The Milkybar kid

A character devised by Nestlé in 1961 to sell their milk chocolate 'Milkybar' in the UK, the Milkybar Kid was, according to the jingle used in the television adverts, 'tough' and 'strong'. Furthermore, he 'couldn't go wrong', and he had an unlimited supply of Milkybars, which were always 'on him'.

He was usually dressed as a cowboy, and was played by a series of blonde, tousle-haired moppets - amongst them, child actors Conrad Colby and Grant Seiden.

Since 1998 the Milkybar Kid has been animated; there was some controversy over the fact that Nestlé's auditions for the character specified that actors be blonde and fair-skinned.

Ashley neglected to mention that the champion of cute little blonde-haired kids in the eighties also wore glasses. He still managed to be cool though. A bit like Robbie Williams, every girl wanted him and every boy wanted to be him (erm, well maybe). Nevertheless the 'kid came in for a lot of stick at my school.

We had a rhyme that went something like:

The Milkybar Kid is strong and tough!
No he's not - he's a fucking poof!

The creamiest milk, the whitest bar,
The goodness that's in Milkybar...

"The Milkybars are on me!"
"No they're not - They're 30p!"

It's good to see that even as young tykes we could still undermine advertising in our own little way.

Disclaimer: I didn't make this up, I didn't think it was PC when I was ten, and I certainly don't think that there's anything wrong with being a "poof". /Disclaimer.