Three ads the bear picked for today
UNITED BREWERS ASSOCIATION | WHO SAYS BEER IS A MAN'S BEVERAGE? | 1962
In 1962, an American beer industry association asked a simple question: "Who says beer is a man's beverage?" Behind that single line, you can sense a real intention to change the times.
AXE | DISTANCE (Premature Perspiration) | 2011
Argentina, 2011. This is from the era when AXE was still going all-in on laughs as a "weapon for getting the girl." The title is "DISTANCE," but the campaign as a whole was called "Premature Perspiration." Just the nuance of that phrase is enough to make you grin.
MARCH FOR OUR LIVES PARKLAND STUDENTS | Price on Our Lives | 2018
$1.05. That's the total amount Senator Marco Rubio received from the NRA, divided by the total number of students in Florida. It's the orange price tag that survivors of the Parkland high school shooting wore as the "price" of their own lives. The campaign generated 826 media placements and 2.2 billion media impressions, and through the power of math, anger, and design, it irreversibly changed the gun control debate in America.
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876 articles
Nike | Take It To The Next Level | 2008
This film traces a soccer player's path from amateur beginnings all the way to the national team, all seen through his own eyes. Honestly, the idea of doing it in first-person view is something you might think of on your own. But the scale here is different, and so is the money behind it. The sheer luxury of lining up Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Wayne Rooney, Cesc Fàbregas, Zlatan Ibrahimović, and even manager Arsène Wenger. Of course it was directed by Guy Ritchie. Just picturing it is fun.
LEGACY BERLIN | ART BEATS HATE | 2017
"ART BEATS HATE." The title of a film made by a graffiti shop in Berlin says it all. Art beats hate. That's the whole story.
CALO PET FOOD CO. | TIRED DOG | 1959
1959. The year that changed the course of advertising history. At Cannes, where film ads had always taken center stage, a TV spot won the Grand Prix for the first time ever. The star was a tired dog, the brand was Calo, and the agency was Foote, Cone & Belding Chicago.
FIAT | Love Affair | 2017
A woman pauses in front of a puddle. Stepping out of her red 124 Spider, she realizes her high heels are about to get soaked. That's when the man parked next to her, driving a 500X, lays his jacket down over the puddle. Then his shirt. Then his jeans. Until he's down to just his underwear. And then comes that scene — the woman deliberately spills her coffee. His right eyebrow twitches up in a priceless expression.
SAAB | INFINITE DRIVE | 2004
In 2004, back when internet connections were still slow, there was an ad that tried to create a drive that never ends.
earth music&ecology | いいことある服。 | 2024
To mark its 25th anniversary, earth music&ecology has gone all in on the word "purpose." After spending about a year with everyone involved rethinking what makes the brand "itself," they landed on this film: a woman wakes to her morning alarm, touches her clothes, and finds herself surrounded by flowers and butterflies. Honestly, I have no idea where I'm supposed to feel excited.
TALENS RUBBER CEMENT | Nuns | 1992
Have you seen this Spanish ad that won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 1992? It's the one where a statue of the baby Jesus in a convent garden is missing a very particular part, and the young nuns, blushing furiously, rush off to tell the mother superior. More than 30 years later, people are still talking about this masterpiece that used humor to break through a taboo.
DIESEL | 5 AM MONO VILLAGE | 1997
In 1997, DIESEL actually won the Grand Prix at Cannes with two separate ads — one was "Little Rock," and the other was this one. Both were made by the Swedish agency Paradiset DDB, and the same brand winning two Grand Prix in the same year is almost unheard of.
MERCEDES BENZ | THE INVISIBLE DRIVE | 2012
This piece won the Grand Prix in the Outdoor category at Cannes Lions in 2012, and the first time I saw it, I just went "wait, what?" A car that's transparent — what does that even mean? But it really is see-through. Literally.
THE BARBARIAN GROUP | CINDER | 2013
At Cannes Lions 2013, the very first Grand Prix in the newly created Innovation Lions category went to a development tool made by an ad agency. And it's one they give away for free. It sounds like an odd thing to win an award for, but the reasoning behind it makes complete sense.
WILLIAM PATRICK CORGAN | Aeronaut VR | 2018
It's a music video, but you can stand right next to Billy Corgan. As he plays piano, the scenery shifts and the colors change around him, and before you know it, you feel like you're on a journey together.
SKINNY | Phone It In | 2023
No ad budget? Then let amateurs make the ad. Even better, let your competitor's customers make it. The fact that this kind of shameless move can win the Cannes Lions Grand Prix just goes to show how interesting the world is.
MARS | THE LION'S SHARE | 2019
Animals are some of advertising's biggest earners, yet they're never paid a cent. The industry decided to fix that contradiction itself. Winner of the Grand Prix in the SDGs category at Cannes Lions 2019.
SPOTIFY | Spreadbeats | 2024
Try to imagine the moment someone first came up with the idea of making a 4-minute music video in Excel. Somebody definitely laughed and said "that's insane." But that insane idea went on to win a Grand Prix. That's what advertising can be.
カップヌードル | OBAKA's UNIVERSITY | 2016
The first installment got pulled off air just one week after it sparked backlash online. But Nissin didn't stop there—two months later, they brought back Beat Takeshi and Sachiko Kobayashi for another round. Has any brand in Japanese advertising ever shown such a bold "fight back" attitude?
Gatorade | Forget Me | 2015
184 goals. Abby Wambach, who holds the record for the most goals scored in international soccer history, men's or women's, retired on December 16 (12/16), 2015. Her final message was "Forget me." Right to the end, Wambach was Wambach.
東京ガス | 母の推し活 | 2023
There are a few ad series I look forward to every year, wondering "what will they do this time" — and Tokyo Gas's brand ads are one of them. Their "Family Bonds" series, running since 2008, has delivered one gut-punch after another straight to the Japanese heart, starting with the famous "Lunchbox Email" spot. I admire their work. The 2023 entry, "Mom's Fan Life," tells in 90 seconds the story of a mother who falls for a K-pop idol thirty years younger than her and watches her life open up as a result. It became a huge hit, racking up over 5 million views on Twitter within three days. This time, though, I found myself thinking "it's good, but..."
ユニクロ | Because of Life, We Made LifeWear | 2017
Two strangers meet by chance at a desolate gas station. The overused phrase "it's like a scene from a movie" really does fit this footage perfectly.
日本テレビ | 日テレ営業中 | 1999
I remember watching this with a pretty detached, cynical eye, thinking: well, it's a TV station, so naturally it's open 24 hours. But this stunt with Hama-chan turned out to be amazing.
ユニクロ | UNIQLO LUCKY SWITCH | 2009
In 2009, the method UNIQLO chose to promote its year-end sale was a bold piece of advertising that took over other people's blogs and turned them into a lottery venue without asking.
江崎グリコ | OTONA GLICO 〜25年後の磯野家〜 | 2008
In 2008, Sazae-san got a live-action adaptation nobody saw coming. And the premise was wild: it was set 25 years in the future. Tadanobu Asano as Katsuo, Rie Miyazawa as Wakame, Eita as Tara-chan, Shun Oguri as Ikura-chan. The casting alone was enough to make people go "wait, you can actually do that?"—a real testament to the strength of the idea.
アクエリアス | NEW YOU キャンペーン 泳げるようになりたい | 2024
This is a video following a 75-year-old grandmother over 30 days, starting from when she could barely even put her face in the water, as she works toward swimming 25 meters freestyle. It's lovely to see swimmer Kosuke Kitajima coaching her wholeheartedly, showing that age doesn't matter when you want to swim. But what really makes this commercial so moving isn't that part.
キリン プラズマ乳酸菌 | SPECIAL STUDENT | 2016
Dekushi! Barrier! Short sleeves and shorts! There was always one of those kids in your elementary school class. The "Dekushi master" who whips out mysterious sound effects, the "short-sleeves-and-shorts kid" who shows up 365 days a year—snow or storm—in short sleeves and shorts, the girls who perform the hand-clapping game Alps Ichimanjaku at lightning speed. It's so nostalgic I can't stop laughing.
Heineken | Star Player | 2011
72% of Champions League fans watch at home, alone. Heineken and AKQA turned that loneliness into competition. Watching TV while predicting the next play on your phone — "Star Player" was the world's first live dual-screen football game.