▶
IBM | People For Smarter Cities | 2013
The Day an Ad Became Part of the City / IBM "People For Smarter Cities"
A billboard becomes a bench. A roof. A ramp. Why does something so simple move us this much?
Emotion
surprise
285 articles
▶
WestJet | Christmas Miracle: Real-time Giving | 2013
Just a live camera and 175 people. / WestJet "Christmas Miracle: Real-time Giving"
It looks like it's using some amazing technology, but the real secret is just a live camera and 175 people doing the legwork. Here's what makes WestJet's Christmas campaign work so well.
▶
Coca-Cola | Security Cameras | 2013
Is happiness still real when it's being watched? / Coca-Cola "Security Cameras"
It wasn't until my third watch that I realized how clever it was to use security camera footage this way — the first time, I just cried, plain and simple.
▶
ADIDAS | WINDOW SHOPPING | 2013
Shopping Starts "After Closing Time" / Adidas "WINDOW SHOPPING"
11pm, an empty street. A blue sneaker in the shop window catches your eye. But the store's closed—normally that's the end of the story. Adidas made it so you could shop just by touching that window.
▶
THE LINCOLN MOTOR COMPANY | HELLO AGAIN | 2013
When an old brand says "hello again," it rebuilds an entire culture / THE LINCOLN MOTOR COMPANY "HELLO AGAIN"
A brand that had been around for 90 years decided to shed 90 years of being "your dad's car." The password was "Hello, Again." Nice to meet you, once more.
▶
WWF | THE ANT RALLY | 2013
The Day Insects Stood Up for the First Time in History / WWF "THE ANT RALLY"
Bugs staging a protest. That ridiculous idea won the Grand Prix at Cannes Lions.
▶
AXE “EXCITE” | Excite - Even Angels Will Fall | 2012
Making the Biggest Claim Possible: Bringing Down Angels / AXE "Even Angels Will Fall"
An angel descends from the sky. Beautiful angels in white robes and halos walk through a small town, and in front of one man, they smash their halos. "AXE can make even angels fall." This is the work that won the Grand Prix in the Creative Effectiveness category at Cannes Lions in 2012.
▶
SWEDISH INSTITUTE AND VISIT SWEDEN | CURATORS OF SWEDEN | 2012
Handing a Country's Twitter Account Over to Its Citizens / SWEDISH INSTITUTE AND VISIT SWEDEN "CURATORS OF SWEDEN"
Handing the country's official Twitter account to a different ordinary citizen every week. No checking what they tweet. That's the bet Sweden made.
▶
BRADESCO | Fake Ad | 2012
The Moment You Turn the Page, the Car Crashes / Bradesco Seguros "Fake Ad"
What looked like an ordinary car ad suddenly showed the car in a crash, the instant you turned the page with your finger. An insurance ad that decided to shock readers first, before trying to sell them anything.
▶
GO OUTSIDE MAGAZINE | REPELLENT RADIO | 2012
Just turn on the radio, and the mosquitoes fly away / GO OUTSIDE MAGAZINE "REPELLENT RADIO"
A radio station in São Paulo secretly mixed a 15kHz tone into its music programming from 6 to 8pm. Humans can't hear it. But mosquitoes can. Since it mimics the sound of a dragonfly's wings—a mosquito's natural predator—the mosquitoes flee. Just by having the radio on, you get bug protection.
▶
VOLKSWAGEN | DON'T MAKE UP AND DRIVE | 2012
A makeup tutorial suddenly crashes / VOLKSWAGEN "DON'T MAKE UP AND DRIVE"
You're watching a tutorial on how to do your makeup, when suddenly you hear a car crash and the screen shakes. That's the one-minute video VOLKSWAGEN put out on YouTube in 2012.
▶
ASOS | Urban Tour | 2012
Click and Time Stops / ASOS "Urban Tour"
Click on a dancer, and everyone around them freezes while that one person keeps moving. Then you can buy what they're wearing. Incredibly simple, and incredibly new for its time.
▶
LA REDOUTE | THE NAKED MAN | 2012
An invention: paper over a mistake with more mistakes / La Redoute "THE NAKED MAN"
On January 4, 2012, French fashion retailer La Redoute posted a photo of kids' clothing that happened to have a fully naked man in the background. People instantly branded it an "epic PR fail" and it spread like wildfire. So what did the agency do? Not apologize — they planted more weird photos all over the site and turned it into a game. This completely backwards decision ended up winning a Gold Lion at Cannes.
▶
MERCEDES BENZ | THE INVISIBLE DRIVE | 2012
The madness of literally building "invisible" into a car / MERCEDES-BENZ "THE INVISIBLE DRIVE"
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.
▶
Metro Trains Melbourne | Dumb Ways to Die | 2012
Is There a Formula for Something You Want to Watch Again and Again? / Metro Trains Melbourne "Dumb Ways to Die"
I believe this one swept multiple Grand Prix categories at Cannes, and I ended up watching it so many times I nearly died. It got me thinking there must be some kind of formula for a film that can withstand being watched over and over. Music is probably a huge part of it, and this campaign has an incredibly good song. Which makes me realize that ad planners can't just be experts in how a film scene is crafted—they also need to know music inside and out. It really is a total art form. Amazing stuff.
▶
TNT | Push to Add Drama (A Dramatic Surprise on a Quiet Square) | 2012
They Actually Made "Push the Button to Blow Up an Ordinary Day" Real / TNT "Push to Add Drama"
The brief was simple: make a launch campaign people would talk about. So TNT set up a red button in an ordinary town square with a sign that said "Push to Add Drama." Then they just waited.
▶
HYATT HOTELS | THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD | 2012
The Paradox of Making a Movie About Advertising—With Advertising / HYATT "THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD"
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.
▶
CANAL+ | THE BEAR | 2012
A bearskin rug became a movie director / CANAL+ "THE BEAR"
A bearskin rug lying on a living room floor becomes a Hollywood film director. It sounds ridiculous written out like that, but this became the most awarded ad in Gunn Report history in 2012.
▶
DORITOS | DIPS DESPERADO | 2012
A legend about a man who never existed moved dip sales / DORITOS "DIPS DESPERADO"
Only 1 in 10 people in the UK were dipping their chips. To move that number, AMV BBDO invented a legendary Mexican who never existed.
▶
SNOOP DOGG | Rolling Words | 2012
An Experience Turned to Smoke: Reading the Pages, Then Rolling Them / SNOOP DOGG "Rolling Words"
You read a book, then light up the page and smoke it. Who else but Snoop Dogg could get away with an idea this wild?
▶
GOOGLE | Voice Search | 2012
Why a Billboard That Got a Subway Station's Name Wrong Won a Grand Prix / GOOGLE "Voice Search"
In 2012, more than 150 oddly spelled billboards popped up on the streets of London. Outside subway stations, mysterious strings of letters that looked like station names. Outside a stadium, something like "ley-tist-skohrz." Read them out loud, and suddenly they make sense. This was an ad for Google's voice search.
▶
NOKIA | MYSTERY AD | 2012
Turning your enemy's phone into your ally, instantly / NOKIA "MYSTERY AD"
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.
▶
GOOGLE | All Is Not Lost | 2012
12 browser windows start to dance / GOOGLE "All Is Not Lost"
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?"
▶
BING/JAY-Z | DECODE JAY-Z | 2011
They scattered pages of a book all over the world, and a search engine came back to life / BING "DECODE JAY-Z"
In 2010, Bing was completely overshadowed by Google when it pulled off one of the biggest treasure hunts ever, scattering over 300 pages of Jay-Z's memoir across the globe. And the way they "scattered" them was wild: not just billboards, but the bottom of a pool in Miami, a burger wrapper, the lining of a Gucci jacket, a bronze plaque embedded in a Brooklyn housing project, a rooftop in New Orleans, even a pool table at the 40/40 Club.
▶
WALKERS CRISPS | SANDWICH | 2011
Proving a Product's Value with a Town's Name / WALKERS CRISPS "SANDWICH"
There really is a town in England called Sandwich. This is the story of how celebrities showed up there one after another and took over the town for three days.
▶
VOLKSWAGEN | The Force | 2011
The Mini Darth Vader Who Changed the Rules of the Super Bowl / Volkswagen "The Force"
A kid dressed as Darth Vader racked up 15 million views on YouTube and became one of the most beloved ads in Super Bowl history.
▶
COSMOPOLITAN OF LAS VEGAS | Hotel Digital Experience | 2011
A hotel lobby that became an art gallery / Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas "Hotel Digital Experience"
In a Las Vegas hotel lobby stand eight LED columns running floor to ceiling. What plays on them isn't ads, it's art. This is the project that won the Grand Prix in the Design category at the 2011 Cannes Lions.
▶
PUBLIC HEALTH OF FENGXIAN | THE 70-METER SPIT | 2011
Spit Flies 70 Meters—You Just Can't See It / PUBLIC HEALTH OF FENGXIAN "THE 70-METER SPIT"
Spitting. Just that one act sends germs flying 70 meters on the wind. It's a fact so ordinary in China that nobody ever gave it a second thought—until a single wall made it impossible to ignore.
▶
T-MOBILE | Welcome Home | 2011
What Was Waiting at the Airport Was 300 Voices Singing / T-Mobile "Welcome Home"
In 2010, at the arrivals hall of Heathrow Airport, tired passengers walked out to find 300 people suddenly bursting into song. A choir that recreated even the sound of instruments using only their voices turned the cold, impersonal arrivals hall into a celebration in an instant.
▶
AMIS | CRASH | 2011
An Invisible Crash Happens Right on the Desk / AMIS "CRASH"
A man working in an office is suddenly slammed against his desk by some unseen force. A 30-second shock.
▶
TESCO RETAIL | Subway Virtual Store | 2011
You don't go to the store, the store comes to you / TESCO Homeplus "Subway Virtual Store"
If you can't win on number of stores, just stop trying to add more. Instead, turn an entire subway platform into a supermarket. Scan a QR code and your shopping is done—by the time you get home, your groceries are already there. In 2011, this idea out of South Korea got the whole world talking.
▶
IGGY POP & ORCON BROADBAND | Together Incredible | 2010
Product Demos, Taken to the Extreme / Orcon Broadband "Together Incredible"
In 2010, Orcon, a small internet provider in New Zealand, connected punk icon Iggy Pop with nine amateur musicians from around the country over ordinary home broadband to re-record "The Passenger." This wonderfully absurd product demo won the Grand Prix in the Direct category at Cannes Lions.
▶
TOYOTA | IQ FONT | 2010
The World's First Typeface, Written by a Car / TOYOTA "IQ FONT"
A car writes letters with its tire tracks. And then those letters become an actual downloadable font. Launched from Belgium out to the world in 2010, this project showed people something they'd never seen before.
▶
HEINEKEN | AUDITORIUM | 2010
The Classical Concert Trap / HEINEKEN "AUDITORIUM"
On October 21, 2009, 1,000 football fans gathered at an auditorium in Milan, with no idea they were walking straight into a trap.
▶
NEW ZEALAND BOOK COUNCIL | GOING WEST | 2010
The Pages of a Book Really Do Rise Up / NEW ZEALAND BOOK COUNCIL "GOING WEST"
Just by cutting paper, a forest rises and a river starts to flow. No CGI, no compositing — a "book that truly moves," made entirely by hand over eight months.
▶
Nike | Write The Future | 2010
Glory or Ruin? One Moment Changes the Future / Nike "Write The Future"
I just watched a three-minute film. A single moment at the World Cup can turn into glory, or it can turn into ruin. The moment they showed Rooney gone to fat, unshaven, and living in a caravan, I nearly fell out of my chair.
▶
BANG & OLUFSEN | Audio Annual Report | 2010
Turning an Annual Report into an Opera / Bang & Olufsen "Audio Annual Report"
Turning an annual report into music. Have you ever thought of that? I hadn't. But Bang & Olufsen and Serviceplan did it.
▶
HBO | Imagine | 2010
What if you saw the same scene from four different angles? / HBO "Imagine" Cube Film
A mystery about a teddy bear plays out on a giant cube-shaped screen on a street corner, showing four different angles at once. One truth starts to look like entirely different stories, just depending on where you're standing.
▶
PEPSICO | Sandwich | 2010
There's a real town in England called Sandwich. It got targeted. / Walkers "Sandwich"
There's an actual town in Kent, England, named Sandwich. Walkers took over the whole thing. Turning a place name into a campaign feels almost too clever to be fair.
▶
BOONEOAKLEY | BOONEOAKLEY WEBSITE | 2010
The Company Website That Was Built Entirely Inside YouTube / BOONEOAKLEY "WEBSITE"
There's an agency that built its company website without a single page of its own. BooneOakley put together its entire site using nothing but YouTube videos.
▶
BOSCH | Fresh Stone-Age Meat | 2010
Dinosaur meat, fresh today / BOSCH "Fresh Stone-Age Meat"
Mammoth steak in the freezer aisle. Dinosaur leg cuts. Saber-tooth tiger fillet. Packaged up like they're totally real products, sitting right there on the shelf. The confused faces of shoppers walking by? Priceless.
▶
POLO MINT SWEETS | SNOW STAMP | 2010
Snow fell, so they stamped it with POLO / POLO MINT "SNOW STAMP"
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.
▶
AIDES | GRAFFITI | 2010
A graffiti penis on a bathroom wall starts getting lucky the moment it puts on a condom / AIDES "GRAFFITI"
The hero of this ad is a single graffiti penis scrawled on a bathroom wall. An ad with genitals as the main character isn't something you see every day.
▶
BEST BUY | TWELPFORCE | 2010
The Day Customer Service Became an Ad / BEST BUY "TWELPFORCE"
This is the story of the day something that wasn't an advertisement won the Grand Prix at Cannes. I watched the moment customer service turned into advertising.
▶
HBO | Big Love Audio Mural Installations (Wall of Secrets) | 2009
Plug headphones into the people on the wall. / HBO "Big Love: Wall of Secrets"
Painted on a city wall, passersby had real headphone jacks embedded right in their heads. Plug in, and you'd hear that one person's own "secret" whispered in your ear.
▶
PASCALL | WHEN WILL THE FRUIT BURST | 2009
When Will It Burst? / PASCALL "WHEN WILL THE FRUIT BURST"
A giant strawberry-shaped balloon slowly, slowly inflates in the middle of the city. Right beside it, a needle stands ready and waiting. Nobody knows when it will burst. The only thing that's certain is that when it does, thousands of fruit candies will rain down on the street.
▶
BURGER KING | WHOPPER SACRIFICE | 2009
Ten Friends, Burned for a Burger / BURGER KING "WHOPPER SACRIFICE"
Delete ten friends on Facebook and you get a free Whopper. The person you deleted gets a notification saying 'You have chosen a Whopper over your friend.' It was a bomb CP+B dropped in 2009.
▶
WARNER BROS | WHY SO SERIOUS? | 2009
The 15 Months When Gotham City Became Real / WARNER BROS "WHY SO SERIOUS?"
This is the story of a movie promotion that turned into a city-wide game lasting 15 months. From 2007 to 2008, fans around the world became "residents of Gotham City," solving puzzles, making phone calls, and picking up cakes.