The creators of those annoying Opera Singer insurance adverts for GoCompare.com have redeemed themselves, in part, with this clearly Dan Dare inspired plug for their services – complete with comic-style speech balloons, weird aliens and Space Fleet uniforms.

‘Gio Compario’ is again played by real life Welsh opera star Wynne Evans,  one of the UK’s leading Tenors, having sung as a principal with most of the major opera houses and orchestras.

While the ads may be annoying, GoCompare say the response to their film related ads has been very positive,

“It’s fair to say that Gio Compario has become one of the most recognisable and talked about figures on British television,” says Gocompare.com’s head of marketing, Nick Hall. “Whether you’re an opera fan or not this campaign has made a massive difference in terms of brand awareness and recall and that has translated directly to a big uplift in site traffic.”

• For all of GoCompare’s other annoying other TV Adverts, visit the Gio Compario YouTube Channel. Who needs meerkats, eh?

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.

Categories: British Comics, Classic British Comics

Tags: Advertising, Dan Dare