Fry's English Delight and the Art of Appropriation

Just been listening to 'Fry's English Delight' on Radio 4 (which will soon be available on 'Listen Again' for another week). I always enjoy this programme and, this week, Stephen Fry was dealing with the gentle (and sometimes not so gentle) art of persuasion. He talked about the subject in terms of every area of human activity - from Politics, Economics and Commerce to Love and Emotion.

How far are we all persuaded by the clever marketing and advertising of products and services? Or the 'propaganda' (or corporate communication) of the big company? Or the political 'spin' woven by the ubiquitous 'spin doctors' in the speeches they write for the politicians; and the policy documents which they edit?

It's an old story, well-documented in books like 'The Hidden Persuaders'; and, by now, a subject of daily interest in the media.

Mr Fry is no stranger to the arts of persuasion himself. He has become almost synonymous with 'Twitter'; and one of the main celebrities people associate with the 'Twitter' brand.

The name of the programme itself, 'Fry's English Delight', has been appropriated from the advertising campaign for Fry's Turkish Delight, the chocolate bar with the pink, gelatinous centre. The original 60's television commercial for the product featured a scantily clad and very Western-looking blonde lady, who prances barefoot across the sand from her tent in the desert to profer her delights (the chocolate, although you could be forgiven for thinking other delights were on offer) on bended knees to her 'Master' (a very 'Lawrence of Arabia' type character).The1984 commercial is recast to use a  cast of characters, who were more in tune with the times; and therefore, more believable to the audience. The dark, swarthy male character is still there; but the woman is also dark and mysterious and dressed in more of an Eastern-looking outfit. The background music has some of the flavour of 'The English Patient' and the male character shows gentleness and affection to the female, whose face emerges, like magic, as he brushes his hand along a shape buried in the sand. The 'packshot' at the end involves the man slicing a bar of Fry's Turkish Delight into two with an enormous curved weapon. Then a snake wiggles along the sand. The snake suggests sex is involved; so I don't know whether the woman gets half a bar of chocolate for 'afters'; or if the swordmanship is a sort of threat, in case she doesn't do what he wants. Obviously there is room for an update which reflects the political and social mores of our times. Was I imagining things? Or did I see such an update recently? I could only find the 60's version and the 1984 version on 'Youtube'. If anyone knows of a later version, please tell me where I can see it.

In any case, the advertisers have paid substantial sums of money over the years to promote their product. And that is what I think about when I see the words 'Fry's English Delight'. I now also think of a very entertaining radio programme; so that's very clever of Mr Fry.