The Bike Ride

The Bike Ride, Bike Round or Boy on the Bike is a 1973 advert for the bread maker Hovis. It was directed by Ridley Scott.

This article is about the 1973 Hovis advert directed by Ridley Scott. For Scott's first short film, see Boy and Bicycle.
Boy on the Bike
Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset, where the advert was filmed.[1]
ClientHovis
LanguageEnglish
Running time0:47[2]
Release date(s)1973
Directed byRidley Scott
Starring
  • Carl Barlow
Production
company		Ridley Scott Associates
CountryUnited Kingdom

Production

Boy on the Bike was one of five adverts that Ridley Scott directed for Hovis in the early 70s.[3][1]

The advert shows a boy (played by Carl Barlow[4]) pushing his bicycle laden with loaves of bread up a picturesque English cobbled street. A voice over, presumably of the boy at a later age, nostalgically describes the trip while a recording of Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" is played by the Ashington Colliery Band.[2][5]

Despite the common belief that it was set in the North of England, the advert was filmed on Gold Hill, Shaftesbury in Dorset and the voice-over is also narrated in a West Country accent.[1] The misidentification of location could possibly be because of the strong association of brass bands with "northernness".[6] One reason, for the choice of location, being that the street, and its tumbledown cottages with steep eaves, embodies 'Merry Old England', adding to the nostalgia of the piece.[7]

Reception

It has repeatedly been named one of Britain's most loved adverts.[2] In 2006 it was voted the nation's favourite advertisements of all time.[1] It was chosen as the best advert of the 70's in a 2018 YouGov poll.[8] In 2019 it was named the 'most iconic' advert of the past 60 years to that point.[9]

The advert's popularity has been put down to its nostalgia for 'wholesome images of village life', as well Scott's visual direction.[10][11] Gold Hill, where the advert was filmed, has been a popular location for films and merchandise since and a memorial to Hovis now stands at the top of the hill.[12]

Hovis and the BFI restored the advert for use in 2019 in an attempt to unite a divided nation. It was criticised for reminding those who voted to remain Brexit referendum of how little they had in common with those who voted to leave.[13][14]

References

Citations
  1. Byrne, Ciar (1 May 2006). "Ridley Scott's Hovis advert is voted all-time favourite". The Independent. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  2. Parrill 2011, p. 22.
  3. Rogers, Rogers (11 June 2018). "How Hovis's 'The Bike Ride' kickstarted its route to household name". Marketing Week. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  4. Sinclair, Iain (20 January 2011). "The Raging Peloton". London Review of Books. 33 (2). ISSN 0260-9592.
  5. Holman, Gavin (2019). "Film, Television and Video productions featuring brass bands". North American British Music Studies Association. doi:10.17613/ttn4-1y86. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. Delaney, Sam (23 August 2007). "Jets, jeans and Hovis". the Guardian. Retrieved 24 January 2023. Everyone imagines this - voted best ad ever - to be set in the north of England. But it was filmed in the Dorset village of Shaftesbury, and the voice-over is in a non-specific oo-arrr accent - proving the power of a brass band as a signifier of northernness.
  7. Jenkins 2013, p. 99.
  8. Marketing Week Reporters (7 June 2018). "Aldi, Guinness, Yellow Pages: The nation's favourite marketing campaigns". Marketing Week. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  9. Stewart, Rebecca (5 May 2019). "Hovis 'Boy on the Bike' crowned 'most iconic' classic ad by Brits". The Drum. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  10. Parrill 2011, p. 23.
  11. Davidson, Max (24 May 2012). "Hovis Hill: is this the greatest street since sliced bread?". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 24 May 2012. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
  12. Jenkins 2013, p. 98.
  13. Beverland, Michael B; Eckhardt, Giana M; Sands, Sean; Shankar, Avi (31 December 2021). "How Brands Craft National Identity". Journal of Consumer Research. 48 (4): 586–609. doi:10.1093/jcr/ucaa062.
  14. Beverland, Michael (5 June 2019). "The return of 'Boy on the bike': selling bread in the age of Brexit". Campaign UK. Retrieved 18 April 2022.

Bibliography
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