FEATURE
Ten ads lined up by nothing but the length of time they cover
Here are ten ads arranged by just one measure: how much time they deal with. Starting at 1 second, then 18 seconds, 3 minutes, 30 minutes, 9 days, 80 days, 10 years, 12 years, 37 years, and finally 500 million years. At the short end, time is a constraint, a source of tension, the whole contest itself. As you move toward the longer end, time becomes material, then record, then finally a punchline. It's remarkable how differently the same idea of "duration" can play out. Read them in order from the top. By the end, even a 30-second commercial will start to feel oddly short.
10 articles
BUDWEISER | 2025
The very first note is all it takes to know the song. That feeling every music fan has was turned straight into an ad. Budweiser's "ONE SECOND ADS," an ad from Brazil, won the Grand Prix in the Audio & Radio category at Cannes Lions 2025.
DEUTSCHE AIDS-STIFTUNG | 2012
Eighteen seconds. That's how often someone, somewhere in the world, dies of AIDS. As a number, it's almost too short. And almost too heavy to bear.
NZ FIRE SERVICE | 2003
As a timer ticks steadily forward, a living room fills with smoke. From New Zealand in 2002 comes an ad that shows the speed of fire exactly as it happens.
DOMINO’S PIZZA | 2009
Domino's Pizza used to have a guarantee: free pizza if it didn't arrive within 30 minutes. This campaign brought that idea back to life in a completely different form. Not as a guarantee. As a gift.
PERNOD RICARD | 2020
Have you ever calculated how many days you actually have left with someone you love? It's not a reality anyone wants to know. But Ruavieja turned it into a number using an algorithm—and ended up changing people's behavior in the process.
クラシエホームプロダクツ | 2023
A camera slowly circles a cherry tree as the seasons pass by. There's a commercial that took over 80 days to shoot, all for this one tree. The moment I heard about the plan, I thought, "This is going to be tough" — and I found myself admiring the trust it took to actually pull it off.
東芝 | 2016
An LED bulb that lasts 10 years. How do you communicate that kind of lifespan? Toshiba chose "everyday life" over numbers. Across 3,653 days of windows, you see a family's irreplaceable daily moments play out.
SOTETSU | 2023
Two minutes, one continuous shot. A story that unfolds entirely inside a train. A father and daughter drift apart and grow close again across 12 years, all while the train car sways around them. That's all it takes to bring you to tears.
GOOGLE | 2020
Gathering 24 million satellite photos, this project let anyone, for free, fast-forward through how the Earth has changed from 1984 to 2020. Just type in a place name in the search bar, and you can watch your own hometown transform over 37 years.
GUINNESS UDV | 2006
500 million years, rewound in 50 seconds. Three men have their first pint of Guinness in a pub. From there, we trace evolution backward.
Fictional People Started Working
Five people who don't exist — and reality answered back anyway.
Ads That Reached Into the Law
Breaking rules, slipping through loopholes, rewriting statutes — eight ads, ordered by how far they reached.
Alone, You Can't Reach It
An ad that isn't finished until one more person shows up.
What Was Already There Became the Medium
From chalk to banknotes: 11 media nobody had to buy
The Product Is Nowhere to Be Seen
How choosing not to show became the boldest statement of all
Putting 'We're Broke' Right at the Center of the Idea
Six ads that turned a shortfall into the raw material itself