BMW six-cylinder engines (1986)

British advertising mogul Robin Wight asked a BMW engineer in Munich the difference between a four-cylinder and a six-cylinder engine, the latter favoured by BMW for 2-litre engines at the time. “He picked up a glass of water," Wight said recently. "He said he could put it on the engine block of a four-cylinder two-litre engine, as in a Mercedes – the water would bounce up and down. If he took the glass and put it on a six-cylinder two-litre BMW engine, the water wouldn’t move because the engine was smooth and perfectly balanced.”



Wight returned to London, procured a Mercedes and a BMW side by side, proved to himself that this was true and this is the awesome result. Our sister title Campaign – the ad industry bible – hailed this as one of the best ads of the 20th century.