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23 articles
DOVE | Real Beauty Redefined for the AI Era | 2025
20 years ago, Dove fought against the idea of "beauty" in advertising. This time, the enemy is AI. The "beautiful women" that generative AI spits out turned out to be the same narrow, mostly white, thin ideal all over again. What Dove did this time wasn't complain—it was re-educate the algorithm.
DOVE | Real Beauty: How a Soap Brand Created a Global Self-Esteem Movement | 2025
An ad for soap has spent 20 years picking a fight with the definition of "beautiful." In 2025, it won three Grand Prix at Cannes. This isn't really an ad campaign anymore—it's bigger than that.
Nikka Whisky | No Labels | 2025
They peeled the labels off the bottles. And they peeled the assumptions off people, too. That's the moment whisky became a way of living.
Coca-Cola | 2024
In bodegas and small shops around the world, owners have been painting their own versions of the Coca-Cola logo. Instead of telling them to fix it, the brand officially celebrated it.
DOVE | CODE MY CROWN | 2024
85% of Black gamers say they don't see their own hair represented in video games. Dove's response wasn't an ad—it was a 200-page technical guide.
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.
ＡCジャパン | 寛容ラップ | 2023
At a convenience store checkout, an old woman fumbles through her coins. A tough-looking rapper starts stomping his foot. Uh oh, you think, bracing for trouble—then he grabs an ice cream bar like a microphone and starts rapping: "Nobody's mad at you. Take all the time you need." A rap battle with no disses—now that's an invention.
東京ガス | 母の推し活 | 2023
There are a few ad series I look forward to every year, wondering "what will they do this time" — and Tokyo Gas's brand ads are one of them. Their "Family Bonds" series, running since 2008, has delivered one gut-punch after another straight to the Japanese heart, starting with the famous "Lunchbox Email" spot. I admire their work. The 2023 entry, "Mom's Fan Life," tells in 90 seconds the story of a mother who falls for a K-pop idol thirty years younger than her and watches her life open up as a result. It became a huge hit, racking up over 5 million views on Twitter within three days. This time, though, I found myself thinking "it's good, but..."
WOMEN IN GAMES | GENDER SWAP | 2022
Male heroes swinging their hips, dancing seductively, striking provocative poses. Taking the movements that have long been treated as "normal" for female characters in games and transplanting them directly onto male characters suddenly makes them feel deeply strange.
BURGER KING | NONARTIFICAL MEXICO | 2022
No models, no hair and makeup, no beautiful locations. Just black-and-white photos of ordinary people on Mexican streets, biting into a burger. Those photos became billboards — and even made it into a museum.
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.
Nike | 動かしつづける。自分を。未来を。 / The Future Isn't Waiting. | 2020
In November (11) 2020, all of Japan held its breath for two minutes. The film believed that the urge to play sports could lightly blow away garbage like discrimination. I've watched it ten times. "A standard masterpiece" feels like the right phrase for it, but that makes me wonder: what's the difference between a standard masterpiece and one that isn't standard at all?
Google | 100 Billion Words | 2019
The most translated words in the world are "How are you?", "Thank you", and "I love you." Google decided to show that with data.
NIKE | Nothing Beats a Londoner | 2018
Skepta shows up on screen, gets roasted by a kid, and walks off. The real stars aren't famous athletes — they're 258 unknown young people grinding it out on London's streets.
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.
NTTドコモ | ForONEs 2017 | 2017
This commercial, released by Docomo in 2017 under the name "ForONEs," shows people taking off colorful T-shirts to portray the diversity within each individual. Take off the actor, and there's a dancer. Take off the professional boxer, and there's a single mother. Take off the doctor, and there's a patient. Everyone has multiple faces, but behind them all is just one "self." At a time when everyone and their mother was talking about diversity, this 60-second spot boldly stripped away any sense of "Docomo-ness," and that choice itself feels like a kind of resolve.
STOCKHOLM PRIDE | LOS SANTOS PRIDE | 2017
They put a pride parade into the world of GTA5 that absolutely cannot be destroyed. In a city where you're allowed to run over pedestrians and shoot criminals, they made the one thing you can't attack—and thinking about what that means gives you chills.
BROOKE BOND RED LABEL TEA | 6 PACK BAND | 2016
In 2016, an Indian tea brand teamed up with a transgender band of six. The reason it won the Grand Prix at Cannes comes down to this: the women weren't filmed as people to feel sorry for.
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.
COCA COLA | A Rainbow for the Rainbow Nation | 2014
In 2014, South Africa marked 20 years since the end of apartheid. Coca-Cola made a rainbow. Not as a figure of speech — they made an actual rainbow appear in the sky over Johannesburg.
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.
SWEDISH INSTITUTE AND VISIT SWEDEN | CURATORS OF SWEDEN | 2012
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.
SPECIAL OLYMPICS | DIFFERENT | 2001
The year was 2001. That year, Special Olympics put forward a single word: "DIFFERENT." This ad went on to win gold.