Television Commercials
The thirty-second film. The agencies and directors, the spots people remember decades later, the ad break as a cultural fixture, and the money behind it.
Part of Advertisements
21 moments in this segment.
- - VW "Think Small". 1959. Doyle Dane Bernbach's "Think Small" ad for the Volkswagen Beetle, small product photo, generous white space, ironic self-deprecating copy. Voted Ad Age's #1 ad of the 20th century. Created the modern American advertising aesthetic.
- - Calvin Klein "Nothing Comes Between Me and My Calvins". 1980. Brooke Shields, age 15, in Calvin Klein's jeans ads. "You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing." Banned from several networks; created the brand-as-controversy template.
- - Levi's 501 "Laundrette". December 1985. Levi's 501 "Laundrette", Nick Kamen strips down to his boxers in a UK laundromat, Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" plays. The ad that revived the 501 in Europe; defined 1980s brand-x-music co-marketing.
- - VW Golf "DA DA DA". 1997. Volkswagen Golf "DA DA DA" ad, two slackers find a chair on the curb, put it in the Golf, then ditch it. Set to Trio's 1982 song "Da Da Da." Re-launched the Golf in the US; one of the most-loved ads of its era.
- - BMW Films "The Hire". 2001-2002. BMW Films, short films by Ang Lee, John Frankenheimer, Guy Ritchie starring Clive Owen + a BMW. Branded-content pioneer; 100M+ views before YouTube existed. Won every advertising award going.
- - Telmex Brand Expansion. 1996-2010. Telmex's mass-market advertising as Carlos Slim consolidated Mexican telecom. The dominant Mexican brand campaign of the period; defined Latin American advertising as it shifted from US-translated to original-Spanish-language.
- - Fevicol - Adhesive That Holds India. 1990s onward. Fevicol's adhesive ads (Ogilvy Mumbai), surreal scenarios (overloaded bus, cracking elephants) where Fevicol still holds. Won 32 Cannes Lions over 30 years; the most decorated Indian advertising campaign in history.
- - IKEA "Lamp". 2002. Spike Jonze's IKEA "Lamp" ad, a discarded floor lamp in the rain, anthropomorphised. Won Cannes Lions Grand Prix; subverted brand-as-emotion. One of the most-cited "great ads" of the 2000s.
- - Honda "Cog". April 2003. Wieden+Kennedy London's "Cog" Honda Accord ad, 2 minutes of car parts in a Rube Goldberg machine. 606 takes; no CGI. Won the Cannes Grand Prix; voted Britain's favourite ad of 2003.
- - Sony Bravia "Balls". November 2005. Sony Bravia "Balls", 250,000 coloured bouncy balls released down a San Francisco hill. Soundtrack: Jose Gonzalez's "Heartbeats." Defined 2000s brand-aesthetic cinematography.
- - Visa "Life Takes Visa". 2004. Visa's "Life Takes Visa" launch, including the famous "Buying Group Hugs" Olympic spot. Re-positioned Visa from a payment network to a lifestyle brand. Single most consequential late-2000s financial-services campaign.
- - Alibaba Singles' Day - World's Biggest Shopping Day. 2009. Alibaba's Singles' Day (November 11) sales-event becomes the largest single-day shopping event in human history. By 2021: $84B in single-day GMV. Reshaped what "advertising-as-event" could be.
- - MTN "Ayoba" Pan-African Campaign. 2010 World Cup. MTN's "Ayoba" ("Cool") campaign for the South Africa World Cup. The biggest African-brand campaign of the 2010s; cemented MTN as the continent's defining telecom brand.
- - John Lewis Christmas Ads. 2011 onward. John Lewis's annual Christmas TV ad, adam&eveDDB. "The Long Wait," "Buster the Boxer," "The Bear and the Hare." The most-anticipated annual UK ad moment; defines the British Christmas season.
- - Dollar Shave Club Launch. March 6, 2012. Michael Dubin's "Our Blades Are F***ing Great" YouTube ad. Cost $4,500 to produce. Acquired by Unilever in 2016 for $1B. The defining D2C-startup launch video of the 2010s.
- - Allbirds Direct-to-Consumer Launch. March 2016. Allbirds launches with the merino-wool runner shoe, direct-to-consumer, no traditional advertising. By 2021 IPO at $1.7B valuation. Defined the DTC-brand template of the late 2010s.
- - Banco do Brasil "Tudo de Bom". 2014. Banco do Brasil "Tudo de Bom", Brazil-centric retro-warm bank campaign with major cultural-icon cameos. Showed the bank as a national-identity brand; defining late-Dilma-era Brazilian institutional advertising.
- - IKEA "Where Life Happens". 2017 onward. IKEA's "Where Life Happens" global campaign by Mother London. Reframed IKEA from "cheap furniture" to "real-life backdrop." Defined a generation of "real-people-real-homes" furniture advertising.
- - M-Pesa "Send Money Home". 2007-onward. Safaricom's M-Pesa mobile-money ads in Kenya + Tanzania transformed how Africa thought about banking + advertising-for-finance. Defined East African digital-finance brand storytelling.
- - Jaguar "Copy Nothing" Rebrand. November 19, 2024. Jaguar's "Copy Nothing" brand-relaunch video, surreal pastel models, no cars, taglines like "delete ordinary." Universally derided as the worst rebrand of the decade. Triggered the year's biggest brand-strategy debate.
- - Ferrari's Fall/Winter Fashion Campaign. Ferrari's advertising film for its Fall/Winter 2025-26 apparel collection, shot inside the e-building at Maranello and credited to creative director Rocco Iannone. A carmaker running a fashion house is an unusual piece of brand extension, and the campaign is how it is sold.
