William Hill founded his bookmaking company way back in 1934, and while his company has endured, the people carrying on his legacy have apparently got stuck somewhere in the mid-1970s. Last week, they announced they’d signed a deal with the Sex Pistols to use their Pretty Vacant ditty in a TV ad campaign. Now, to coincide with the launch of their Austrian-facing site, they’ve enlisted Monty Python/Fawlty Towers alum John Cleese as the face and German-speaking voice of their “Bet like the British” campaign.
While the above two choices indicate good taste in music and comedy, we can’t help but notice that both of these choices date from the period when bell-bottoms were just going out of vogue. Makes you wonder if their next slogan will be “Bet like the British old age pensioner.” Pity Oliver Reed’s dead … he would have made a perfect William Hill 1970’s counterpart to Ray Winstone’s Bet365 spots. Still, maybe the guy who played Terry in Minder is available…
