Accrington Stanley, Who Are They?

Accrington Stanley, Who Are They? is a slogan that was used in an advert for milk by the Milk Marketing Board in the 1980s in the United Kingdom. The advert starred Carl Rice and Kevin Staine.

The advert features two young Liverpool fans with one telling the other that Ian Rush had told him that if he didn't drink milk, he would only be good enough to play for Accrington Stanley. The other fan then said "Accrington Stanley, who are they?" with the response being "Exactly."

According to Rice, Tottenham Hotspur was originally going to be named. However Tottenham objected so Accrington Stanley were chosen instead as they were a non-League team at the time and were seen to be a more obscure team. It was also claimed by David Lloyd, a non-executive director of Accrington Stanley, that the advert earned the club £10,000.

The advert was popular and was continually shown for up to 6 years after it was originally made in 1989. The phrase was seen to make Accrington Stanley the subject of jokes up to the present day. However, residents of Accrington view the reference positively.

In 2006, Rice was invited as the guest of honour to watch Accrington Stanley's match against Stevenage Borough and was later invited to Accrington Stanley's last game of the season against Scarborough as they were promoted to Football League Two.

In 2009, Sky Sports programme Soccer AM promoted Accrington Stanley's "Save Our Stanley" campaign because of the phrase, as they wanted to continue to use it to refer to the club when reading fixture lists.

...
Wikipedia