These ads for Maltesers chocolates remind me of the comic strips advertisments that ran in newspapers in the 40’s and 50’s (and which are faithfully chronicled every Wednesday on Ger Apeldoorn’s fantastic The Fabulous Fifties blog), but with a contemporary, ironic twist (not unlike John Lustig’s Last Kiss Comics).
Ads like these, that reference comic styles and tropes directly have become pretty rare, I think.
(from I believe in Advertising)