As Accrington Stanley prepares for the FA Cup third round tie against Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday afternoon, memories of the iconic 1989 milk advertisement have returned.
The advert, which features the famous line ‘Acrington Stanley… who are they?’ was invented. has become synonymous with the League Two club. However, behind the light-hearted commercial lies a sinister story.
Commissioned by the Milk Marketing Board to promote the health benefits of milk, the ad became a pop culture sensation. It featured two young boys, one of whom, played by Carl Rice, wears a Liverpool shirt and explains that Ian Rush told him that drinking milk was the key to becoming a great footballer.
When his friend, played by Kevin Spaine, ridicules the idea, Rice famously replies that without milk he would only be good enough to play for Accrington Stanley.
Spaine delivers the punchline: “Arington Stanley… who are they?” Rice’s unforgettable response, “Exactly!”, cemented the ad in cultural memory.
While the advert at the time humorously satirized Accrington’s obscurity, the club embraced the renewed attention.
As Accrington Stanley prepare for their FA Cup third round tie against Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday afternoon, memories of the iconic 1989 milk advert have resurfaced (above)
Accrington Stanley pictured after the penalty shootout against Swindon Town
In February 2023, Kevin Spaine (pictured right) was sentenced to life imprisonment for the brutal murder of Learoy Venner in Liverpool
Although Tottenham Hotspur were initially intended to be the butt of the joke, their objection paved the way for Accrington’s inclusion. The club made £10,000 from the advertisement, which helped cement their identity in football history.
For Rice, the ad was the start of a blossoming career in television, film and theater. He was just a kid and starred in Children’s Ward and Brookside before going on to have roles in Coronation Street, Shameless and even Disney’s Cruella. Rice co-founded Milk Pictures, a production company named in honor of the advertisement that launched his career.
Discussing how he got the first role in a 2013 interview with the Liverpool Echo, Rice said: “The people who made the advert went around the region and about eight of us ended up going to London. I hadn’t been there before and thought, “This is crazy.”
‘We were taken to Shepperton Studios and it was great, as are a lot of kids on holiday. I’m a loyal Liverpudlian, but because I’m an idiot, when they said I could have the Liverpool shirt they gave me, I said, ‘It’s okay, I already have one’. I could have had two. Now I take every freebie that comes my way.”
Rice – who said he was paid £90 (the equivalent of around £240 today) for the advert – maintains a close relationship with Accrington Stanley, attending matches as a guest of honor and celebrating milestones such as their promotion to the Football League in 2006.
Recently, Rice featured in a heartwarming video for Mitre, revisiting the club and reflecting on the ad’s lasting legacy.
According to The Telegraph, Rice will join Liverpool’s record goalscorer Ian Rush at Anfield on Saturday.
It marks their first public meeting and further highlights the extraordinary cultural impact of the 1989 commercial.
While Rice’s career soared, his co-star, Spaine, followed a much darker path. Once a promising young footballer, Spaine’s life was derailed by addiction and crime. In February 2023, Spaine was sentenced to life imprisonment for the brutal murder of Learoy Venner in Liverpool.
His defense team revealed his role in the ad during his trial, underscoring the tragedy of a life that went from early promise to a harrowing end.
John Harrison KC, Spaine’s lawyer, described him as “a promising young footballer” who found himself in a life dominated by drugs and crime.
With Liverpool and Accrington Stanley meeting for only the second time – the first since 1956 – the ad’s impact feels more relevant than ever. Accrington fans have not resented the joke but turned it into a badge of pride.
Saturday’s match is a rare opportunity for Accrington to shine on one of football’s biggest stages.
Yet the odds are stacked against the League Two side – who have lost all three of their FA Cup matches against Premier League opponents – with each of these defeats coming in the fourth round of the competition.
Meanwhile, Liverpool have been knocked out of the FA Cup in the third round just once in the last 13 seasons, losing 2-1 to Wolves in the 2018-19 season.
When asked how much he knew about Accrington during the pre-match press conference, Arne Slot immediately mentioned the milk advert. He said: ‘Not that much, because I’ve only been here six months, but I do know about the milk commercials. Everyone probably knows this!’
“After the draw there was a video about a player (Acrington) who was so happy to be playing at Anfield, so I know things like this,” Slot said. ‘I know that people from this area also play for the club. And of course I know a lot about the team and today I’ll know even more about it because we’re going to dive even deeper into it.
“I think every team that plays us is a special occasion, but especially for a lower league team. They will all be for it, they have been looking forward to this match for weeks, probably nine out of ten players are fit, no one is suspended and the challenge is always to get the best out of ourselves.
‘Everyone could understand that when you go to a Champions League final, everyone is all excited and ready and tomorrow it will feel like it’s the Champions League final, so we have to be aware of that.
‘Nine times out of ten the first 25 minutes is the hardest part of the game, half an hour, because they will be very intense and it is up to us to be ready for them to want to play the best game of their lives and we must too.’
Saturday’s tie is a celebration of Accrington Stanley’s remarkable journey, a chance to rewrite the joke that defined them. It will also be a poignant moment for Rice and Rush to reflect on the legacy of an ad that brought them together.