879 articles · page 14 of 19
APPLE | Fuzzy Feelings | 2024
I was on the verge of tears for the whole four minutes. When stop-motion and live action melted together and George Harrison's "Isn't It a Pity" started playing, I was completely gone.
大塚製薬 | スカフィンのうた | 2023
A returnable bottle's journey, told in paper-cut animation and song. Kaho Nakamura's voice is gentle, Moji Tsuchiya's paper cuts, pieced together one second a day, are so lovable that by the end you kind of want to return a bottle yourself.
UNILEVER (CLEAR) | BULLISH BOSS | 2017
A boss works himself into a rage until he finally shrinks down into a tiny white speck falling onto his own hair. With black-and-white footage and the physical language of butoh dance, this ad lands the message "stress causes dandruff" in one single image.
BELDENT INFINIT | Almost Identical | 2014
For decades, there's been a social stigma: "people who chew gum come across badly." But is that actually true? Let's find out. With twins. At a museum. Have one twin chew gum and the other not, stand them side by side, and you'll see which one actually makes the better impression.
TROY PUBLIC LIBRARY | Book Burning Party | 2012
Signs went up around town announcing a "book burning party." Everyone was furious. But that anger was exactly the plan to save the library.
GOOGLE | All Is Not Lost | 2012
A browser window splits into 12 pieces, each one moving on its own, somehow coming together into a single dance. And at the end, it spells out the words you typed, using its feet. When I saw this in 2011, I literally shivered, thinking, "wait, the internet can still do this?"
FRATELLI BRANCA DISTILLERIE | BR… BRANCAMENTA | 1975
"Brrr." Just four letters, and somehow they carry the brand name, how to drink it, and the sensation all at once. This campaign, which began in 1971, is said to have become the most famous piece of onomatopoeia in the history of Italian advertising.
WATER IS LIFE | BUCKET LIST | 2014
When you hear "bucket list," you probably think of things you want to do before you die—a luxury that assumes you'll live a long life. But in sub-Saharan Africa, one in five children doesn't live to see their fifth birthday. There really is a world where a four-year-old needs a bucket list.
COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT | Never Underestimate the Importance of a Good Night's Rest | 1998
Ever had the most embarrassing moment of your life because you didn't get enough sleep? In 1998, Courtyard zeroed right in on that.
POLO MINT SWEETS | SNOW STAMP | 2010
In 12/2009, the whole of the UK was blanketed in snow. Someone had an idea: "This blank white snow looks just like a POLO mint." So they made a giant stamp and pressed it into parks and benches everywhere.
MILLER BREWING CO. | Fly | 1998
This is one entry from the "Dick" series that the legendary Minneapolis agency Fallon McElligott made for Miller Lite in 1998. It's framed as the work of a fictional creative director named "Dick," turning the ad itself into the joke. For its time, this must have been a pretty bold move.
AUSTRALIAN ROAD SAFETY FOUNDATION | Life-Saving Stickers | 2016
Just stickers of children stuck on trash bins. But when 850,000 of them hit the streets every week, that's basically the biggest billboard in town.
NATIONAL SEPTEMBER 11TH MEMORIAL AND MUSEUM | 9/11 Memorial Museum Exhibition Design | 2015
70 feet below Ground Zero, there's a museum. But it's not a "finished" museum. As Jake Barton of Local Projects put it: "It doesn't need to be finished. It can be an experience that keeps changing."
日本マクドナルド | スマイルあげない | 2024
McDonald's broke its own 50-year-old promise of a "0 Yen Smile," all by itself. "I Won't Give You a Smile," sung by ano, was a recruitment campaign on the surface, but underneath it was a declaration of resolve.
KYUSHU RAILWAY COMPANY | THE 250KM WAVE（祝！九州） | 2011
On February 20, 2011 (2/20), from the window of a shinkansen running 250km from Kagoshima-Chuo Station to Hakata Station, a wild plan was carried out: film 15,000 people gathered along the route and turn it into a commercial. One shot, no retakes. If it rained, it was over. If no one showed up, it was over. But all that worry was blown away on the day all of Kyushu waved.
ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO | Van Gogh's Bedrooms | 2017
You could actually spend the night in Van Gogh's Bedroom. Turning a museum exhibit into a $10-a-night Airbnb stay is a wild idea.
PFIZER | GOLF | 2005
In 2005, Pfizer made a 15-second ad for Viagra. It's likely one of a series of three made by TAXI Toronto, and the only things I could confirm were that it won awards at D&AD and The One Show. Beyond that, I couldn't find out anything else.
LEVI | Laundrette | 1986
In 1985, a 60-second spot aired in Britain the day after Christmas, and it turned jeans—once seen as uncool—into something to long for. What Nick Kamen took off wasn't just his clothes, but the heavy baggage of jeans being "your dad's clothes."
UNITED4RESCUE | DROWNED REQUIEM | 2020
Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" plays as a requiem on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea. A symbol of Europe rings out over the graves of refugees. In 2020, while everyone's attention was on COVID and Trump, people were still drowning at sea. A German citizens' group sank the song Europe holds dearest into the ocean.
MICROSOFT ONENOTE | Collective Project | 2015
Showing college students an ad just doesn't land. So Microsoft stopped making ads and instead "did" the story of a student trying to change the world.
ADIDAS | WAKE UP CALL | 2004
2004. The year Adidas was shaking up the world with "Impossible Is Nothing," another wake-up call quietly came out of 180 Amsterdam. Its title: "WAKE UP CALL." I think it really was an ad meant to wake something up.
NOKIA | MYSTERY AD | 2012
You're sure you're using an iPhone, but suddenly the screen turns into Windows Phone. You're sure you're on Android, but somehow it's now Nokia's interface. This "impossible experience" was built as an actual mobile ad format. Winning Gold at Cannes Lions Mobile in 2012, this trick stands out both for the boldness of targeting competitors' users directly, and for the technical precision needed to pull it off.
TRANSPORT ACCIDENT COMMISSION | Ungiven Gifts | 2014
209 gifts, each painted white, stand in a square in Melbourne. Toys, handbags, a vase, a scarf. Each one even has a handwritten tag attached, but there's no one left to receive them.
APPLE | L'HÉRITIER | 1989
In the back seat of a Rolls Royce, a father tells his son: "The people who work for you aren't there to think. They're there to do as they're told." Cold words. And that discomfort was exactly the trap.
MUSIC ALBUM - JOHN FRUSCIANTE | SAT-JF14 | 2014
They launched an album into space, so you could only listen to it the moment the satellite passed over your head. Someone actually did this for real. It's the story behind former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante's solo album "ENCLOSURE."
CHEETOS | CHEETOS MUSEUM | 2017
Finding oddly-shaped Cheetos inside the bag, then putting them on display in a museum. This ridiculous idea led to the best sales week in the brand's history.
MAKRO | LIFE EXTENDING STICKERS | 2023
Those tiny stickers on fruit? They turned them into a medium. That alone cut Colombia's food waste by 70 tons a week. This might be the ultimate example of how small an ad can be and still work.
FOX NETWORK | BILLIARDS | 1998
Back in 1998, this 30-second spot ran with a simple premise: what if billiards were as physical as hockey?
ABSOLUT VODKA | ABSOLUT MACHINES | 2008
In 2008, robot orchestras showed up in Stockholm and New York. Someone, somewhere in the world, would send a short melody over the web, and the machines would "interpret" it on the spot, turning it into a three-minute song. It was a wonderfully romantic experiment cooked up by Absolut.
ADIDAS | UNSTOPPABLE | 2005
A miniature army swarms him with helicopters and Hummers, but Tracy McGrady never stops dribbling. It's 60 seconds of the most ridiculous, most amazing footage you'll see.
HAAGEN DAZS | HD loves HB (Honey, Let's Lick the Problem) | 2009
In 2009, honeybees were mysteriously vanishing across America. The reason Haagen-Dazs got involved was simple: without bees, it couldn't make four out of ten of its flavors.
BMW RUSSIA | ULTIMATE GIVING PLEASURE | 2017
For BMW's 100th anniversary, they built a dedicated free gate. And it wasn't only BMW owners who could pass through it.
YMCA SUMMER CAMP | SLEEPING IN | 1991
An ad for YMCA Summer Camp from 1991, back when videotapes were still the norm. The title is "SLEEPING IN." It means sleeping late in the morning. Somehow that one phrase seems to capture both kids' summer vacations and what parents are secretly thinking.
GORILLAZ | Gorillaz Presents | 2023
In December 2022, something impossible appeared over Times Square and Piccadilly Circus. A four-person band dozens of meters tall, playing music on top of the buildings. Only visible if you held up your phone. A band that doesn't exist was, unmistakably, right there.
PEPSI-COLA | LA VENTANA | 1967
1967. At a time when the "Pepsi Generation" was sweeping the world, an ad called "the window" was born in Spain. The only thing that tells us this ad ever existed today is the fact that it won GOLD.
SK TELECOM | BE THE REDS CAMPAIGN IN 2002 FIFA WORLD CUP | 2003
In 2002, the entire country of South Korea turned red. This ad gave birth to the phrase "Be the Reds," which was printed on T-shirts, worn by 7 million people in the streets, and sparked a historic wave of fan culture that drew in 20% of the population.
DR PEPPER DRINK | What's the worst that could happen? | 2001
In 2001, Mother London launched a campaign called "What's the worst that could happen?" aimed at teens in the UK market. This is one of the ads from that campaign — a comedy commercial where the moment you pick up a DR PEPPER, the actual "worst" really does happen to you.
ソニー・ミュージックレーベルズ | 何色でもない花 | 2024
Utada Hikaru dancing in a pure white world was so beautiful it had me within the first 30 seconds.
FRIENDS OF THE EARTH | TREE CONCERT | 2013
Who would believe a tree could hold a concert? But it really happened in a park in Berlin. One night, a 100-year-old chestnut tree became a musician.
BANCO DEL PACÍFICO | GAMER LOAN | 2024
Skins and items as collateral. Eight out of ten young people in Ecuador don't own a car or a house, so they can't get a loan. But they do have a game account they've poured hundreds of hours into. A bank showed up and said that account has real value.
POLITICAL SHAKTI + THE TIMES OF INDIA | The Nominate Me Selfie | 2022
There's a campaign that turned selfies into "nomination resumes" sent straight to political parties. Women wrote their achievements and experience right onto their own photos, then sent them all at once, with no way to look away, to the phones of male-dominated party leadership.
EDEKA | THE MOST GERMAN SUPERMARKET | 2018
One day you walk into your usual supermarket and the shelves are completely empty. No coffee, no chocolate, no fruit, no juice. You'd think something had gone wrong.
MARS | STRAUCHANIE SPONSORSHIP | 2009
In 2009, MARS launched a sponsorship deal in Australia with a player who didn't actually exist.
EXPEDIA | Visit Britain | 2017
Tilt your phone north and you're in Scotland. Tilt it west and you're in Wales. A video experience where the direction you tilt decides your destination.
HYATT HOTELS | THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD | 2012
A movie that criticizes product placement, made possible by product placement. This is that provocative, mischievous humor from Morgan Spurlock, who turns the contradiction itself into the whole point of the project.
朝日放送テレビ | M-1グランプリ2023×日食なつこ「ログマロープ」 | 2024
There are manzai comedians who stake their whole lives on four minutes. Playing over the promotional video for M-1 Grand Prix 2023 is Natsuko Nisshoku's "Logma Rope." She couldn't write a song for six months, and this track was born at the end of what felt like hell.
HEINEKEN | BAR EXPERIENCE | 2024
Turning "bar work experience" into an official LinkedIn credential badge that's actually recognized by 25 companies, including Coca-Cola and McDonald's, when they hire. Heineken built this wonderfully absurd (but completely serious) system.
GREENPEACE | TOXIC TOURS | 2013
They set up a fake travel agency and started selling tours down a polluted river. The footage shows celebrities grinning as they recommend "snorkeling in crude oil" or "surfing chemical waves" — it's so dark it's hard to laugh.