Smile! You're on candid camera

George Orwell famously warned of the dangers of the surveillance state. In his dystopian 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four he revealed the consequences of totalitarianism, state-sponsored repression and mass surveillance.

In particular he wrote of conditions on Airstrip One (which, as any schoolchild will remember, was based on Great Britain - a province of the superstate Oceania): "It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in a public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away."

Little could he have known back then how 'telescreens' would have become so widespread in the form of CCTV cameras - the British Security Industry Authority has reported that there are 7.5 million of them in the UK, roughly one for every 11 people.

With the UK one of the most surveilled societies in the world, it's somehow less surprising that CCTV has provided grist to the mill of advertising. And what could be a better excuse to look at some examples.

For TMW Unlimited, CCTV was the perfect allusion in its debut work for Suzuki, which broke earlier this month. 'The Best Kept Secret on the Road' TV campaign features a variety of proud owners hiding their beloved cars from anyone who may see and want one for themselves.

It opens with a bored supermarket security guard watching security cameras in amazement as a Suzuki Swift driver emerges from a trolley shelter.

The CCTV skit is just one of many ways that Swift owners try to keep the secret to themselves.

And this summer Mother London won a Silver in the Entertainment Lions for Music category at Cannes for its 'Antslive Cutlery' music video.

The campaign involved creating a website that streams over a thousand CCTV cameras, which was then used to produce a music video for UK rapper AntsLive.

The rapper is seen performing on famous streets to local haunts from his North London neighbourhoods, and on the site viewers could watch the film and find the locations in the video.

The site also points viewers in the direction of even more of these live cams around the UK, inviting anyone to make their own music video.

Perhaps the most famous ad featuring CCTV film was created by adam&eveDDB for Harvey Nichols. Featuring genuine footage taken from security cameras at its Knightsbridge store, 'Shoplifters' showed the efforts that thieves would go to get their hands on its merchandise for free.

The faces of the shoplifters were obscured with comedy cartoon faces but given that all were apprehended the message was clear - if you want freebies from Harvey Nicks you'd be better off downloading the store's app. The spot won two Grands Prix in Cannes in 2016.

Also by adam&eveDDB was this 2012 spot for Volkswagen (VW). Such is his shock at how cheap the cars are, a prospective car buyer uses a hidden camera to secretly film everything an unsuspecting VW dealer says so it may be used as evidence should the need arise in a court of law.

A rather more racy ad that invited viewers to be voyeuristic was made by AMV in 1998 for the BT mobile network Cellnet (which eventually became O2).

It featured an amorous couple sneaking up a back alley for some 'heavy petting', but their actions are caught on hidden cameras. The couple seem unfazed by their groping being recorded for posterity - or at the prospect of a security guard looking on.

The use of CCTV in ads has also been made for more serious issues. This spot for the Home Office's anti-knife crime initiative was created in 2008.

It consists of CCTV camera footage of a street at night. We see a man wearing a grey hoodie stumble out of a building, followed by another man showing obvious signs of aggression. The man in the hoodie pulls out a knife, to which the other man responds by punching him in the stomach. The knife is dropped on the floor, and the two wrestle each other. A third man appears and stabs the man in the hoodie to show how weapons can be used against those who carry them.

The video fades out, with text appearing reading: "Carry a knife, and you are more likely to get stabbed yourself."

Orwell's Ninety Eighty-Four sought to raise awareness of the potential problems that could arise if people did not pay attention to government's attempts to control them, and this message rings truer than ever.

But away from the potential of Big Brother, the proliferation of CCTV has undoubtedly helped reduce crime, and hold people to account. It also suggests that there's a high probability that someone somewhere is watching what you are up to - another useful trope for advertisers to use in a variety of ways, both serious and less so.