Who remembers the days when we sat through every advert on GTV or TV3 because the adverts were half the fun?
Before smartphones and data bundles, Ghanaian commercials had jingles that children sang on the way to school, characters whose catchphrases ended up in our everyday conversations, and actors who were stopped in the market and called by the names of the products they advertised.
Those adverts changed how many of us saw marketing in Ghana, because they showed that a brand could make you laugh, dance or even shout a line across the compound long before it asked for your money.
These days, scrolling through social media can feel like wading through AI slop, with adverts that look polished but feel like they could have been made anywhere and for anyone.
Now and then, though, one breaks through and reminds us what Ghanaian advertising can be, and Uber Ghana’s new ad (opens in a new tab) featuring Code Micky and Nikki Samonas has had people talking for exactly that reason. Between YouTube ads that most of us skip after five seconds and the ones that follow us from app to app, it is easy to forget that there was a time when we actually waited for the adverts to come on.
When we shared some of these old commercials on X, hundreds of you came back to tell us how old you were when they first aired, so here they are again for anyone who wants to feel young for a few minutes.
1. Tigo “Honey Coochie Coo”
Few adverts stuck to their actors quite like this one. Samuel Ruffy Quansah danced his way through Tigo’s commercial in the 2000s so memorably that people still call him “Honey Coochi Coochi” today, and when he resurfaced in Ghana recently after years abroad, fans were still asking him why he does not make adverts like that anymore.
2. Cargo Bitters
If you remember the phrase “shalai tui”, you remember this one. A small man invites three plus-sized women to a bar, and the dancing that follows made the advert a favourite on Ghanaian TV.
3. Tigo Number 1
Tigo appears on this list twice because the network had a knack for commercials that people talked about long after they aired. This one, set in a bar, was part of the brand’s push to be seen as the number one network in the country.
4. Glico
Long before animation became common in Ghanaian advertising, Glico, the life insurance company, told its story with cartoons. For many children it was the one insurance advert they actually enjoyed watching.
5. Pomo
The little boy in the orange shirt and his big smile made this one hard to forget, and if you grew up in the 2000s, you can probably still hear the jingle.
6. Brrr Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola’s Ghanaian adverts were always full of energy, and this one, with its dancing, colourful hats and that famous “Brrr”, made a cold Coke feel like the answer to the afternoon heat.
7. Interplast PVC Pipes
An advert for plumbing pipes is not where you would expect to find lasting memories, but Interplast managed it, and many Ghanaians still remember the boy at the centre of this one.
8. Kasapa
Before Kasapa became Expresso in 2008, it was one of the networks fighting for a place in Ghana’s early mobile market.
And this advert, featuring a woman in hair rollers lounging on her sofa making a call, is the kind of everyday Ghanaian home scene that made viewers feel seen.
Which of these do you remember, and which old advert did we miss? Tell us in the comments.
