Sheilas' Wheels is a
car insurance
Vehicle insurance (also known as car insurance, motor insurance, or auto insurance) is insurance for cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other road vehicles. Its primary use is to provide financial protection against physical damage or bodily injury r ...
brand based in the United Kingdom that targets its insurance to women although they also insure men now. The brand, named after the Australian slang term ''
sheila
Sheila (alternatively spelled Shelagh and Sheelagh) is a common feminine given name, derived from the Irish name ''Síle'', which is believed to be a Gaelic form of the Latin name Caelia, the feminine form of the Roman clan name Caelius, mean ...
'' for a woman, was launched in October 2005 by
Peter Wood, and is part of
Esure
Esure Group plc (stylised as ''esure'') is an Internet and telephone based insurance company based in Reigate, Surrey, England. It also has offices in Manchester and Glasgow. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquir ...
, the insurance group he founded with
HBOS
HBOS plc was a banking and insurance company in the United Kingdom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group, having been taken over in January 2009. It was the holding company for Bank of Scotland plc, which operated the Bank ...
in February 2000.
The brand has achieved fame through its advertising featuring three women clad in pink sequinned dresses who sing a variety of jingles promoting Sheilas' Wheels (e.g. "For bonzer car insurance deals, girls get onto Sheilas' Wheels"), often from the seats of a bubblegum pink convertible – sometimes referred to as "The Sheilamobile".
The Sheilas
Sheilas' Wheels and the three Sheilas themselves have been the subject of much media attention, and have regularly featured in polls of irritating but effective advertising. In one of the early adverts set in an Australian outback bar, "
Joe Scully
Joe Scully is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera '' Neighbours'', played by Shane Connor. He made his first on-screen appearance on 20 October 1999, along with his family.
Development
In October 1999, the five-strong Scully fam ...
" (
Shane Connor
Shane Connor (born 3 April 1959) also billed/credited as Shane Feeney-Connor, is an Australian actor, who has had extensive experience in stage, television and film productions, both locally and internationally in the United Kingdom and United St ...
) of ''
Neighbours
''Neighbours'' is an Australian television soap opera, which has aired since 18 March 1985. It was created by television executive Reg Watson. The Seven Network commissioned the show following the success of Watson's earlier soap '' Sons an ...
'' can be seen.
The Sheilas
The Sheilas was a British novelty pop girl group, famous for a 2007 jingle promoting car insurance company Sheilas' Wheels in an advertising campaign in the United Kingdom.
History
The Sheilas were Emma Robbins, Carly Romain and Cathi Ogden. Th ...
themselves are all accomplished singers and performers who began performing as The Sheilas during 2006 at gigs in the United Kingdom – often at
gay club
A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT) clientele; the term ''gay'' is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT communities.
Gay bars once served ...
s and student venues – they are Cathi Ogden, Carly Romain and Emma Robbins. Ogden is the only true Australian of the three; Robbins is sister to
Ted Robbins
Edward Michael Robbins (born 11 August 1955) is an English comic, actor, television presenter and radio broadcaster.
He has performed as a warm-up artist for numerous pre-recorded comedy shows that have been filmed before live studio audiences i ...
,
Amy Robbins
Amy Louise Robbins (born 18 February 1971) is an English stage, film and TV actress best known for her role as Dr. Jill Weatherill in the British television series ''The Royal''. Before her role in ''The Royal'' she played Police Sergeant Rachel ...
and
Kate Robbins
Kate Elizabeth Robbins (born 21 August 1958) is an English actress, singer and songwriter. She came to prominence in the early 1980s when she scored a top ten single on the UK Official Charts with "More Than in Love", while she was appearing in t ...
, and was married to
Simon Shelton
Simon Shelton (13 January 1966 – 17 January 2018), also known as Simon Barnes, was an English actor.
Early life
Shelton was born in the Bethnal Green area of London on 13 January 1966.
Career
Shelton was best known for his children's televis ...
who played
Tinky Winky
''Teletubbies'' is a British children's television series created by Anne Wood and Andrew Davenport for the BBC. The programme focuses on four differently coloured characters known as the Teletubbies, named after the television screens on th ...
in the ''
Teletubbies
''Teletubbies'' is a British children's television series created by Anne Wood and Andrew Davenport for the BBC. The programme focuses on four differently coloured characters known as the Teletubbies, named after the television screens on th ...
'', and is a second cousin of
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
and aunt of ''
The Inbetweeners
''The Inbetweeners'' is a British coming-of-age television teen sitcom, which originally aired on E4 from 2008 until 2010 and was created and written by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris. The series follows the misadventures of suburban teenager ...
'' actress
Emily Atack
Emily Jane Atack (born 18 December 1989) is an English actress, comedian, and television personality. She is best known for playing Charlotte Hinchcliffe on the E4 comedy series ''The Inbetweeners'' (2008-2010), and for her roles in Keith Lemo ...
.
In the television adverts, the girls usually appear with Romain on the left, Ogden centre and Robbins on the right (with dark hair).
Sheilas' Wheels Adverts
Since their launch, the Sheilas' Wheels adverts have grown over one hundred video tributes, parodies and imitations on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
, including a song by the
Amateur Transplants
Amateur Transplants was a parody music band fronted by London-based, British comedian Adam Kay and Suman Biswas (born 1978). Amateur Transplants came to prominence in 2005 with a song about the London Underground, parodying the Jam song "Going ...
. The Sheilas' Wheels car in the advert is a 'shell' and not a working car. It was created by heavily adapting the body of an old American car. There is a second working car, which is similar to the one in the advert that is used for promotional purposes.
It is a 1957 Ford
Mercury Monterey
The Mercury Monterey is a series of full-size cars that were manufactured and marketed by the Mercury division of Ford from 1952 to 1974. Deriving its name from Monterey Bay, the Mercury Monterey served as the upscale version of the Mercury Cus ...
convertible that the company bought in 2007 on
eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
and restored. The car lives in a warehouse of a specialist company in
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
, who rent out and sometimes sell American vehicles. The music for the Sheilas' Wheels adverts was composed by
John Altman, arranged by
Jeff Wayne
Jeffry Wayne (born 1 July 1943) is an American-British composer, musician and lyricist. In 1978, he released ''Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds'', his musical adaptation of H. G. Wells' science-fiction novel ''The War of ...
Music and sung by Cathi Ogden, Carly Romain and Emma Robbins.
The Sheilas single
In October 2007, The Sheilas released a single, (I'm So) Happy Happy (You're Mine), produced by
Stock, Aitken and Waterman
Stock Aitken Waterman (abbreviated as SAW) are an English songwriting and record production trio consisting of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, and Pete Waterman. The trio had great success from the mid-1980s through the early 1990s. SAW is considered ...
with Ogden doing the lead vocal on this recording. The single peaked at number 91.
History
The brand was originally conceived by copywriter Chris Wilkins and his creative partner and wife, Sian Vickers. The two had previously worked with Peter Wood during the 1990s. Wilkins was the copywriter of the famous advert by
Cadbury's
Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company fully owned by Mondelez International (originally Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second largest confectionery brand in the world after M ...
,
Smash Martians, which is often cited among the most memorable adverts of all time.
The Sheilas' Wheels car insurance product introduced a number of female focused benefits that differentiated it from competitors, such as enhanced cover for handbags in cars, female friendly repairers and a free counselling service with its comprehensive cover.
In February 2007, Sheilas' Wheels ran a competition for members of the public to appear in their television adverts, ''Make Me a Sheila Star'', which attracted over 11,000 applicants including babies, boys, girls, men and women, with the youngest being 18 months, and the oldest 98. In the end, thirty members of the public appeared in two adverts: one featuring a twelve person pyramid of women on the back of the Sheilamobile, and one featuring them in a stretched version.
In January 2008, Sheilas’ Wheels began sponsoring the
ITV National Weather, with a series of clips showing the Sheilas in a variety of weather conditions. Prior to sponsorship by Sheilas' Wheels, the ITV National Weather had been sponsored by
E.ON (formerly
Powergen) for eighteen years – the first and longest running sponsorship deal in television history in the United Kingdom.
In March 2011, a
European Court of Justice
The European Court of Justice (ECJ, french: Cour de Justice européenne), formally just the Court of Justice, is the supreme court of the European Union in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European Un ...
ruling stated that price discrimination based on gender breaches EU rules on equality. A spokesman from Sheilas’ Wheels parent company Esure stated that "premiums will rise drastically for young female drivers."
References
External links
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{{Authority control
Financial services companies established in 2005
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Lloyds Banking Group
Vehicle insurance