Best of the century

The other day this ad campaign popped into my head:

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?