Ridley Scott: Top 5 Ads

May 12 sees the release of Alien Covenant, Ridley Scott's 23rd film as a film director, with those other 22 films including masterpieces like Blade Runner, Thelma and Louise, Gladiator and, of course, the original Alien. Throughout his career, however, he has also been an adman, making iconic ads for Apple, Hovis and Orange among many others. Out of that impressive body of work, here are our five favourites...

5. Chanel No. 5 - La Piscine, 1979

Sure, the version with a voiceover saying things like "I am made of blue sky" has aged about as horrendously as anything can, the mostly speech-free version, made the same year as the orginial Alien, is still a sumptuous piece that set the tone for perfume ads for decades.

4. Barclays - Customer Service Programme, 1980

Two years before Blade Runner, Scott took us to a place heavily resembling what would become the land of Deckard and the Replicants (side note: great band name). Taking the typical old man complaint of 'banks are just staffed by robots nowadays', the director creates a dystopian future where that has become the case.

3. Hovis - Bike, 1973

Scott takes a very different approach in what was once voted Britain's favourite ad of all time. Sepia-toned, historic, and with a heavy Yorkshire brogue on the voiceover, it's as cozy as a few slices of warm toast and butter.

2. Orange - In the Future..., 1998

In what was the first ever ad launched by Orange, Scott imaged a totally unlikely future in which people communicate wirelessly. If you can get over that totally ludicrous concept, the ad really is textbook 'they don't make them like that anymore', from the montage of imagery to the avant-garde Philip Glass score.

1. Apple - 1984, 1984

What else could it be? The Super Bowl ad that launched the idea of Super Bowl ads, this is probably among the top 10 most iconic ads of all time, and is pretty much the reason you're probably reading this on an Apple device right now.