I hardly ever watch tv but one of my favourite advertisements that used to be aired several years ago in Australia was the one on Big M. It starts off innocently enough with a guy just strolling down the street drinking from a carton of Big M. So he’s walking down the street, just minding his own business when he notices a guy struggling to load a grand piano on his truck. And of course as luck would have had it, he loses grip of the piano and they happen to be just on the edge of a steep hill. So the piano starts rolling down the hill rather quickly and our main guy noticed that there was a elderly lady walking her chihuahua right at the start of the hill where the piano is headed towards, so he decides to take things into his own hands to save the old lady and her dog. So our quick thinking hero jumps on a travelling garbage truck nearby and makes his way down the hill by leaping from vehicle to vehicle, trying to outrace the piano. After much effort which include throwing himself onto oncoming traffic, he finally manages to get to the lady a split second before the piano and feeling all macho, perhaps from all that adrenaline, he stands in front of the lady and her dog and tries to stop the piano with all his might. Of course there wasn’t quite a fight as the piano continued making its merry way down the slope, taking him, the lady and the poor helpless chihuahua with it. The scene then cuts out and big M’s slogan’s flashed across the screen- “think big but not too big”.
Just recalling the advertisement, which can be found here, put a huge smile on my face, as it does every time i see a carton of Big M and the advertisement starts playing in my mind. That really is the power of good advertising. Of course it helps that Big M has just about the best chocolate milk you can find.
Sadly, print advertisement hardly has the same effect on me. Sure i glance at the advertisements in my monthly stash of food magazines once in a while but after seeing the same couple of ads numerous times in a magazine and then again in the others, i start skipping the ads totally and just go right to the articles and recipes.
So when my mum came to me one day, with a magazine in her hand, and showed me a advertisement by Nestle which came with a recipe for cookies and cream ice cream, i have to admit that i wasn’t too excited by it. But seeing how few ingredients it called for and how easy the recipe seem, plus to appease my dear mum, i decided to give the recipe a shot and boy, am i glad i did.
This was hugely raved by everyone who tried it. Of course we couldn’t resist and had to have it the minute it was churned. It was smooth, creamy with just a hint of caramel, and the chunks of softened biscuits giving it such wonderful texture. Even my dad who was watching his food intake gave into temptation and had a couple of spoonfuls, proclaiming it several times to be “really really good”.
I guess as always, mums know best eh? I’m really glad i listened to mine this time 
Cookies and Cream Ice Cream in Filo Cups
Ingredients
600ml single cream
395g Nestle sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
10 chocolate biscuits, crumbled into large chunks
- Mix all ingredients except biscuits in a large bowl. Churn in ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s directions, adding biscuits in the last 5 minutes.
*To make filo cups, lightly grease a mini muffin pan. Cut a sheet of filo into small squares. Grease and layer 4 squares on top of one another, each at a slight angle. Press lightly into muffin pan and repeat with the rest. Fill empty muffin cups with water to prevent burning in the oven. Bake at 175C for about 12 minutes till golden brown. Scoop ice cream with a melon baller to fill baked filo cups.
