Iconic Campaigns

The billboards that entered the culture: the Marlboro Man, Apple's Think Different, Benetton's shock ads, the hand-painted rock boards of the Sunset Strip and the campaigns everyone remembers.

Part of Billboards

29 moments in this segment.

1. 1959-01-01 - Volkswagen - Think Small. DDB's 1959 'Think Small' remade advertising with wit and white space; it topped Ad Age's century list.
2. 1969 - The Marlboro Man. From 1954, the rugged Marlboro Man rode across billboards worldwide in one of advertising's most iconic campaigns.
3. 1970-01-01 - The hand-painted rock boards of Sunset Strip. From the 1960s, giant hand-painted billboards for rock albums towered over LA's Sunset Strip, art as advertising.
4. 1977 - Avis - We Try Harder. Avis's 1962 'We're number two, we try harder' turned a weakness into an iconic campaign.
5. 1979 - Silk Cut - the purple silk. Banned from naming the product, Silk Cut ran years of cryptic purple-silk billboards, advertising as riddle.
6. 1981 - The Milk Tray Man. Cadbury's daring 'all because the lady loves Milk Tray' man became a British advertising legend.
7. 1984 - The OXO family. The long-running OXO family adverts became a warm fixture of British living rooms.
8. 1987-01-01 - Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet. Hamlet's 'Happiness is...' ads, scored to Bach's Air on the G String, are treasured British classics.
9. 1989-10-30 - The Energizer Bunny. The drumming pink bunny that 'keeps going and going' became a permanent ad icon from 1989.
10. 1993-11-29 - Got Milk?. The 1993 'Got Milk?' campaign and its milk-mustache billboards became an American institution.
11. 1994-01-01 - Wonderbra - Hello Boys. Eva Herzigová's 1994 'Hello Boys' Wonderbra billboards famously stopped traffic across Britain.
12. 1995-01-29 - Budweiser frogs. Bud's croaking frogs became one of the most quoted ad campaigns of the '90s.
13. 1997-09-28 - Apple - Think Different. Apple's 1997 'Think Different' billboards, featuring Einstein, Gandhi and Dylan, relaunched the brand.
14. 1999-01-01 - Guinness - Surfer. Guinness's 'Good things come to those who wait' surfer ad topped polls as the greatest of all time.
15. 2005-01-01 - The rock-album Sunset boards. Record labels paid for towering hand-painted Sunset Strip boards for albums from the Beatles to Guns N' Roses.
16. 2010-02-04 - Old Spice - The Man Your Man Could Smell Like. Old Spice's 2010 campaign became a viral phenomenon and revived a dying brand.
17. 2012 - The Golden Arches. McDonald's Golden Arches became one of the most recognized signs on Earth, glowing over roadsides worldwide. The subject dates from 1962; this photograph was taken in 2012.
18. 2015-02-03 - Pepsi vs Coke - the cola wars. The billboard cola wars, Pepsi and Coke sniping at each other on giant boards, became advertising theater.
19. 2015-05-21 - I ❤ NY. Milton Glaser's 1977 'I ❤ NY' logo became the most imitated and beloved piece of civic advertising ever.
20. 2015 - The Hollywood Sign. Erected in 1923 as an ad for a housing development ('Hollywoodland'), it became the world's most famous sign. The subject dates from 1923; this photograph was taken in 2015.
21. 2017 - The Economist - white-out-of-red. The Economist's witty white-on-red poster campaign became one of advertising's most admired.
22. 2018 - Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas. Betty Willis's 1959 'Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas' sign became a beloved American icon. The subject dates from 1959; this photograph was taken in 2018.
23. 2018-09-09 - Nike and the Just Do It boards. Nike turned athletes into billboard-sized icons and made 'Just Do It' one of the most recognized slogans on Earth.
24. 2022-03-17 - FedEx - the fast-talker. FedEx's 1982 fast-talking-man ad became one of the most famous of the decade.
25. 2023-12-23 - Marlboro Country. The vast Western vistas of 'Marlboro Country' filled billboards for decades until tobacco ads were banned.
26. 2024-07-08 - Absolut Vodka's bottle. The Absolut Vodka campaign turned a bottle shape into hundreds of witty billboards over two decades.
27. 2024-07-15 - The Cup Noodles steam sign. A Times Square billboard that puffed real steam from a giant noodle cup ran for years as a beloved spectacular.
28. 2025-03-29 - Benetton's shock billboards. Oliviero Toscani's United Colors of Benetton billboards courted controversy and redefined provocative advertising.
29. 2026-06-11 - Coca-Cola's spectaculars. Coca-Cola has owned some of the most famous billboards in history, from Times Square to painted walls worldwide.