Aside from sounding like businesses that you would have thought had been cast asunder by the 1973 Oil Crisis, what do Basildon Chemicals and Banner Batteries and have in common?
They are just two of the particularly obscure brands whose ads, which look like they come from the 1950s, adorn some of the hoardings on the upper tiers at Twickenham Stadium, I noticed on Saturday during a bit of a dull second half. Other advertisers include Costcutters, Walls Sausages and an organisation called Baxi.
Amid all the cutting-edge brand activation that goes on at the game - such as the excellent O2 blueroom - as well as the LED pitch-side hoardings and giant Blink TV screens, these ads hark back to an era when I expect they were placed on the whim of the rugby-loving chairman than for any sound tactical media rationale.
As HQ expanded over the years, stands must have been built around them as they still cling on with their never-changing copy, glanced at as supporters raised their eyes heavenwards in either relief or despair.
While I'm glad to see so much money now going into English rugby from brands that are really putting rugby at the heart of their communications, I'm also pleased that these old ads from a more amateur era and one where Andy Goode's haircut was still fashionable, remain here rather than at the Museum of Brands. All I want to know is where to buy their products, if indeed it is still possible to do so.
