Comedian's bitter adverts join hall of fame

A series of TV commercials for bitter starring comedian Peter Kay have been voted among the best adverts of the year.

Three adverts for John Smith's beer caught the eye of the British judges, including one featuring Kay in a swimming competition.

Honda's "cog" commercial was also placed in the top 50 of the past year by Britain's Advertising Producers Association (APA).

The advert, which featured a series of domino events culminating in the appearance of a Honda Accord, was voted "coolest ad of the year" in a separate competition last month.

A panel of experts from the advertising world sifted through 450 commercials submitted by agencies, producers and directors in the UK.

The top 50, announced in a ceremony at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, are not ranked in any order.

Stephen Davies, chief executive of the APA, which represents professionals involved with producing adverts, said: "We wanted to look for commercials that stood out from the crowd and the 50 adverts chosen have done that. They have got viewers thinking about the product in the way the advertisers want us to do."

The aim of the competition, now in its second year, is to compile an annual archive of the best adverts.

The 450 entries submitted represent just 10% of commercials screened in the UK over the space of a year.

Others picked out from the past 12 months included an advert for Levi's featuring the heads of mice superimposed on humans and Marmite's "lifeguard" commercial.