The Guardian has published a picture gallery celebrating some of the most memorable British advertisements, drawing on images held by the History of Advertising Trust archive. Presented with wry, humorous commentary, the piece revisits campaigns spanning from the 1930s to the 1990s that helped shape popular culture and the nation's collective memory. It matters as a nostalgic look at how advertising creativity became woven into British life, often outlasting the products it was designed to sell.

The featured adverts include Heinz's Aristocrat Tomato Man (1934), Saatchi & Saatchi's shocking Pregnant Man (1969) promoting male sexual responsibility, PG Tips' tea-drinking chimps, Ridley Scott's nostalgic Hovis "Bike Ride" on Shaftesbury's Gold Hill (1974), the Cadbury's Smash Martians, and the Cinzano sketches with Joan Collins and Leonard Rossiter. Also highlighted are Nick Kamen's Levi's 501s launderette ad (1985), the Shake 'n' Vac woman, Mrs Oxo, Aardman's Frank the Talking Tortoise, and the Tango "orange fella" campaign, several of which entered everyday language and reflected the social attitudes of their era.