Mariner Boating Holidays celebrates the excesses of adland in the ’90s
A boating holidays company is targeting senior ad executives by inviting them to bring back the excesses of the nineties by avoiding work and racing boats in Sydney harbour.
A long-copy ad typical of the nineties, which the reader is led to via a web banner, is headlined: “Nobody reads long copy ads any more, except people in advertising.”
The ad begins with a description of “the decade that advertising forgot about selling things and pretty much disappeared up its own arts”. It consists of three columns of copy in small type, with a small logo in one corner.

It’s funny actually…. I started working in 1992 as a junior designer straight out of college and all I remember about that time were people talking about the excesses of the eighties – the 3 hour lunches at Mario’s and the friday night drinks that turned into a drunken weekend on the harbour…
Well done Mumbo. Two apostrophes in the one ‘word’ in the heading. It puts new meaning to long-copy.
I’ll let you have one of them, AM….
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
I, for one, vote to bring back the long boozy lunches. As long as the company is paying for it, hey, why not?
Great ad. Love it.