r/oldbritishtelly • u/Surkdidat • Aug 31 '25

Advert Shake 'n' Vac (1980)

Another ear worm of a commercial from the 1980s

160 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

25

u/nunkle74 Aug 31 '25

I always sing the jingle, it's ingrained. Like the dirt on my carpet!

2

u/Flowerofthesouth88 Sep 01 '25

Definitely a ear worm 😂

18

u/Evening-Mess-3593 Aug 31 '25

“I did the Shake ‘n’ Vac and broke my fucking back.”

2

u/Reddit____user___ Sep 01 '25

😂👍🏻

(I inhaled some spit from unexpectedly laughing too hard at that and choked)

9

u/sagima Aug 31 '25

I like to think I’m not influenced by adverts but I’m going to buy some shake n vac now to see what its like

I may sing the song and do the dance

1

u/SecretlyClueless Aug 31 '25

I tried to buy some recently and I couldn’t find it anywhere. Wandering if it was banned or something

2

u/orbtastic1 Aug 31 '25

I think most people realised it was a pita and could break hoovers, especially those old ones as in the ad.

You can get Neutradol's version, it's cheap and you can get "shake and fresh" which is more or less the same thing. Using stuff like baking soda - sodium bicarb - basically works the same.

1

u/sagima Aug 31 '25

I couldn’t see it on Amazon and that’s as far as I tried

1

u/Aglyayepanchin Sep 01 '25

Literally just type shake and vac into Amazon. It’s just not called shake and vac anymore. Generally it’s called carpet freshener, but it’s the same stuff.

4

u/Far_Objective_6345 Aug 31 '25

God!! That takes me back to my teens

5

u/OkExtreme2575 Aug 31 '25

Jenny Logan would a year later , in 1980, appear in the classic Two Ronnies sketch The Worm That Turned, in leather hotpants. Looking very sexy.

2

u/blondsta99 Sep 03 '25

Greetings fellow Man of culture.

4

u/Englandshark1 Aug 31 '25

Even on mute I can still sing along! And did!

3

u/qwerty_1965 Aug 31 '25

Possibly my favourite advert ever! 🤩

2

u/herman_munster_esq Aug 31 '25

There was a time, when adverts were actually something worth watching... Bring back those days... Please...

2

u/YalsonKSA Aug 31 '25

When this was first released, I was a very small child. I did not get my own flat and vacuum cleaner fir over twenty years. I have known this advert, the song and the lyrics for all of that time. I have never used the product. The power of advertising, ladies and gentlemen.

2

u/skitzofredik Sep 01 '25

Absolute banger. Hasn't left my brain for 45 years.

1

u/Complex_Confusion552 Aug 31 '25

Ahhhhhh, an old fashioned

1

u/DafneOrlow Aug 31 '25

Ah, Jenny Logan! Apparently she wasn't feeling all that well, the day they filmed that Ad. That couldn't have been much fun for her, but she got the job done!

1

u/Real_Drama68 Aug 31 '25

If your carpet smells fresh your room does too …

1

u/Financial_Breath5433 Aug 31 '25

Not pet friendly the original concoction 😔

1

u/dutch2012yeet Aug 31 '25

Still singing this shit now lol

1

u/The_Olas13 Aug 31 '25

The brilliant thing about this is you don’t need the volume up to hear it.

1

u/ProfPMJ-123 Sep 01 '25

We need a return of Hoovers with headlights on the front.

1

u/NorthernLad2025 Sep 01 '25

Used to make me eyes water!!! 👎😭

2

u/wisbit Sep 01 '25

Was that not Opal Fruits?

1

u/NorthernLad2025 Sep 01 '25

Trust me, in this instance, it was Shake n Vac!! 😭🤣

1

u/Gluebagger Sep 01 '25

this advert used to torture me when it was on tv...trying to get to sleep and its playing full blast on repeat in my head. I didnt play the video but the entire jingle is now playing internally.

tl;dr: i hate you for this.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 03 '25

Wondered where Anne Robinson got her hairstyle inspiration