What Was The Most Unusual Advert For Bobcat Excavators?

Unusually versatile machines often need unique demonstrations of the capabilities they have, and that is one of the reasons why Bobcat excavators are often seen undertaking some rather unusual demonstrations as part of their marketing campaigns.

Whilst many of these today involve showing off the versatility of the design or the potential benefits of an autonomous cabless machine, some of them can involve demonstrating the ability of the orange and white coloured Bobcat to carefully manoeuvre itself in any situation.

One of the highest profile and unusual examples of this took place on Friday 11th October 1991, on an episode of the London Weekend Television game show You Bet.

As part of the final challenge of the show, sponsored by host Matthew Kelly, Lionel Burgess was challenged with taking a Bobcat 753 up a narrow steel ramp, across a bridge and down the other ramp.

This seems remarkably simple, especially for anyone familiar with the Bobcat’s history. But the catch is that at no point could the back two wheels touch the ground, making it an incredible test of precision and balance.

This made it a little more difficult for cricketer Fred Trueman, impressionist Bobby Davro and shot putter Geoff Capes to guess whether Mr Burgess could make it, especially since Matthew Kelly did not do the best job even explaining what a Bobcat was. Mr Capes believed he could not and the audience was extremely split.

Thankfully, all four of them, as well as the studio audience and millions of people watching ITV that night got a crash course in just what the Bobcat could do.

Lionel Burgess is a legendary demonstrator and ambassador for Bobcat, having worked for the company for 25 years up to that point and only retired in 2008.

It goes without saying that any doubts about the Bobcat’s capabilities, as well as the sheer skill of Mr Burgess, were soundly put to rest, as he and his bobcat helmet succeeded with 30 seconds to go, winning not only the You Bet perspex trophy but also several orders for new mini excavators and skid steers.