Method
83 articles
Snack Jack Ring | Mother Strike | 2026
A mother steps straight into her son's video game. Just that premise alone makes you want to watch. This film from Thailand pulls it off well, layering the story of a family finding its way back into the same circle over the round shape of the snack itself.
NOVARTIS | RELAX YOUR TIGHT END | 2026
Who knew the football position "tight end" could be turned into a health awareness message? That tightness in your chest might actually be your heart.
THE NEW ZEALAND HERPES FOUNDATION | THE BEST PLACE TO HAVE HERPES | 2025
A former All Blacks coach says it with total sincerity: sheep numbers are down, meat pies are pricier, and the only way left to restore the country's pride is to become number one in the world at herpes. By the time this thing picked up two Grand Prix at Cannes Lions, it was official — this story is not sane.
GODADDY | Act Like You Know | 2025
For its Super Bowl comeback after eight years away, GoDaddy didn't go for shock value or crude jokes. Instead, it turned the quiet anxiety of "faking it till you make it" into something genuinely funny.
SPECSAVERS | THE MISHEARD VERSION | 2024
They had Rick Astley re-record "Never Gonna Give You Up" with the lyrics deliberately swapped for commonly misheard versions, then released it with no explanation at all. It got 20 million plays in 8 hours. At Cannes it won six Lions and two Grand Prix. It was the first time a PR agency had won the PR Lions Grand Prix on its own.
KRUNGSRI FIRST CHOICE | WHAT THE FAST! | 2024
Making up with a partner. Talking your dad into something. Apologizing to your boss. The most awkward conversations in life, wrapped up in the split second two motorbikes pass each other. Three 15-second films built on that idea won a Gold Lion at Cannes Lions.
APPLE | RELAX, IT'S IPHONE: R.I.P. LEON | 2023
The lizard you're watching isn't moving. Worst case scenario, it's dead... wait, it's alive! That thirty-second swing from despair to joy lines up perfectly with iOS 16's "undo send" message feature.
APPLE | Detectives | 2022
In the background of the shot, a blurry detective cries out, "Why am I the only one out of focus?" His partner replies, "Because the camera focuses on the lead." That exchange alone is enough to win you over.
BMW | NOTHING BUT SHEER JOY | 2022
Chinese Lunar New Year ads have a go-to formula: a long, tearjerking drama about family reunions. In 2022, BMW threw that formula out completely. Ninety seconds, relentlessly upbeat, without a single tear. Choosing not to make people cry actually takes real nerve.
HARIBO | キッズボイス 相撲 | 2021
A hulking sumo wrestler in a yukata says things like "Squishy-squishy~" and "It's so juicy." But the voice is a child's. For three seconds you're confused, and the next second you're already grinning.
Aviation Gin | Arlene's Big Leap | 2020
Arlene was born on 2/29/1936, making her 84 this year. But since her birthday only comes once every four years, 2/29/2020 was finally her "21st" birthday. Technically speaking, that makes this the first legal drink of her life.
Canal+ | Never underestimate the power of a great story | 2020
A long, long setup leading to one big, bold payoff — it feels so satisfying.
BECO | #STEALOURSTAFF | 2020
"Please steal our staff." BECO printed résumés right on their bottles and put them on the shelves of major supermarkets. Getting poached is usually every company's nightmare—but BECO made it happen on purpose.
BURGER KING | CONFUSING TIMES | 2020
2020 was a year when everyone felt confused. Burger King made a radio ad that put that exact feeling of confusion into words—things like catching a sneeze with your elbow, then high-fiving with that same elbow. And the twist is, it was actually an ad for the Impossible Whopper, which tastes like meat but isn't meat. Presenting confusion as confusion, honestly, turned out to be the most honest approach of all.
MUMBAI POLICE | THE PUNISHING SIGNAL | 2020
The more you honk, the longer the light stays red. Mumbai, one of the noisiest cities in the world, built a traffic signal that punishes honking itself.
APPLE | Apple at Work - The Underdogs | 2019
Three minutes. It's basically a short film. It's just about four unremarkable office workers trying to turn an idea into something real in two days, but you end up completely absorbed and forget you're even watching an Apple ad.
Harvey Nichols | Shoplifters | 2017
Security camera footage became the ad itself, and it won the Grand Prix at Cannes. And the ones doing the filming? Actual shoplifters.
GEICO | Crushed | 2017
In the frozen food aisle, the walls slowly close in, squashing both the people and the products. The idea here is to physically "shrink" a pre-roll ad.
Skittles | Romance | 2017
This is the 2017 version of Skittles' 30-second Super Bowl spot, from the brand known for "the finger thing." A boy keeps throwing candy at a window—looks like it's shaping up to be a romantic scene, but it's not just his girlfriend who ends up catching them. That reliable punchline strikes again.
Old Spice | Odor Blocker Body Wash | 2017
It's Premium Friday, so I figure now's a good time to grin at something wonderfully ridiculous.
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.
GEICO | Unskippable | 2016
YouTube ads get skipped after five seconds. 96% of people hit that button. But when a voice tells you "This ad has already ended, so it can't be skipped," your finger stops.
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.
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?
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.
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.
Spotify | New Music, New Me | 2016
Mom is chopping scallions in the kitchen. That's all there is to it — but set it to Takkyu Ishino's techno, and the whole world changes.
リクルート | 山田悠子の就職活動 | 2015
A crowd in blue uniforms is shouting "Yamada! Yamada!" at a giant screen, just like soccer fans cheering on Japan's national team. But what's on screen isn't a match — it's Yuko Yamada, in a job-hunting suit, going through her job search. Her awkward face during an interview, getting her ID photo taken — it's all up there on the screen, and the crowd is cheering for every bit of it.
SANKO（三幸興業株式会社） | 電車は転職できない。 | 2015
A train that looks like something out of Thomas the Tank Engine is singing. The cute, cozy visuals are soothing on their own, but then one word—"but"—suddenly turns the whole thing bittersweet.
江崎グリコ | オトナグリコ アーモンドピーク | 2015
This ad turns a pitch competition between ad agencies into the ad itself. Nanako Matsushima and Satoshi Tsumabuki play creative directors from rival agencies, fighting over Glico's business, in this behind-the-scenes story. You get a peek into the industry (surely exaggerated quite a bit), and that alone makes it fun to watch.
Marc Dorcel | #HandsOff | 2015
If you want to watch porn, keep both hands on the keyboard. I had to laugh at that one. A porn site telling you not to let go of the keyboard — that twisted, mischievous logic is just perfect.
セキスイハイム | かみさま | 2015
"When will the Tokai earthquake actually hit... what year, what month, what day! God, please tell us!" It's the kind of question anyone living in the Tokai region has probably wondered about at some point—and this ad turns it into a full-blown comedy sketch. And somehow, the product being sold is houses.
BGH | Dads in Briefs | 2015
Summer in Argentina is brutally hot. Without air conditioning, dads at home start wandering around in nothing but their underwear. It's every family's worst nightmare. BGH turned this exact phenomenon into an ad.
BUYMA | A Kind Drone | 2015
Two completely naked ballet dancers move beautifully while four drones chase after them, covering up exactly the parts that need covering, for a solid minute and a half. This absurd little world is a perfect example of "doing something stylish." Maybe it rode the wave of a popular "don't worry, it's fine" catchphrase of the time, but this video, made by Dentsu, goes so far over the top it stops being a joke and starts being art.
NTT DOCOMO | 3-SECOND COOKING | 2015
A shrimp flies through the air, passes through flames, and becomes shrimp tempura in 3 seconds. For the dumplings, the ingredients collide in midair and come together in 2.244 seconds. No CG, all real footage. The only thing you can say watching this video is "what is DOCOMO even doing" — and it still walked away with three Golds at Cannes.
DU | TOO DEPRESSING (Cinema Tuesdays) | 2014
Watching a movie alone, in a theater, and it's a hopeless tragedy on top of that. Is there a crueler punishment? The first time I saw this ad from du, I laughed so hard I cried. I couldn't believe something this dark actually got approved.
日清カップヌードル | SURVIVE! | 2013
In 2013, Nissin went and did something wild. A young office worker in a suit of armor charges into a Western army, shouting "Nice to meet you!" before getting blown away by a cannon. A job-hunting student gets grilled by a polar bear interviewer in a blizzard, and at the beach, a monstrous shark attacks people, demanding "likes!" It's completely absurd, yet it captures the mood of 2013 exactly as it was.
Harvey Nichols | Sorry I Spent It On Myself | 2013
At Christmas 2013, the upscale department store Harvey Nichols came right out and said, "Sorry, I spent it on myself." It was an ad that threw the whole idea of Christmas being a season of sharing straight out the window.
OLD SPICE | Hawkridge | 2013
In 2013, Old Spice released a scent called Hawkridge. The ad for it shows a man playing poker suddenly getting swarmed by hawks—you have no idea what's going on, but somehow you totally get it.
SMART FORTWO | OFFROAD | 2013
A tiny car takes a spectacular tumble off-road. Instead of hiding what's normally seen as a flaw, this ad shows it off proudly, then drops one line at the end: "SMART is as useless off-road as an SUV is in the city." That shameless confidence is just great.
BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION | HARD, FAST & EFFECTIVE | 2013
People who watched this ad ended up saving 28 lives. An ad whose success gets measured not by awareness or likability, but by "how many people came back from the dead" — that's not something you see every day.
Metro Trains Melbourne | Dumb Ways to Die | 2012
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.
CANAL+ | THE BEAR | 2012
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.
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.
AXE | PREMATURE PERSPIRATION | 2011
When I saw this Argentine ad from 2011, I couldn't help but laugh. I mean, "premature perspiration" — even the name is already a metaphor for that other thing.
AXE | BOWLING | 2011
In 2011, an ad arrived from Argentina for AXE. The title: "BOWLING." That simplicity is what drew me in.
TOYOTA PRIUS | PRIUS GOES PLURAL | 2011
If there are more Priuses on the road, what do you call them? That question alone became an entire campaign. The answer wasn't found in the car—it was found in grammar.
OTRIVIN | Classroom Craft | 2011
If a stuffy nose makes you breathe through your mouth, your teacher might peg you as "a bit of a special case" and hand you the safety scissors instead. That's it, that's the whole idea—and somehow it becomes an ad for nasal spray.