The Amazing Adventures (& Short History) of Cucumberman

Our company commenced trading in 1986 when we specialised in hiring and selling dehumidification equipment. However, in 1989, it occurred to our founder, Jeffrey Salmon (he is still at the helm of our company today because it would be cheaper to pension him off than to pay a massive redundancy payout), that the United Kingdom was ready for a very little-known commodity that was Portable Air Conditioning. Very few companies were involved in this sector, and no one specifically specialised in “portables”.

Very few companies were manufacturing portable air conditioners other than Carrier, who were then the leaders of the field, and its portable air conditioning business was based in Italy. When Jeff approached them to purchase the units for the UK market, Carrier politely told them that they were not prepared to sell the units in the United Kingdom as there was “no market for them over here due to our inclement weather”. However, Jeff confirmed that he wanted 1000 units as a “starter order,” and very quickly, Carrier changed their mind and told him that there “is most certainly a large market in the United Kingdom!”

What was very clear to Jeff was that the company needed a total rebrand and to market portable air conditioning as no one had ever done before. What on earth were we going to call the company? In one of those inspirational moments whilst on holiday, Jeff asked his son (then 6 years old) what he believed the company ought to be called and he immediately responded “Cool as a Cucumber” because that was the page he was reading in his alphabet learning book. Thus, CucumberMan was born. However, Jeff further asked Jonathan who the owner of Cool as a Cucumber Ltd would be, and his answer was “CucumberMan, of course!”

Jeff then put his creative juices into full flow and started writing radio advertisements entitled “The amazing adventures of CucumberMan and cast the veteran actors “Arthur Mullard & John Inman” in the role of CucumberMan and the rest became history insofar that over the years it has won numerous Radio Advertisement Industry Awards and at one particular award ceremony at Grosvenor House the presenter “Angela Ripon” proudly told the gathering that it just goes to show that you do not need to have 12 people around the table to come out with an award winning campaign.

Certainly, in London and the South East (our main market), the company has become by far the brand leader and a quick glimpse at our customer list will confirm both the strength of CucumberMan’s brand and the trust in which CucumberMan Air Conditioning is held.

Below you’ll find some of our advertisements that we have used over the years and we hope you enjoy them as much as we have enjoyed producing them without any expensive outside help!