time.

If you haven’t yet worked out what we’re on about, the Cravendale Milk adverts that have livened up our ad breaks immeasurably since 2007 are coming to an end.

The plasticine pirate, cow, sheep and cyclist were created by Not To Scale’s directing duo Pic Pic Andre’s.

In a touching lament to the ads, Wieden & Kennedy has teamed up with Pic Pic Andre to create a heartbreaking homage to all of the previous superb adverts, entitled, fittingly, ’Goodbye Cow, Pirate and Cyclist’. Tissues at the ready, folks. It’s a ‘weepie.’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCVc0wQsBK0

A sparse, acoustic guitar is plucked, accompanying the touching croons of, ‘This is the end of Cravendale friends, I said goodbye cow, goodbye pirate, goodbye cyclist, oh sheep, on a skateboard.’

The world mourns.

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  • martin hall November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    This is actually sad because these adverts were something different and used a technique which is rarely used in adverts, this is another step towards monotony within advertising. These adverts stood out and gave cravendale an identity with character.. isn’t that what branding is all about?

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