Year
22 articles
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.
リクルート | 卒おめ | 2016
This is one of those classic ads I find myself watching again every year around this time. It captures that particular spring when high school seniors are finishing up, set to a wonderful Chatmonchy song, and every time I watch it, something about it hits me right in the chest.
ソフトバンク | プロポーズ | 2016
How do you capture a marriage proposal, one of life's big climactic moments? The chemistry between two distinctive actors, Mikako Ichikawa and Ryo Kase, creates an atmosphere that sticks with you in an odd way.
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.
HEWLET-PACKARD | THE NATIONAL GALLERY GRAND TOUR | 2008
Instead of waiting for people to come to it, the museum sent its paintings out into the city. It's a simple idea, but nobody had done it before HP and the National Gallery did.
MICROSOFT | Halo 3: Believe - John 117 Monument | 2008
It's an ad for a video game, but no game footage shows up anywhere in it. All you get is an old soldier recalling memories of war, and a massive 110-square-meter battlefield diorama. This ad treated Halo 3 like it was a real war.
UNIQLO | UNIQLOCK | 2008
In 2007, the clock that kept more people awake than any other was born. UNIQLOCK is a blog widget that marks time with music and dance. Once you stick it on the side of your blog, you'll find yourself watching the five-second changes for ten minutes before you know it.
CADBURY | GORILLA | 2008
A gorilla plays the drums. That's it. For 90 seconds, no product, no dialogue. Just drumming along to a Phil Collins song. And somehow, that was enough to make the whole world smile.
BUD LIGHT | Real Men of Genius - Mr. Really Loud Cell Phone Guy | 2007
In 2007, an absurdly epic '80s-rock-style song started playing on radio stations across America. "Today, we salute you... Mr. Really Loud Cell Phone Guy!" What on earth is this?
VOLKSWAGEN | FOUR HOURS | 2007
The title is simply "FOUR HOURS." Just that one phrase, a length of time sitting there on its own, with no hint of what those four hours were actually for. I honestly can't picture it. But that very bluntness is what makes it stick in my mind.
ASB | MONEY GOES DIGITAL | 2007
In 2007, ASB, a bank in New Zealand, ran an ad in a place no one had ever seen one before: on banknotes themselves. The idea of sticking stickers onto real, circulating currency won the Grand Prix in the Media category at Cannes Lions.
BURGER KING | XBOX KING GAMES | 2007
Burger King's agency made three Xbox games. They sold them for $3.99 as an add-on to value meals. They sold 3.2 million copies. The company's quarterly profit went up 40%. This is the story of an ad agency that made a product instead of an ad, and made the company money.
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.
AXE | AXE 3 | 2007
In 2007, an ad out of Buenos Aires won the Grand Prix at Cannes. In the deodorant market, it pulled off something that shouldn't have been possible: 1+1=3.
GALITIA BANK | Lopetegui Deposit | 2007
Footage of former goalkeeper Lopetegui collapsing live on air somehow became a bank ad. And the fixed deposit product was even named the "Lopetegui Deposit." I just love this kind of thinking.
BUD LIGHT | Real Men of Genius - Mr. Hot Dog Eating Contest Contestant | 2007
In 2007, this radio spot from Bud Light's "Real Men of Genius" series paid tribute to competitive hot dog eaters. DDB Chicago turned the sheer resolve it takes to eat 24 hot dogs in 12 minutes into a song that's both ridiculous and full of affection.
UNICEF | TAP PROJECT | 2007
Esquire magazine challenged the creatives it named to its "Best and Brightest" list to build a brand using just one page of the magazine. What David Droga came up with wasn't an ad at all — it was a mechanism that changed the world.
BUD LIGHT | Real Men of Genius - Mr. Hair Gel Over-Geller | 2007
In 2007, Bud Light went all-in on laughs with a radio spot. This is one entry from the legendary radio series "Real Men of Genius" — a gloriously dumb 60-second ad that goes all out praising a guy who uses way too much hair gel.
WWF | EARTH HOUR | 2007
On March 31, 2007, 2.2 million people in Sydney switched off their lights all at once — a way of showing that they were serious about climate change, at a time when skepticism still hung in the air. This single hour of action has since spread around the world, 20 years on.
DIESEL | HEIDIES 15 MB OF FAME | 2007
In 2007, if you opened diesel.com, instead of the usual homepage you saw a hotel room. Two women were holding an employee hostage, shouting that they wanted to be famous. This went on for five days.
SMIRNOFF | TEA PARTAY | 2007
For a new product launch with no budget and no TV airtime, BBH chose a parody rap video instead. Within days of going live, it reached a million people.
ホットペッパー | アフレコCMシリーズ | 2002
There's a world here that I, not being from Kansai, could never have come up with on my own, and I deeply relate to that. But at the same time, I don't think this is something only a Kansai person could make—I think it's something only one genius, Takaaki Yamazaki, could have made.