In an age of supposedly sophisticated ‘viral’ marketing that counts itself successful if it makes half a dozen people look at an elaborately-crafted hoax website for thirty seconds each, here’s an example of old school advertising achieving maximum bang for its buck. An unprepossessing TV and video sales and rental showroom in the Lea Bridge Road, Hackney, OTV achieved near national notoriety by spotting that, with the nascent Channel Four being crippled by an actor’s boycott of its advertising slots, the way was clear for its Tony Aitken-esque brown-suited manager to slip in front of the camera himself, and flog his humble electronic wares to the populace at a knock-down price. And so he did. On average, at least twice per commercial break. Every commercial break. Without fail. Soon he’d expanded to a second premises in Stockwell, but then the strike was resolved, ‘proper’ ads starring Rosalyn Landor and Nick Hancock returned to the Channel, and the rates shot up far beyond OTV’s grasp. But we remember. Wonder if he did Betamax?