I grew up with Weetabix. I grew up with the ads on the telly, and still remember most of them. Even when I got older, we could all sing along to the Robin Hood lyrics, and the pirates ad. I remember the driving instructor, and still love the Black Beauty ad - withabix, withoutabix.
OK, so there was that 'Bovva boy' blip in the 80s, and there has been nothing much recently, but, overall, nearly all of it was good.
And I knew then, and I know now, that Weetabix gives me energy.
I love the new ad. I have four teenagers, aged 19,17,15 and 13. We talk about ads all the time. (They talk about everything all the time.)
The other night, I sat and listened as they all played through the new Weetabix ad. They knew all the bits in it - 'Is this boy having a laugh?' They love it. They talk about it.
I asked them, though: 'Ahh ... but what does it say?'
Without hesitation, they replied: 'Weetabix gives you energy'.
This makes me think. We are constantly reinventing things. New people come in to an organisation and change things - it's the way it works now. We can't be seen to do nothing: we must move forward. Out with the old, in with new strategy, new message, new media, new packaging.
My family is surrounded by new. We love new. New everything. New iPhones, new BlackBerries, new curriculum, new series on E4.
I think Weetabix shows us that you don't have to be new to be engaging. I was captivated by the latest Weetabix ad when I saw it on telly, just as I was when I saw the pirates or Robin Hood ads years ago.
I'm trying hard to think of a brand that has been as consistent over the years as Weetabix. Yes, it has added variants and there has been new product development, of course. Nonetheless, as a brand, I feel that it hasn't changed. The packaging might have been updated a bit, but only a bit.
There's really not a lot of 'new' in Weetabix at all. It has pretty much stayed the same.
I can't tell you how refreshing that feels nowadays.
The marketing team has stuck to the same media, the same strategy and the same message. Then it has stood back and let a writer write and a director direct.
The result is Weetabix has an ad that is as new and shiny as anything else out there. And people talk about it, and will probably buy Weetabix - because it gives you energy.
Nothing new in that.