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Friday Flashback: ABBA National TV ad

"Together we can make the future shine, slightly ahead of our time, it's National."

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At the height of their fame in 1976, ABBA unbelievably fronted an Australian campaign for National appliances (now Panasonic)… even rewriting the lyrics to Fernando.

An Australian film crew travelled to Sweden to film 5 commercials.

To think what they could charge for the same campaign now….

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  2. Yes, I fondly remember that special, me and my brother and sister glued to the telly. I remember their costumes well from that, must be more from the bubblegum cards, as we still only had a B&W TV.

    1. If you can’t track down the full special, there are various clips from it on YouTube. Just type in phrases such as “Ábba Australia 1976” and then lose yourself in nostalgia for an hour or so. Much footage there, including form Don Lane show ,Bandstand and other stuff…

  3. An “Ábba in Australia” special is included on the “Deluxe” version of the ABBA CD, as a bonus disc. It is still available in various stores and online. I have a copy, and it was great nostalgia on many levels, including how innocent and a bit hokey Australian TV was back in the 70s. In addition to the studio scenes, they were also filmed outdoors, such as on a boating trip on Sydney’s northern waterways (which was set to the music of one of their lesser known songs called Tropical Loveland).

  4. Well this put a smile on my dial. And to prove ABBA had faith in the brand and the quality of National’s products my trusty National beside radio/alarm clock with its faux timber finish and green illuminating time still works…and it must be nearly 40 years old.

    2. Yes, I fondly remember that special, me and my brother and sister glued to the telly. I remember their costumes well from that, must be more from the bubblegum cards, as we still only had a B&W TV.

  6. Even though I am a big ABBA fan – and was back in 1976 – I don’t remember those ads at all. So it’s great to see them now. National later became National Panasonic and then later just Panasonic. I think that I bought back then the portable cassette player shown in the second ad.

    It’s fortunate that ABBA wasn’t involved in a campaign for what is now a well-known portable toilet company for building sites and events, because ‘Waterloo’ would have become ‘Portaloo’.

    Re talent costs, I recall that it was often cited many years ago that the Australian tour by The Beatles (as recently shown on 9) was dirt cheap because the band was signed for the tour just before they became mega-stars – and they were held to the contract by the Aust’n promoter.

    2. I don’t know how you could have a tv at that time and not remember those commercials. I think it was Abba’s way of saying thank you to Australia. Being the first English speaking country in the world to embrace them so fully. I love how the commercials capture that wonderful moment in time.

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