In the mid 1990s, Jack Dee became the spokesman for John Smith’s and starred in a series of adverts for John Smith’s Bitter headlined “No Nonsense”. The idea behind the ads, which Jack was involved in writing, was that Jack believed that John Smith’s Bitter was so good that it could sell itself without any gimmicks.
Of course, the ad men disagreed with Jack’s views and superimposed all sorts of gimmicks into the adverts as Jack was saying his lines. These gimmicks including dancing penguins obviously also poked fun at Jack’s supposed serious demeanour as the “hard man of comedy”.
During Jack’s time as spokesman for John Smith’s widgets were introduced into cans to give a just poured taste. Jack also advertised the widget (together with dancing ladybugs!) and these ads earned him the moniker, “The Midget with the Widget” due to his diminished height, Jack stands 5 foot 3 inches tall. The widget adverts won one gold and two silver arrows at the prestigious British Television Advertising Awards.
Jack Dee spell as the spokesman ended in 1998 when John Smith’s moved to a cardboard cut out called the No Nonsense Man” claiming that the Bitter was so famous it no longer needed a celebrity to endorse it.
