Best of the century
The other day this ad campaign popped into my head:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbtlv2cImxM
Man, those ads were good. Until they got a bit less good. But even then they were better than 99% of ads out there.
But they literally had not crossed my mind for over a decade.
Great campaign, big brand, many awards, as an avid cinema goer I watched them countless times… but utterly forgotten (by me, at least).
Which got me thinking: what are the ads that spontaneously pop into my head when I try to think of the best work of the century so far?
So let’s give this little test a go (try to do it before reading my answer; it’ll give you a clean list): spend one minute thinking about the best ads of the 21st Century. Any country, any medium. Then lost what comes up…
Go….
Keep going…
I’m not going to nudge you in any direction (although you might now be thinking of more Orange ads…)
Are you finished?
Nearly?
OK.
Here’s my list:
Honda Grrr
The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
Nike Write the Future
Dumb Ways To Die
Chipotle Back To The Start
Honda Cog
Honda Choir
Guinness Noitulove
Guinness Dreamers
Channel 4 Meet The Superhumans
Cadbury Gorilla
Skoda Cake
Playstation Mountain
Levi’s Running Through Walls
Reebok Sofa
Playstation Life on the Playstation
John West Bear
Levi’s Twisted
Met Police Knife Crime
And… I’m done.
So… Almost entirely TV. Most over a decade old. Almost entirely English.
I think it’s because that’s when and where advertising was most important to me.
Anyway, that’s my list, and it cannot be denied.
What’s yours?
Gotta include the spoof of the Levi’s ad by Lilt
Non TV stuff:
Economist ‘Missing piece’
HBO Voyeur
Jay-Z Decode
Harvey Nicks ‘I spent it on myself’
ESPN The Knowledge
I’m pretty sure that’s (only just) from the last century.
BK Whopper freakout. IKEA lamp. Starburst Berries and Cream.
The Guardian ‘Points of View’
Blackcurrant Tango
Maxell Tapes ‘Me ears are alight’
Pilkington Glass ‘Bulletproof glass’
VW ‘Snowplough’, ‘Keeping up with the Kremplers’ – actually pretty much any early VW ad (although I’ve only seen these on reels; I’m not that old.)
VW ‘Lamp Post’
Good choices, but not really from this century 😉
Whoops. Missed the 21st Century bit.
Based on New Zealand television, that narrows it down to pretty much (counts on fingers) nothing.
The Best Job in the World (Tourism Queensland/Great Barrier Reef). No Bollocks (Newcastle Brown). Taste Infringement (Coke Zero).