Year
42 articles
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.
GOOGLE | Timelapse in Google Earth | 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.
BECK’S | BECK'S FREQUENCY | 2020
Brazil is pilsner paradise. BECK'S makes the bitterest beer around, but it's behind competitors in both distribution and budget. So what did they do? They got people to drink their rivals' beer.
TELENOR | NAMING THE INVISIBLE PAKISTANIS | 2020
In Pakistan, 60 million children had no birth certificate. Without one, they couldn't get medical care or go to school — children the country essentially didn't recognize as existing. What changed that was an app that took just 10 minutes to use. At the 2021 Cannes Lions, it won Grand Prix in two categories, a first for Pakistan.
SPINNEYS THE LEBANESE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION | THE BREAD EXAM | 2020
The motion of kneading bread dough and the motion of a breast self-exam. They turned out to be nearly identical. That one observation was enough to break through a cultural taboo.
THE BIG ISSUE & LINKEDIN | Raising Profiles | 2020
A homeless magazine seller signs up for LinkedIn. As a response to the pandemic, you couldn't ask for a more logical idea.
XBOX | THE BIRTH OF GAMING TOURISM | 2020
Game ads are usually about weapons and heroes. Xbox decided to sell its games as a "tourist destination" instead. You've got to applaud the sheer craziness of that.
COPI | ADDRESSPOLLUTION.ORG | 2020
When you buy a house, someone tells you if there's asbestos. But nobody tells you how dirty the air is. The moment I noticed that imbalance, I couldn't help but growl.
WARNER MUSIC GROUP | SAYLISTS | 2020
One in twelve children has a speech sound disorder (SSD). The key to therapy is repetition — but for kids, that's just plain boring. So what about music? Or rather, isn't music itself the ultimate form of repetition? Starting from that simple question, Warner Music and ad agency Rothco used an algorithm to analyze a 70-million-song Apple Music catalog and created "Saylists," playlists with genuine therapeutic value.
Apple | Macの向こうから — まだこの世界にない物語を | 2020
They made an entire 30-second commercial out of nothing but scenes of anime characters sitting down at their Macs. And get this — some of those Macs have logos that are clearly not the real Apple logo, turned into a heart or a pear instead, yet Apple included them anyway. That kind of generosity really shows the brand's sheer confidence.
トヨタモビリティパーツ | 連続10秒ドラマ「愛の停止線」SEASON2 | 2020
A 10-second commercial that somehow packs in a full story arc, complete with a product punchline at the end. And not just once, but as a whole series. You laugh, you want to see what happens next, and before you know it, you've remembered the product name.
SINYI REALTY | IN LOVE WE TRUST | 2020
A real estate brand film running 7 minutes and 23 seconds made all of Taiwan cry. And it won Taiwan's first-ever Grand Prix in Cannes advertising history. The courage of a real estate company that showed no properties at all, instead talking entirely about "the fear of marriage" - that's thrilling.
CARREFOUR | ACT FOR FOOD | 2020
A supermarket broke the law, and ended up changing the law. And for that, it won the Grand Prix at Cannes. This is what it looks like when an ad actually moves society.
APPLE | The Whole Working-From-Home Thing | 2020
In July 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic, a seven-minute short film arrived from America. It was called "The Whole Working-From-Home Thing." And yes, it was exactly that: kids bursting into meetings, dogs barking, video calls in pajamas, screen-share mistakes, and somehow still making the deadline. The video crossed 10 million views within two days of release. As a sequel to 2019's acclaimed "The Underdogs," it wrapped the chaos that literally everyone was living through in humor.
東京ガス | がんばれ私たち | 2020
In November 2020 (11/2020), right in the middle of the pandemic, Tokyo Gas aired this commercial. A 25-year-old woman chasing her dream of becoming an actress lives through days that don't go the way she wants, all set to a song sung by actress Shizuka Ishibashi herself. Her father shows up in his little truck, her grandmother cheers her on through a smartphone screen, and that's when I gave up fighting the tears.
BEATS BY DRE | You Love Me | 2020
"You love Black culture. But do you love us?" In November 2020, Beats asked that question in a two-minute film.
UNITED4RESCUE | DROWNED REQUIEM | 2020
Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" plays as a requiem on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea. A symbol of Europe rings out over the graves of refugees. In 2020, while everyone's attention was on COVID and Trump, people were still drowning at sea. A German citizens' group sank the song Europe holds dearest into the ocean.
POPEYES LOUISIANA KITCHEN | CHICKEN WARS | 2020
In August 2019, a tweet of just 15 characters shook up the restaurant industry. The story goes that a chicken sandwich — ten weeks' worth of stock — sold out in just eight days.
日清食品 | 匂わせたい | 2020
A man's shoulder caught in the edge of a glass. Matching shoes. A poem you read vertically that spells out "I'm with the winning team." Ugh, another hint-dropping girl on social media, you think, getting a little annoyed. But that annoyance turns into pure delight by the end.
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.
加賀市 | 加賀市新幹線対策室 | 2020
Has there ever been local government PR that put jealousy front and center like this? Taking the frustration of losing out to Kanazawa and turning it straight into fuel for a "Go, Kaga!" cheering mood. You rarely see local PR this honest, and this lovable.
EPIC GAMES | ASTRONOMICAL | 2020
April 2020. The world was still stuck at home. Travis Scott grew to giant size and danced his way across Fortnite's island, trampling everything in his path. 12.3 million people watched at the same time, and 27.7 million joined in over five days—the biggest live event in gaming history.
REGENT PARK SCHOOL OF MUSIC | PARKSCAPES | 2020
Instead of "receiving" donations, why not "earn" them? Kids learning music ended up standing on the same ground as the pros who make a living from it.
NOTPLA | Making Packaging Disappear | 2020
"Notpla" is short for "not plastic." That alone tells you what they're trying to do. It's edible packaging made from seaweed. And the brand itself won the Grand Prix in the Design category at Cannes.
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.
CITY OF CHICAGO | Boards of Change | 2020
In 2020, the plywood covering Chicago's streets was reborn as voting booths. The same boards used to cover broken windows became boxes that deliver votes. That shift alone makes this a powerful idea.
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?
POPEYES | THAT LOOK FROM POPEYES | 2020
A few days after Beyoncé's new apparel line sold out instantly, fans online were buzzing about one thing: "wait, this looks just like Popeyes' uniform." Popeyes took that and sold the real thing, exactly as it was, on their own online store.
HEINEKEN | SHUTTER ADS | 2020
In 2020, the pandemic forced bars to pull down their shutters. The lights went out across the city. So why not put those shutters to work bringing the light back?
MASTERCARD | Roadside Market | 2020
On Romania's rural roads, you'll find farmers sitting with homemade vegetables and cheese laid out for sale. They're not on any map, and they can only take cash. A business that doesn't officially exist.
ABINBEV | Contract for Change | 2020
You'd think this was a beer commercial, but it turned out to be about a contract. And that contract was trying to change America's entire farming system. This is a story about an ad that didn't just talk about something — it became the mechanism itself.
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.
AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR DEAF CHILDREN | Fingerspelling with Machine Learning | 2020
In the United States, 2 to 3 out of every 1,000 babies are born deaf. 9 out of 10 of them are born to hearing parents. In many cases, that child becomes the first deaf person their parents have ever known.
CHEETOS | CAN'T TOUCH THIS | 2020
A guy holds up his fingers and says "Can't touch this~" as an excuse, and MC Hammer bursts out from behind him. Wrapped up in a rolled carpet, popping up as a baby's face, climbing out of a picnic basket. It's completely absurd, but that chaos is exactly the strategy behind selling a new product during the Super Bowl.
DIESEL | FRANCESCA | 2020
This film, released for Pride Month 2020, has you watching what looks like a transgender story—until the very end, when it pulls the rug out from under you. She takes off her DIESEL denim and puts on a nun's habit.
BURGER KING | STEVENAGE CHALLENGE | 2020
An English fourth-tier club averaging 3,000 fans a game, rated one star in FIFA 20. The moment Burger King became their sponsor, gamers around the world started transferring Messi and Ronaldo onto this team.
MERCADO LIVRE | FEED PARADE | 2020
In 2020, the world's biggest pride parade disappeared. The 2.5km road that 5 million people were supposed to walk was completely wiped out by the pandemic. Brazil's GUT rebuilt that road on Instagram, using 279 photos.
FONDATION DE FRANCE | BEE_INFLUENCER | 2020
I always thought influencers were a human thing. Turns out I was wrong. A bee smaller than an inch gathered 280,000 followers on Instagram and poured the ad money straight into saving her own species. This really happened.
GO EQUAL MOVEMENT | #GOEQUAL | 2020
In June 2019, the moment she scored in a Women's World Cup match, Brazilian soccer legend Marta Vieira da Silva dramatically pointed to her own cleat. It was a historic moment, breaking the record for most World Cup goals scored by any player, male or female. There was no corporate sponsor logo on that shoe—just a pink and blue equality symbol shining on it.
BURGER KING | THE MOLDY WHOPPER | 2020
A burger covered in mold became one of the most beautiful ads in the world. In 2020, Burger King released footage of a Whopper rotting over 35 days, with the tagline "The Beauty of No Artificial Preservatives." It broke a food-advertising taboo head-on.
LACOSTE | CROCODILE INSIDE | 2020
Two people are fighting. Their words get so fierce that the building actually splits in two. In the end, she leaps over the rubble to come back to him. Honestly, this feels like a movie.
花王 | 洗濯愛してる会 | 2019
In January 2020, right at the start of the new year, I got hit with a shock strong enough to make me want to restart this blog. Five of the hottest actors around — Matsuzaka Tori, Suda Masaki, Kaku Kento, Mamiya Shotaro, and Sugino Yosuke — talking about laundry with total seriousness for 60 seconds. It felt like I'd just watched two whole dramas.