“Crackers aren’t just for Christmas,” 1985

With British manufacturing in sharp decline in the 1980s, export tariffs dealt the Christmas cracker industry a further blow by imposing severe restrictions on anything explosive that couldn’t kill or maim. By 1985, the government was staring down the barrel of a cracker mountain, and the NOI responded with this campaign.

This poster, however, was short-lived, after a furore whipped up by the National Looking At And Listening To Association, who objected to the model’s exposed décolletage. It was hastily withdrawn and replaced by the more familiar image, featuring Jocky Wilson in an Popeye outfit.