876 articles · page 6 of 19
VIRGIN | 5 CENT | 2005
Australia, 2005. Just hearing the name VIRGIN gives you a feeling something's about to happen. "5 CENT," made by HOST SYDNEY, won the Grand Prix. The strength of a price, conveyed through the title alone.
FOX INTERNATIONAL | Regional Sports Campaign | 2001
A diver leaps off a cliff, but there's no water where the surface should be, and he slams into the ground. An athlete tries to catch a huge falling tree with his bare hands and gets crushed by it. Two drunk guys trading real punches. Blindfolded men fighting with clubs. Four completely insane ads, made to look exactly like real sports broadcasts, won the Grand Prix at Cannes.
HENKEL | REALITY ADVERTISING | 2005
A monitor, stuck to a wall. That's all this footage showed—and it ran nonstop for 24 hours straight. Brazil, 2005.
ADIDAS | BONDED BY BLOOD | 2007
Mixing players' own blood into poster ink. I don't know another case where madness and love blend together this beautifully. Grand Prix in the Promo category at Cannes 2007.
GOVERNMENT OF REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA | 10 METERS APART | 2013
Just 10 meters. That's the distance between where Christians and Muslims pray. But those 10 meters led to the first joint prayer in history, and won the Balkans' first-ever Titanium Lion.
JR東日本 | JR SKISKI | 2016
An ostrich! An ostrich is skiing! Set to upbeat music, it tears down the slopes with turns, jumps, and Cossack moves—impossible tricks that had me completely glued to the screen.
PUMA | AFTER HOURS ATHLETE | 2011
"A 5 AM taxi is way more fun than a 5 AM run" — with this one line, PUMA rewrote the definition of sport in 2011. Pool, darts, karaoke. No sweat required, no records needed. This ad declared that the stamina to party all night long is athletic spirit itself.
EPIC GAMES | ASTRONOMICAL | 2020
April 2020. The world was still stuck at home. Travis Scott grew to giant size and danced his way across Fortnite's island, trampling everything in his path. 12.3 million people watched at the same time, and 27.7 million joined in over five days—the biggest live event in gaming history.
SCHWEPPES TOMATO JUICE | Gardening Advice | 1961
In 1961, a British commercial that won the Grand Prix at the Cannes advertising festival pretended to be a gardening program. But underneath, it was really an ad for Schweppes tomato juice. It talks about gardening with a completely straight face, and before you know it, it's talking about tomato juice instead.
MINISTRY OF PUBLIC HEALTH AFGHANISTAN | IMMUNITY CHARM | 2017
When I heard a beaded bracelet won the Grand Prix, I didn't quite get it at first. But the judges called it the "ultimate wearable," and eight of the top ten entries that year were this one piece of work.
SINYI REALTY | IN LOVE WE TRUST | 2020
A real estate brand film running 7 minutes and 23 seconds made all of Taiwan cry. And it won Taiwan's first-ever Grand Prix in Cannes advertising history. The courage of a real estate company that showed no properties at all, instead talking entirely about "the fear of marriage" - that's thrilling.
NOTPLA | Making Packaging Disappear | 2020
"Notpla" is short for "not plastic." That alone tells you what they're trying to do. It's edible packaging made from seaweed. And the brand itself won the Grand Prix in the Design category at Cannes.
マクドナルド | 家族といっしょに。「約束のハッピーセット」篇 | 2023
All I cared about was "what's in the Happy Meal right now," but the opening shot already had me hooked. A 60-second ad where the setting, the cast, and the direction all click together perfectly.
PENNY | The Wish | 2022
At Christmas 2021, German supermarket PENNY made a three-minute film. A son asks his mother an offhand question, and she answers: she wishes he could get his youth back. All of it—the late nights, the heartbreak, the adventures sneaking out—everything the pandemic took away.
カロリーメイト | 心の声 | 2018
I think it's fair to call this one a winter tradition by now. This is the fifth installment of CalorieMate's commercial series cheering on exam students. Another great one this year.
Nike | Dream Crazier | 2019
This 90-second spot, narrated by Serena Williams, aired during the 2019 Oscars broadcast. No new technology, no imagery you hadn't seen before—and yet it became one of the defining ads of the year.
Apple | Think Different | 1997
In 1997, Jobs returned to an Apple that was on the brink of bankruptcy, and what he put out into the world wasn't a new product or a discount—it was just two words. "Here's to the crazy ones"—this 60-second tribute to crazy people became more than an ad; it became a declaration.
BLITZ-WEINHARD | ELK CREEK CUT OFF | 1980
A piece made by Ogilvy & Mather in 1980. I still haven't been able to track down the full content, but just the title alone is enough to pull you in.
GINZA SIX | メインストリート | 2017
The "full happiness mode" that Shiina Ringo sometimes shows is exploding along Ginza's Chuo Dori. A dream duet with Tortoise Matsumoto, an orchestra, dancers, balloons, magic. The 90-second film is so full of joy it feels like a musical movie, and by the end you'll want to walk Ginza's main street yourself.
富士フイルム アスタリフト | 列車のふたり ナノテクノロジー | 2023
What happens when you bring a story into a cosmetics commercial? This ad feels like an experiment in just that. Aoi Miyazaki, disguised in a trench coat, sunglasses, and a blonde wig, jumps onto a train. Masaki Okada, claiming he's "come from the future," launches into an endless explanation of nanotechnology. Seiko Matsuda's "Red Sweet Pea" plays in the background, and in an atmosphere that can't quite decide if it's serious or comic, the two set off on a strange journey together.
リクルートホールディングス | すべての人生が、すばらしい。 | 2014
A commercial that declares life is a marathon—then immediately sets out to demolish its own metaphor.
富士フイルム | あしたに続く写真 | 2024
Kazu, Furuta, and Tulio each look back at their past while gazing at old photos. Not every meaningful photo needs a dramatic story behind it, but a single picture that captures a true turning point in someone's life carries a weight that words just can't match.
ネスカフェ | 朝のリレー | 2003
There's something striking about the simple fact that "somewhere on this planet, morning is always just beginning." It's obvious when you think about it, but it still catches you off guard - and that small realization, carried by the power of a poem, sweeps the viewer far, far away in an instant.
江崎グリコ | smile.Glico | 2014
Satoshi Tsumabuki, dressed up as a clown, goes around turning grumpy people from all over the world into smiling ones, one after another. Because it's a long-form video, watching it leaves you with a feeling like you just finished a movie.
今西数英教室 | 一生忘れない塾。 | 2024
Every year's ad from this brand is good. But this "Song Edition" is on another level.
カップヌードル | ラクサ食べてよ | 2024
That buzz cut really caught me off guard. This commercial turns MAISONdes' song "Show Me Your Phone" into a parody, with an illustrated girl getting so hooked on laksa that she turns into a Cup Noodle-shaped buzz-cut man. The gap between that cute art style and what happens is intense!
JR東日本 | 北海道新幹線開業 | 2016
I caught this 30-second spot on TV after a long while of not watching, and it made me go "oh!" For a boy, the shinkansen coming to his town is super big news—he can't just sit still, and before he knows it, his body is already moving. That's the feeling this ad captures.
John Lewis | Buster The Boxer | 2016
John Lewis's annual Christmas ad is a tradition by now. The star of 2016 is a dog named Buster. He wants, more than anything, the trampoline hidden in the garden—but it's actually a present for a little girl named Bridget. Night after night, wild animals sneak out to bounce on it, and Buster just watches. On Christmas morning, it's Buster who bolts outside before the girl even gets there.
JAXA | KIBO SCIENCE 360 - A Space Experiment with Google | 2017
Just assemble a single piece of cardboard, and you can become an astronaut. "KIBO SCIENCE 360," created by JAXA, Google, and Dentsu, is a project that recreates the Kibo experiment module on the ISS in VR.
Channel 4 | We're The Superhumans | 2016
A mother with no arms holds her baby with her feet. Kids with prosthetic legs play soccer. A woman flies a plane with her feet. For three straight minutes, it just keeps going like this. It won the Film Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2017, and racked up 23 million views in just four days. It hits just as hard no matter how many times you watch it.
キリン のどごし〈生〉 | 夢のドリーム4 カンフー篇 | 2013
This is the best one. The one at the top of the list I look at whenever work gets so rough I think I can't go on. Mr. Ishida, his junior, Shoko Nakagawa, Jackie Chan, the production team, and above all the client who greenlit this whole thing—everyone involved here is the best.
日清食品 | カップヌードル 担担 ザクザクコリコリ | 2023
Kinnikun comes bursting out of a swamp shouting "Tantaaan!" In his hands, a giant "Cup Noodle Tantan" — and as he charges forward he thrusts his hips while yelling "Zakuzaku! Korikori!" It's a spot-on parody of a legendary commercial from the 1990s, and people in their forties reacted to it all at once.
earth music&ecology | 合唱 | 2015
Aoi Miyazaki singing Miyuki Nakajima's "Nobody Is Right" — that alone could have carried the whole commercial. And yet something about it bothered me.
サントリー天然水 | 信じられる水の山から（阿蘇） | 2015
There's a moment in the middle of a run of commercials when your eyes suddenly stop on one. It feels off, somehow, but in a good way. This is a spot that depicts natural water springing up from a mountain, drawn in soft, gentle animation.
キリン | メッツ | 2015
Just go with it. That's basically the whole approach, and there's something refreshing about how committed it is. When Kirin Mets relaunched in 2015, this "Entrance" ad is what came out of it. Dragon Ball, Dempagumi.inc, Nobunari Oda, Gachapin... pop culture icons dance, burst with energy, and belt out "We want Mets!" over and over in this 30-second spot. It strips away almost every detailed message, throwing nothing at you but the sheer presence of "This is Mets!"
CTT | COMMITMENT | 2010
Portugal's mail and delivery service CTT EXPRESSO put actual packages on billboards around town. It showed off their promise to "deliver for sure" in a way you could see and touch.
東京ガス | 家族の絆・お弁当メール | 2010
It's only 90 seconds long, but I cried right on the spot. I happened to catch it on TV, lucky enough to see it from the very beginning, and the tears just came. "The lunch a mother makes" is already powerful material on its own, and this ad dresses it up in something very modern: "email." To a son who barely talks anymore, the lunch his mother makes every single day becomes a one-way, but very real, "message."
サントリー BOSS | ヘッドライト・テールライト | 2015
Less weirdness, more love — that's what I felt watching this commercial when it aired at the end of 2015. The Alien Jones series started out as a bit of an odd concept, but it's been quietly turning into "the way things just are," and honestly, I'm starting to think it's heading toward becoming a truly moving epic. I'm looking forward to it. Really looking forward to it.
Nike | The Switch | 2016
Cristiano Ronaldo collides with a ball boy and they swap bodies. Spoiler: that's the whole story. And yet for almost six minutes, you can't look away. It's the kind of ad that makes you think, "So this is how far you can go if you really commit."
トヨタ | ファンカーゴ | 2000
This is a 2000 Toyota FunCargo commercial. It's built around a rapid-fire narration that crams in benefit after benefit, then lands on the line "Where I go and what I do is my own business" followed by the sound logo "Fun-Car-Go!" Despite being packed with information, it somehow doesn't feel annoying. This ad is now 18 years old (as of this writing), but the approach would still work perfectly well today.
サントリー | 歌のリレー | 2011
I used to think there was no way a commercial could make someone cry. But I've had a few such moments in my life, and this was one of them.
カロリーメイト | 光も影も | 2024
The tenth installment in the series, and the first time an art school exam candidate took the lead role. Boys had taken the lead four years running, from '19 to '22, so longtime fans who'd been thinking "maybe it's a girl's turn soon" couldn't help but grin.
高橋酒造 | SHIRO Cheers System | 2015
The cuteness here is just unreal. I love the casting, the choreography, the song, the direction—everything—so much that I've lost count of how many times I've watched it. It might honestly be the video I've watched the most so far this century. Yuichi Kodama really is something else.
ソフトバンク | SMAP大移動 | 2009
Sixty seconds, almost entirely one continuous shot. Actually, it's so good you can't even figure out why they bothered cutting away for the scene where the Father Dog goes outside. The tension comes through the screen and hits you directly, on top of being overwhelmingly entertaining.
富士ゼロックス | HUMAN BEATBOX | 2004
In 2004, a man appeared on TV making the sounds of drums, bass, and scratching, all with just his mouth. The word "human beatbox" wasn't something anyone knew back then. That feeling of "what is this?" flowed straight into living rooms across the country.
Gap | Boyfriend Trousers | 2017
I found myself clapping. Claire Danes and Patrick Wilson dance and sing, and at the end, she yanks the trousers off the guy and puts them on herself to strike a pose. And it looks so, so good.
Nike | Unlimited You | 2016
It starts out like your typical brand film: a warm narrator's voice, a child growing into an athlete. But the moment a gymnast rips through the "The End" logo, this ad becomes something else entirely.
AIG Japan | #TackleTheRisk | 2017
At Shibuya's scramble crossing, All Blacks players suddenly appear and start tackling passersby left and right. At first you think "what is this violence," but once the reveal comes, it all clicks into place.