Helping my wife's mum and Dad to lift a carpet this weekend, (who says advertising isn't as exciting as it used to be?) I found the Scotsman newspaper they'd used to line the floor. The date on the paper was July 17th 1983. Twenty-five years ago almost to the day. As usual with time capsules like this the whole family had a lot of fun reading the articles. Britain was in the throws of a heat wave (lucky them). House prices were comically low (there was a whole section for houses under £15,000). And of course it was interesting to look back at the ads. The one for Kwik Fit had the obligatory shot of Tom Farmer, my how young he looked. And Scanning through the other ads it was clear that the UK advertising industry was smitten with illustrations and cartoons. Almost every ad had one, including two ads for British Rail with the famous strapline “this is the age of the train” (it wasn’t). But there was one ad that stood out a mile.

This one for BMW, it showed no attempt to follow fashion, it was above all that. Instead it persuaded the reader with great copy; high production values; classic art direction; and an idea that is eerily topical today, Fuel economy.

Which just goes to show, there’s no hiding a great ad, even under the Axminster.

Is not this,sadly. This is in fact The Mini Chateau. Not seen one in the carpark at Aldi? Not surprising really.This little beauty is one of a limited edition of only 12.

Why Chateau? Because it boasts a shock- absorbent wine celler in the trunk,of course.

I wondered why on earth they'd re-launched the frankly pretty useless clubman, (and so did their ad agency,hence the posters for the ordinary clubman model which showed it with those odd little back doors open, accompanied with a headline suggesting that it was great for anyone needing to transport a really small horse).

But now I've seen the Mini Chateau, it all makes sense.

Cheers.