Dear John - BASF

Commercial (Full Length) – 1981

For this classic advert, milk bottle silver caps stood in for soldier’s dog tags, and a Wellington quarry was used to recreate the Korean War. Updating a 1950s country and western tearjerker, singer Jacqui Fitzgerald provides a charming if illogical twist on the traditional ‘Dear John’ letter. The Tony Williams-directed commercial won multiple awards, and was voted Best Australasian Commercial of the 1980s. The ad's callbacks to Korean War comedy M*A*S*H* include a reference to one of the show's most beloved characters in the mail call. Read the memories of the ad's musical maestro Murray Grindlay here.

...the icing on the cake was the fabulous singer Jacqui Fitzgerald. She totally owned it and got that torch thing I was looking for.
– Murray Grindlay, in his backgrounder on creating the music for this advert

Key Cast & Crew

Murray Grindlay

Musical Arranger

Doug Moroney

Writer

Pat Cox

Producer, Production Manager

Ron Highfield

Production Designer

Roger Brittenden

Writer

Tony Williams

Director, Producer

See all 11 credits

Produced by

Colenso

Acknowledgements

NZ On Screen acknowledges the talent and creatives for allowing NZ On Screen to reproduce this title on this website.

Music

'Dear John' sung by Jacqui Fitzgerald

Adapted by Murray Grindlay from 1953 song 'A Dear John Letter', composed by Billy Barton, Fuzzy Owen and Lewis Talley