12/07/2018
The 10 Best Advertisements of All Time
I’ve always been a little leery of proclaiming anything "the best." I never declared anyone my best friend as a kid because I was afraid my other friends might assume I thought less of them.
So it was a little difficult for me to come up with just one "best" advertisement of all time -- which is why there are 10 in this post instead.
Why are these campaigns some of the best ads of all time?
10- California Milk Processor Board: Got Milk?
Thanks to the California Milk Processor Board's "Got Milk?" campaign, milk sales in California rose 7% in just one year. But the impact ran across state borders, and to this day, you still can't escape the millions of “Got [Fill-in-the-Blank]?” parodies.
Note, though, that the ad didn't target people who weren’t drinking milk; it instead focused on the consumers who already were.
The Lesson
The 10 Best Advertisements of All Time new audience to use your products or services -- sometimes, it's about getting your current audience to appreciate and use your product more often. Turn your audience into advocates, and use marketing and ad content to tell them why they should continue to enjoy the product or service you are already providing for them
9. Dos Equis: The Most Interesting Man in the World
You know who he is. He smokes Cuban ci**rs, is always surrounded by beautiful women, and -- most importantly -- he drinks Dos Equis beer.
A key component of a strong campaign for an indulgent vice -- like beer, desserts, or luxury items -- is to make it cool. And when it comes to The Most Interesting Man in the World, he's one of the coolest commercial guys there is.
And at the end of every commercial, he says: "I don't always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis. Stay thirsty my friends."
The Lesson
The hilarious hyperbole employed in this campaign makes it memorable the next time viewers head out to buy some beer. And even though Dos Equis recently replaced The Most Interesting Man with a new actor, he is forever immortalized in meme culture and in liquor stores due to this short, sweet, and memorable tagline -- and the cool dude vibe it makes viewers harken back to.
8. Google: Year in Search
This isn't the oldest or most well-known advertisement on our list, but it's become the most powerful over its nine-year (and still going) existence. So powerful and so true, you forget it's an advertisement.
Year in Search began in 2009 as "Zeitgeist," a written report of the public's most common Google searches over the previous 12 months. The following year, Google adapted it for a three-minute video. Since then, it's been a bold, yearly reminder of how much we depend on Google for information on the news and events that give the entire world pause. Check out the company's latest video from 2017 above.
The Lesson
Remind your customers how much you care that they care. These stories elicit a variety of emotions, but ultimately unite everyone -- no matter what Google products they might like -- through an uplifting message of how our usage of the company reflects the best in all of us.
7. Volkswagen: Think Small Luxury Hotels of the World
Many marketing and advertising professionals like to call Volkswagen's "Think Small" campaign the gold standard. Created in 1960 by a legendary advertising group at Doyle Dane & Bernbach (DDB), the campaign set out to answer one question: How do you change peoples' perceptions not only about a product, but also about an entire group of people?
See, Americans always had a propensity to buy big American cars -- and even 15 years after WWII ended, most Americans were still not buying small German cars. So what did this Volkswagen advertisement do? It played right into the audience’s expectations. You think I’m small? Yeah, I am. They never tried to be something they were not.
The Lesson
That's the most important takeaway from this campaign: Don’t try to sell your company, product, or service as something it’s not. Consumers recognize and appreciate honesty.
6. Always:
My eyes are still wet while writing this blurb.
The Always brand hit a home run with this advertisement, not because it went viral after the commercial ran in the 2015 Super Bowl, but because it was a groundbreaking message that hundreds of millions of people repeated long after the campaign was over.
The campaign began as a commercial explaining the stigma behind playing sports "like a girl" -- implying that the boy's way is better or correct. By the end of the ad, the message is both clear and inspiring: Girls are just as fit and capable as boys are, particularly during puberty -- a stage of life that is extremely important to Always and its women's products.
The message is now a holistic initiative by Always you can learn about here, and a hashtag that's still used on social media today.
5. Miller Lite: Great Taste, Less Filling
Think it's easy to create a whole new market for your product? The Miller Brewing Company (now MillerCoors) did just that with the light beer market -- and dominated it. The goal of the "Great Taste, Less Filling" campaign was getting "real men" to drink light beer, but they were battling the common misconception that light beer can never actually taste good.
Taking the debate head-on, Miller featured masculine models drinking their light beer and declaring it great tasting.
The Lesson
For decades after this campaign aired, Miller Lite dominated the light beer market it had essentially created. What’s the lesson marketers can learn? Strive to be different. If people tell you there isn’t room for a product, create your own category so you can quickly become the leader.
4. Anheuser-Busch: Whassup
When's the last time an advertisement literally changed the way we talk to one another? Allow me to answer that question with another question: "Whassup?!"
This series of commercials, which first appeared in late 1999, features a group of friends connecting on a group phone call (we don't do those much anymore, do we?) while drinking beer and "watching the game" on TV.
It starts gently: "What are you doin'?" Someone asks. "Watching the game, havin' a Bud" (a Budweiser), someone replies. As more friends pick up the phone, the hilarity ensues: "WHASSUP!?" is yelled back and forth, becoming a classic catchphrase and an icon of beer-drinking culture that ran constantly on sports networks over the next few years.
The Lesson
The ad took pop culture by storm during the Super Bowl in 2000, and you can still hear its echoes today. Why? Anheuser-Busch showed us just how silly and informal an ad can be without ruffling feathers or going off-brand. Dare to celebrate your audience's absurdities. The more genuine your ad is, the more valuable your product is.
3. Absolut Vodka: The Absolut Bottle
Despite having no distinct shape, Absolut made its bottle the most recognizable bottle in the world. Its campaign, which featured print ads showing bottles "in the wild," was so successful that they didn’t stop running it for 25 years. It's the longest uninterrupted ad campaign ever and comprises over 1,500 separate ads. I guess if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
When the campaign started, Absolut had a measly 2.5% of the vodka market. When it ended in the late 2000s, Absolut was importing 4.5 million cases per year, or half of all imported vodka in the U.S.
The Lesson
No matter how boring your product looks, it doesn’t mean you can’t tell your story in an interesting way. Let me repeat: Absolut created 1500 ads of one bottle. Be determined and differentiate your product in the same way.
Big brands are often hard-pressed to do something ground-breaking when they're already so big. So, what did Coca-Cola do to appeal to the masses? They appealed to individuals -- by putting their names on each bottle.
2. Coke: Share a Coke
The Share a Coke campaign began in Australia in 2011, when Coca-Cola personalized each bottle with the 150 most popular names in the country. Since then, the U.S. has followed suit, printing first names across the front of its bottles and cans in Coke's branded font. You can even order custom bottles on Coke's website to request things like nicknames and college logos.
It was a breaking story across the marketing and advertising industry. Many consumers were enchanted by it, while others were confused by it -- why make a temporary item so personal? Pepsi even released counter-ads shortly after the campaign launched.
Nonetheless, Coke received immediate attention for it.
The Lesson
Coke fans are regular buyers, and the company leaned into that sense of individual ownership with full force. Wondering what name you'll get out of the vending machine was a fun thrill in and of itself -- even if it isn't yours, it encourages you to "share a Coke" with whomever's name is on the front.
1. Nike: Just Do It.
Did you know that, once upon a time, Nike's product catered almost exclusively to marathon runners? Then, a fitness craze emerged -- and the folks in Nike's marketing department knew they needed to take advantage of it to surpass their main competitor, Reebok. (At the time, Reebok was selling more shoes than Nike). And so, in the late 1980s, Nike created the "Just Do It." campaign.
It was a hit.
In 1988, Nike sales were at $800 million; by 1998, sales exceeded $9.2 billion. "Just Do It." was short and sweet, yet encapsulated everything people felt when they were exercising -- and people still feel that feeling today. Don’t want to run five miles? Just Do It. Don’t want walk up four flights of stairs? Just Do It. It's a slogan we can all relate to: the drive to push ourselves beyond our limits.
The Lesson
When you're trying to decide the best way to present your brand, ask yourself: What problem are you solving for your customers? What solution does your product or service provide? By hitting on that core issue in all of your messaging, you'll connect with consumers on an emotional level that is hard to ignore.
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