Fact #167598
When:
Short story:
Hits compilation Now That's What I Call Music 5 (aka NOW5) enters the UK album chart, where it will peak at No1.Full article:
Barry McCann (Strategic Marketing Director, EMI) : When I got involved with NOW 5 in the summer of 1985, the pig on the front cover had grown enormous physically, and was dominating the sleeve.
Ashley Abram (Box Music) : We were quite happy with the pig, and as NOW 3 was very successful, we felt that the pig must have something to do with it, so we carried it on with NOW 4, but by the time we got to NOW 5, we had the pig in a shirt with band logos on it, which was crazy.
Barry McCann : There were quite a few complaints from artists and managers refusing to be on the next album, and when I asked why, they said, 'It's that bloody pig - we don't want to be in an ad with a pig'.
We were with an agency who had great creative minds - one of the guys there worked on those Renault and Pirelli ads, gripping stuff - and we had these discussions where we were talking about slimming the pig down, whether we should give him a southern accent as opposed to a northern accent - grown men, talking about a cartoon pig!
We decided eventually to get rid of the pig, but there was a huge fear that we were going to throw the baby out with the bath water, so we decided to home in on the logo. The next one, which was NOW 6, was going to be at Christmas, so there would be competition with HITS 3. Fortunately, NOW 6 was a roaring success, and it beat HITS, and from then on, it has continued to do so every single time.
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Ashley Abram (Box Music) : We were quite happy with the pig, and as NOW 3 was very successful, we felt that the pig must have something to do with it, so we carried it on with NOW 4, but by the time we got to NOW 5, we had the pig in a shirt with band logos on it, which was crazy.
Barry McCann : There were quite a few complaints from artists and managers refusing to be on the next album, and when I asked why, they said, 'It's that bloody pig - we don't want to be in an ad with a pig'.
We were with an agency who had great creative minds - one of the guys there worked on those Renault and Pirelli ads, gripping stuff - and we had these discussions where we were talking about slimming the pig down, whether we should give him a southern accent as opposed to a northern accent - grown men, talking about a cartoon pig!
We decided eventually to get rid of the pig, but there was a huge fear that we were going to throw the baby out with the bath water, so we decided to home in on the logo. The next one, which was NOW 6, was going to be at Christmas, so there would be competition with HITS 3. Fortunately, NOW 6 was a roaring success, and it beat HITS, and from then on, it has continued to do so every single time.