1 January 2025 marks 40 years since the commercial launch of the first two mobile phone networks in the UK, Vodafone and Cellnet.

To celebrate this important milestone, Vodafone, which made the first commercial call on a public network on 1 January 1985, narrowly beating rival Cellnet, has unveiled a Christmas advert celebrating 40 years of mobile phones.

 

 

The teams who conceived and delivered this advert within Vodafone and at its media agency Leo Burnett, worked closely with the Mobile Phone Museum to identify the appropriate phones for each era portrayed in the advert. The Mobile Phone Museum also provided the phones that were used in the advert, including icons such as the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, the Nokia 7110, the Motorola Razr V3 and more.

We expect 2025 to be a busy year for the Museum team, with heightened nostalgia fuelled by this important milestone in mobile phone history.

To read more about the first commercial phone call see here.

As part of our involvement, we attended a day of the filming. Some highlights are below.

More details on the production of the advert can be found here.