A beautiful October day saw the British Arrows team take an outing to East Anglia and a visit to the History of Advertising trust, long-time partner of the Arrows.

In this beautiful location over 5 million British Advertising assets are being preserved, stored and loved by the dedicated team of curators and volunteers. Coincidentally HAT and British Arrows came to life in the same year, 1976, clearly we were destined to be connected. HAT is in fact an educational charity and archive to the UK advertising industry. It is the largest archive of British advertising in the world, with collections ranging in date from 1800s to present day. They of course hold all of the British Arrows awards too.

HAT’s mission is “To promote learning and creative excellence by preserving and celebrating the advertising heritage of the UK.”

A tour of the facility is the most wonderful trip down memory lane. Not only do they store ads themselves but in many cases there are documents giving context around the creation, like an internal agency memo suggesting a little known director for a job… that little known director was Ridley Scott. There are simply millions of gems to be discovered.

Alistair Moir's passion for the industry and its work is infectious.

HAT is an education resource available free of charge to educational institutions and commercially to the industry as a whole for research purposes.

HAT is funded by a combination of donations and paying archive clients. This year we are proud to announce that a percentage of British Arrows entry fees will also be donated to help HAT continue the amazing work they are doing to preserve our heritage.

For more information about the History of Advertising Trust.