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Bric-a-Brac: N is for...

Naughty… but Nice

Sez Les!While Mr Kipling ran its sedate, well-mannered commercials for decades, boringly recounting scenes not seen in normal households for centuries, Lyons decided that a more modern approach was required. The basic theme of the ‘Naughty… but Nice’ campaign was that, yeah, the cakes might have loads of sugar and cream in them that may be bad for your figure, but who cared when they tasted as good as this? This devilish assertion was backed up by a roster of celebs, from Les Dawson in drag to Barbara Windsor, via Kenneth Williams in, improbably enough, Dracula mode. (‘Ere! The trouble with these midnight snacks is you get crumbs all over the bed!’) The slogan is said to be the creation of Salman Rushdie, trying to raise a few bob to write novels by working as a copywriter. Perhaps if he’d stuck to writing about cream cakes then he wouldn’t have had so much hassle in later years. In fact Rushdie is not alone in taking the commercial shilling over the years – legendary sports commentator Murray Walker may have been well-known for his garbled English, but in a previous career he’d informed the nation that Opal Fruits were ‘made to make your mouth water’.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Arthur Nibble

    August 14, 2009 at 10:22 pm

    Manfred Mann’s Mike D’Abo gave us the epic “a finger of Fudge is just enough to give your kids a treat”.

  2. Richard Davies

    August 10, 2010 at 5:05 pm

    I remember Naughty But Nice stickers on many bakers & cake shop windows well into the 1990s.

    Murray Walker also came up with “A Mars a day makes you work rest & play”.

  3. Mark Ashdown

    December 17, 2022 at 2:05 pm

    Naughty but nice was from a competition with the prize of dinner in Paris with omar sharrif it was my auntie who won the competition.
    My aunt Stella gave the win tomy cousin John and his then partner Alison.

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