The banned ad still running nearly 100 years later

The River Thames snakes through London, dividing the city’s north from its south. 

On each bank, stand impressive-looking buildings of different heights and shapes.

In the 1920s, the makers of OXO beef stock cubes bought one, an old power station. 

Then, they hired the architect Albert Moore to redesign the building in an Art Deco style. 

As part of the brief, they wanted to turn the cooling tower into a prominent OXO brand advertisement. 

The problem?

Advertising along the riverbank wasn’t permitted.

So Moore came up with an ingenious solution. 

At the top of the tower, he designed three ‘decorative’ windows: a circle, a cross, and another circle.

Viewed from a distance, the shapes spelt ‘OXO’.

With a clever bit of creative thinking, he’d met his client’s brief.

And all without falling foul of the law. 

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