The Smurfs Australian BP commercial (lost advertising material; 1980s)
This article has been tagged as Needing work due to its lack of references.
1981 photo showing Smurfs merchandise in an Australian BP station.
Status: Lost
Starting in 1979, gas and oil company BP launched a line of figurines and collectibles featuring The Smurfs that could be found in the UK, South Africa, and Australia.
Sometime in the mid-1980's, an Australian animated commercial was created that featured Papa Smurf checking out a BP station where Smurfs are found cleaning a car, and one Smurf carrying a pile of tires. Like the UK National Benzole commercials, it also uses the "Smurf Song" by Vader Abraham, which is sung by Papa Smurf with the other Smurfs and reuses the "Service With A Smurf" slogan. Papa Smurf and the other smurfs were also voiced by unknown Australian voice actors instead of the voice actors from the Hannah-Barbara series. Very little is known about the Australian BP commercial and it has become very obscure as a result.
The commercial is notably different from the National Benzole commercial in that the character animation is more fluid and smooth. The Australian studio that animated it, however, is unknown. Most of the commercial is set inside a BP store, with Papa Smurf checking how clean the interior is and another Smurf giving Papa Smurf a wrench which he was searching. Papa Smurf is later seen patting another Smurf on the back. The ending is also different, with a living car singing the last few lyrics "BP's the one place on earth.", who is then joined by Papa Smurf and the other worker Smurfs singing "You Get Service With A Smurf" twice.
Findings
The commercial was uploaded by an unknown Australian YouTube user sometime in 2010 who had also uploaded other commercials from Australia during the 1980's. However, it was eventually deleted once that user closed their account three years later.
Although the account was closed, an unnamed YouTube Poop used footage from the commercial and lasted a bit longer. The uploader of said YouTube Poop also closed their account a couple years later, so the video is no longer available.