Shake n' Vac

Glade Shake n' Vac
Agency	S. C. Johnson & Son
Language	English
Running time	30 seconds
Product	Glade Shake n' Vac
Release date(s)	1980
Music by	1950's rock and roll style
Starring	Jenny Logan
Country	United Kingdom

Glade Shake n' Vac is a powdered carpet freshener. The powder is shaken onto the carpet before vacuuming. It is currently marketed and sold in the United Kingdom by S. C. Johnson & Son.^[1] The product became well known because of its famous television commercial during the 1980s. The advert was voted one of the most popular TV adverts in Britain.^[2]

The product, still available today,^[3] is primarily remembered for its iconic Dancing Woman television advertisement shown until 1989. There has been some controversy over when the advert was first aired. The 100 Greatest TV Adverts programme stated that the advertisement was first broadcast in 1979; however, it was the actual product that went on sale in 1979; the advert wasn't aired until 1980 owing to the 1979 ITV Strike.^[4]

History of the product and advert

First going on air in the early 1980s, the advertisement featured the English actress Jenny Logan,^[5] dancing about in a typical British living room in high heels, shaking the powder onto a carpet and vacuuming it up, while appearing to sing a musical jingle. The main lyric is "do the Shake n' Vac, and put the freshness back". Vocals for some later adverts might have been recorded by South African session vocalist, Miriam Stockley.

The commercial was produced by Benton and Bowles advertising agency, written and art directed by Peter West and Guy Winston and produced by Simon Wells. The Director was Bob Mahoney.

The jingle was in a 1950s rock and roll retro style, a style very popular in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s. In 2000, the advertisement polled 18th place in the Channel 4 The 100 Greatest TV Adverts programme.^[6]

Logan also appeared on This Morning in 2004 as a guest to talk about the commercial.^[7]

The advert was ranked as the 18th best ever advert in both a Channel 4 list in 2000^[8] and an ITV list in 2005.^[9]

In 2010, an updated version of the advertisement (with Jenny Logan) was made and published on television for the public.

Controversy

The controversy was due to the ITV industrial action of 1979. Though the Shake n' Vac product was on sale in shops in 1979, the television adver was delayed to 1980.^[10] This caused some confusion among pop culture researchers, who assumed that the arrival of the product on shop shelves and the television advertisement both happened in the same year.

The early claim that the advert was originally broadcast in 1979 was disputed. Whereas some researchers pointed to 1980, others believed that the ad first appeared somewhat later. According to the book Box of Delights (ISBN 0333518128), it first appeared in 1985, and this was backed up by the earliest print reference to Shake n' Vac being a 1982 newspaper advertisement. But it was argued that Ms. Logan's clothing and hairstyle and the decor of the room featured in the advert pointed towards its being filmed in 1979 or 1980.

Confusion

There is no connection with this product and Shake 'n Bake.

References