The future was bright the future was Orange in 1994. In a confusing, complex, expensive mobile phone market, late starter Orange spoke to its customers in a language they could understand. From per-second billing to smart phones, Orange became a shining beacon of customer focus in an industry obsessed with technology for technology’s sake.

Across the Atlantic, another technology company based on the web was building a brand. Two Stanford students, Jerry Yang and David Filo plucked a name from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and Yahoo! was born. By the end of the year the new website was receiving over one million hits.

An altogether older brand, Bell’s Whisky was biding its time, becoming an eight year blend. Findus Lean Cuisine was fighting back against rivals Weight Watchers with a revamped range focused on low fat tasty meals rather than calorie counting.

“Hello Boys!” was doing wonderful things to Playtex’s Wonderbra sales. Urban myths attributed a number of car accidents to male drivers distracted by model Eva Herzigova’s cleavage.

Nike aligned itself with footballers for the first time, sponsoring eight Brazilian footballers for the US World Cup, just in time for them to beat Italy in a penalty shoot-out. A new ad campaign, “The Wall” featured giant World Cup footballers playing from their billboards.

Meanwhile, Rowan Atkinson’s spoof James Bond character, Johnny English bumbled his way around the world for Barclaycard. A decade later, Johnny English was brought onto the big screen, starring in his own film.