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The advertising canon — print, billboard, television, viral. From 18th-century newspaper notices through the Mad Men era, the 1984 Apple ad, Got Milk, Old Spice, Cadbury Gorilla, Dove Real Beauty, all the way to the TikTok-era viral commercial. The history of how brands talked to people.

A chronological documentary of 137 moments spanning 1728–2026 on Loreline.

last updated 2026-07-16

1. 1728 — Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette Ads. 1729. Benjamin Franklin takes over the Pennsylvania Gazette and runs print ads with prominent headlines, white space, and illustrations. The first American to treat ads as a designed form, not just legal notices.
2. 1851 — Singer Sewing Machine Print Campaign. 1850s-60s. Singer's newspaper ads — instalment-payment plans, demonstrations, women-in-the-home illustration — created the first global consumer brand to use coordinated international advertising.
3. 1865 — Pears Soap "Bubbles". 1886. A. & F. Pears acquires Sir John Everett Millais's painting "Bubbles" of his grandson and turns it into a soap advertisement — adding a bar of Pears to the bottom corner. The first major use of a famous artwork as commercial advertising.
4. 1881 — Jules Chéret — Father of the Modern Poster. 1881. Jules Chéret's lithographed posters for Folies Bergère, Le Vin Mariani, Saxoléine paraffin oil. Pioneered the three-stone colour-lithography method; produced 1000+ posters. Awarded the Légion d'honneur (1890) — first time France honoured a commercial poster artist.
5. 1886-05-08 — Coca-Cola First Ad. May 1886. The first Coca-Cola newspaper advertisement runs in the Atlanta Journal — "Coca-Cola. Delicious! Refreshing! Exhilarating! Invigorating!" Pure adjectival hype; the formula that built one of the longest-running brand campaigns ever.
6. 1888 — Aunt Jemima Brand Character. 1893. R.T. Davis Milling Co. introduces Aunt Jemima at the Chicago World's Fair. First major brand built around a fictional character; survived for 127 years before being retired in 2021 under racial-stereotype scrutiny.
7. 1891 — Toulouse-Lautrec — Moulin Rouge Poster. 1891. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's "Moulin Rouge: La Goulue" poster — the first time fine-art skill applied itself to street-level advertising as equals. Made the Moulin Rouge a global symbol; framed the Belle Époque visual language.
8. 1894 — Alphonse Mucha — Sarah Bernhardt Posters. Christmas Day 1894. Mucha's "Gismonda" poster for Sarah Bernhardt — overnight made him a Paris celebrity. The defining Art Nouveau commercial style; spawned six years of Mucha-style imitators globally.
9. 1898 — Uneeda Biscuit Boy. 1899. National Biscuit Company launches Uneeda Biscuit with the slicker-clad boy in the rain. First $1M ad campaign in US history; first product to be sold in a recognisable branded package rather than from a bulk cracker barrel.
10. 1899 — Morinaga Milk Caramel Ads. 1899. Morinaga Seika starts the first wide-distribution candy + canned-milk newspaper campaign in Japan. Translated American mass-marketing approaches with Japanese aesthetics; foundational to modern Japanese ad practice.
11. 1905 — Arrow Collar Man. 1907-1931. J.C. Leyendecker's "Arrow Collar Man" illustrations for Cluett, Peabody. The square-jawed icon received 17,000 fan letters in 1920 alone — more than Rudolph Valentino. Defined the masculine ideal of the early 20th century.
12. 1910 — Morton Salt — "When It Rains It Pours". 1914. The Morton Salt Girl with her yellow dress and umbrella. The slogan "When it rains it pours" (since salt now flowed even in humid weather). Still in use 110+ years later.
13. 1925 — Rodchenko + Mayakovsky — Mosselprom. 1923-1925. Alexander Rodchenko's posters for Mosselprom (Soviet food trust), Lengiz publishing, Krasnaya Zvezda cigarettes — paired with Vladimir Mayakovsky's slogans. Constructivism applied to mass advertising; predates Bauhaus poster work by 5+ years.
14. 1929 — El Lissitzky — Constructivist Soviet Posters. 1929. El Lissitzky's exhibition posters + advertising work for Pelikan Ink and Soviet ministries. Diagonal compositions, photomontage, typography-as-image. Inspired most Western mid-century graphic design.
15. 1932 — A.M. Cassandre — Dubonnet. 1932. A.M. Cassandre's "Dubo, Dubon, Dubonnet" poster — minimalist, geometric, sequential. The defining French Art Deco advertising masterpiece; voted greatest poster of the 20th century by AIGA.
16. 1942 — Rosie the Riveter. May 1943. J. Howard Miller's "We Can Do It!" poster for Westinghouse Electric. Hung only briefly in Westinghouse factories during WWII; rediscovered in the 1980s and became the most reproduced feminist poster of the late 20th century.
17. 1943 — Rosie the Riveter Wartime Industry Posters. 1942-1945. The full series of Office of War Information industry-recruitment posters (Howard Miller's "We Can Do It!" being the most famous). Defined US wartime visual mobilisation; Norman Rockwell's 1943 Rosie cover for the Saturday Evening Post is now in the Smithsonian.
18. 1944-08-09 — Smokey Bear — "Only You Can Prevent...". 1944. The Smokey Bear forest-fire-prevention campaign (created by Albert Staehle for the US Forest Service + Ad Council). The longest-running PSA campaign in US history; "Only YOU can prevent forest fires" is among the most-recognised slogans ever measured.
19. 1949 — Bill Bernbach Co-Founds DDB. 1949. Bill Bernbach co-founds Doyle Dane Bernbach. His creative philosophy — "advertising is fundamentally persuasion" — drove DDB to the VW Beetle, Avis "We Try Harder," and Levy's Rye Bread "You Don't Have to Be Jewish" ads. Reshaped American advertising for 30 years.
20. 1951 — Hathaway Shirt Man (Eyepatch). 1951. David Ogilvy puts a black eyepatch on a model wearing a Hathaway shirt. Saved a near-bankrupt brand; ad ran in The New Yorker for 25+ years. The single most-cited Ogilvy print ad.
21. 1958 — Tide "Mom and Dad" Campaign. 1980s onward. Procter & Gamble's long-running Tide ads built around the "mom does the laundry" archetype. Defined daytime-TV advertising; became a study object for second-wave feminist media critique.
22. 1959 — 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.
23. 1961 — Shiseido In-House Design Studio. 1923. Shiseido opens its in-house design department — first Japanese company to do so. Yoshio Hayakawa's 1950s+60s Shiseido posters defined the mature Japanese commercial-art aesthetic. Still the most-imitated cosmetics-brand visual language in Asia.
24. 1964 — LBJ "Daisy" Ad. September 7, 1964. Lyndon B. Johnson's "Daisy" campaign ad — little girl counting daisy petals, dissolving into a nuclear countdown. Aired ONCE; pulled after one airing. The most-cited US political ad in history; established political advertising as art form.
25. 1965 — Mary Wells Lawrence — Braniff Repaint. 1965. Mary Wells Lawrence (later founder of Wells Rich Greene) convinces Braniff Airways to repaint planes in 7 colours + Pucci-design uniforms. First female agency CEO of a major US shop; pre-figured every "brand transformation" campaign that followed.
26. 1969 — Cadbury Milk Tray "Man". 1968-2003. The Cadbury Milk Tray Man — black-clad action hero delivers chocolates through impossible obstacles. "And all because the lady loves Milk Tray." Ran 35 years; one of the longest-running UK ad characters.
27. 1971 — Coca-Cola "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke". 1971. The "Hilltop" Coke ad on the Italian hillside, multi-ethnic young people singing "I'd like to buy the world a Coke." Released as a hit single ("I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing"). The advertising-as-culture-anthem template.
28. 1973 — Hovis "Boy on Bike" Ad. 1973. Ridley Scott's Hovis ad — boy pushes a bike up a cobbled hill in Yorkshire, soundtrack of Dvořák's "New World" symphony. Voted UK's favourite ad of all time multiple polls. Defined nostalgia-as-brand-storytelling.
29. 1975 — Marlboro Man. 1954. Leo Burnett invents the Marlboro Man — rugged cowboy — to reposition Marlboro from a women's cigarette to a men's. Within 8 months Marlboro went from <1% to 4% market share. One of the most successful brand-image pivots in history.
30. 1976 — Alka-Seltzer "Plop Plop Fizz Fizz". 1969. Tom Dawes' jingle "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is" for Alka-Seltzer. Quadrupled sales by doubling perceived dosage (two tablets per glass instead of one). The defining advertising trick of the late 1960s.
31. 1976 — Maxwell House "Good to the Last Drop". 1907. Maxwell House Coffee's "Good to the last drop" slogan — supposedly coined by Teddy Roosevelt. Ran for 100+ years; one of the longest-running brand slogans ever.
32. 1978 — Wheaties Jingle — First Singing Commercial. December 24, 1926. "Have You Tried Wheaties?" — first singing radio commercial in US history. Saved a near-bankrupt General Mills brand. Defined a century of jingle advertising.
33. 1978 — Palmolive "You're Soaking In It". 1966. Palmolive dishwashing liquid's "Madge the Manicurist" ads — "You're soaking in it." Jan Miner played Madge for 25 years. One of the longest-running TV ad characters; defined daytime-soap advertising.
34. 1980 — 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.
35. 1981 — Guinness Toucan. 1935. John Gilroy's "Guinness for Strength" + the famous toucan poster — "If he can say as you can / Guinness is good for you." Most-copied UK poster campaign of the interwar years; ran for 50+ years.
36. 1985 — 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.
37. 1987 — NHS "Don't Die of Ignorance". 1986. UK Department of Health's "AIDS: Don't Die of Ignorance" TV + leaflet campaign. Tombstone falls; leaflet sent to every UK household. Most consequential UK public-health campaign of the 1980s.
38. 1987 — Australia "Grim Reaper" AIDS Campaign. April 1987. Australian National Council on AIDS's "Grim Reaper" TV ads — bowling pin–shaped reaper knocks down people. Most-watched Australian PSA in history. Defined the global "shock public-health advertising" template.
39. 1988 — Nike "Just Do It". 1988. Wieden+Kennedy's "Just Do It" tagline for Nike — supposedly inspired by murderer Gary Gilmore's last words ("Let's do it"). The most successful sports-brand slogan ever; Nike's share of the US athletic-shoe market went from 18% to 43% in 10 years.
40. 1988 — Nike "Just Do It" Launch. 1988. Wieden+Kennedy's "Just Do It" launch — 80-year-old Walt Stack jogging across the Golden Gate Bridge: "I run 17 miles every morning." First ad to use the tagline; Nike's US market share went from 18% to 43% in 10 years.
41. 1989 — Energizer Bunny. October 1989. The Energizer Bunny — pink rabbit with shades drums his way across other "fake" commercials. Voted Time magazine's 5th-best ad of the 20th century; still in use 35+ years later.
42. 1989 — Nike "Bo Knows". 1989. Wieden+Kennedy's "Bo Knows" campaign for Nike Cross-Training with Bo Jackson — two-sport athlete shown excelling at every sport. Reshaped what athlete-endorsement ads could do; voted Time's greatest commercial of the 1980s.
43. 1992 — Michael Jordan x Bugs Bunny. 1992. Nike's "Hare Jordan" Super Bowl ad — Michael Jordan playing basketball with Bugs Bunny on the moon. Spawned Space Jam (1996); the most successful athlete-cartoon crossover of all time.
44. 1993 — California Milk "Got Milk?". 1993. Jeff Goodby (Goodby, Silverstein) creates "Got Milk?" for the California Milk Processor Board. Used celebrity milk-mustache portraits 1995-2014. Single most-imitated US ad tagline of the 1990s.
45. 1993 — Air Jordan "Mars Blackmon". 1988-1991. Spike Lee's "It's gotta be the shoes" Air Jordan ads as Mars Blackmon. Defined the basketball-shoe + cultural-figure crossover; Spike Lee's breakthrough as both director and pop-culture figure.
46. 1995 — Budweiser Frogs. January 29, 1995. Three frogs croak "Bud," "weis," "er." Aired during Super Bowl XXIX. Spawned the Budweiser lizards (1997), Wassup (1999), and effectively defined Anheuser-Busch's Super Bowl advertising era through 2012.
47. 1997 — 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.
48. 1997 — Apple "Think Different". September 28, 1997. TBWA\Chiat\Day's "Here's to the crazy ones" + "Think Different" Apple campaign. Saved Apple from near-bankruptcy. Won the 1998 Emmy + Effie Grand. Reframed Apple as the brand for creatives.
49. 1999 — Truth Initiative Anti-Tobacco. 1999 onward. The "Truth" anti-tobacco campaign (American Legacy Foundation) — guerrilla, snarky, designed for MTV audience. Drove the largest single-decade decline in US youth smoking ever measured.
50. 1999 — Budweiser "Wassup?!". 1999. Charles Stone III's "Wassup?" Budweiser ads — friends yelling the catchphrase at each other on the phone. Won the Cannes Lions Grand Prix and the Clio Grand Prix; spawned countless parodies. The defining late-1990s viral catchphrase.
51. 1999 — Guinness "Surfer". October 1999. Guinness "Surfer" — black-and-white waves crash into white horses, soundtrack of Leftfield's "Phat Planet." Voted Britain's favourite ad of all time. Set the bar for cinematic brand storytelling.
52. 1999 — Geico Gecko. 1999 onward. The Geico Gecko (Martin Agency) — green animated lizard with cockney accent. Voted Time's 26th-best ad icon of all time. The defining 2000s-2010s US insurance mascot.
53. 1999 — Viagra — Bob Dole Ad. 1998-1999. Bob Dole's Pfizer-paid Viagra TV ad — the first major pharmaceutical campaign explicitly featuring a former US presidential candidate. Reshaped what direct-to-consumer pharma advertising could do.
54. 2000 — Milk Mustache Celebrity Series. 1995-2014. The "Milk Mustache" celebrity portrait campaign for the Milk Processor Education Program. 250+ celebrities — Naomi Campbell, Britney Spears, Michael Jordan. Defined the celebrity-print-ad model of the late 1990s.
55. 2000 — Ricky Martin x Pepsi. 1999. Ricky Martin signs with Pepsi at the peak of his crossover moment ("Livin' la Vida Loca"). The defining late-1990s celebrity-mega-endorsement, paving the way for Britney, Beyoncé, the 2000s pop-star-as-soda-pitchman era.
56. 2000 — Aflac Duck. January 2000. Aflac's Duck — Linda Kaplan Thaler agency — quacks "AFLAC!" Brand awareness went from 11% to 94% within a year. The fastest-built mascot-brand recognition curve in US advertising history.
57. 2001 — Kewpie Mayonnaise Mascot. 1925. Kewpie launches its eponymous mayonnaise with the Kewpie doll (the actual cherubic Rose O'Neill creation, licensed). The Kewpie-doll-as-mascot became one of the most enduring Japanese brand-character icons of the 20th century.
58. 2001 — Britney Spears Pepsi Super Bowl. February 4, 2002. Britney Spears's 90-second Pepsi Super Bowl ad — a singing tour of Pepsi commercials from the 1950s to 2002. Most-talked-about Super Bowl ad of the early 2000s.
59. 2001 — 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.
60. 2002 — 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.
61. 2002 — 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.
62. 2002 — 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.
63. 2003 — Apple iPod Silhouette Ads. 2003 onward. TBWA\Chiat\Day's silhouetted-dancers iPod campaign — bright colours, black figures, white earbuds. Defined Apple's 2000s aesthetic; the campaign that confirmed the iPod as a cultural phenomenon.
64. 2003 — 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.
65. 2003 — McDonald's "I'm Lovin' It". September 2003. Heye & Partner's "I'm Lovin' It" jingle for McDonald's, sung by Justin Timberlake. The first global McDonald's ad tagline used in all markets. Still in use 20+ years later.
66. 2004 — Six Flags "Mr. Six". 2004. Six Flags's "Mr. Six" — old man dancing to "We Like to Party" by Vengaboys. Used a male performer in old-man makeup. Tripled Six Flags brand recall in 8 months; debated for years.
67. 2005 — 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.
68. 2006 — 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.
69. 2006 — Apple "Mac vs PC". 2006-2009. Justin Long + John Hodgman as Mac + PC. 66 ads over 3 years. Defined Apple's cultural positioning against Microsoft for a decade.
70. 2007 — SoftBank "Otōsan" (Father Dog). 2007 onward. SoftBank's long-running TV campaign featuring a white Hokkaido dog as the "father" of a human family. Most-loved Japanese ad character of the 2000s-2010s; spawned 200+ episodes.
71. 2007 — Tata Tea "Jaago Re". 2007. Tata Tea's "Jaago Re" ("Wake Up") campaign — tied chai-drinking to civic awakening + voter registration. Voted by Indian ad-industry as the most important Indian campaign of the 2000s.
72. 2007 — Cadbury Gorilla. August 31, 2007. Cadbury Dairy Milk's "Gorilla" ad — a gorilla drumming to Phil Collins's "In the Air Tonight." 8M+ YouTube views in the first month. Won the Cannes Lions Grand Prix; the ad that proved YouTube could carry a brand campaign.
73. 2008 — Progressive "Flo". 2008 onward. Stephanie Courtney as Flo for Progressive Insurance — 200+ TV spots over 16+ years. Defined the long-running-spokesperson template; replaced earlier mascot-only approach.
74. 2009 — Compare the Meerkat. January 2009. comparethemarket.com's "Compare the Meerkat" Aleksandr Orlov campaign. The most-discussed UK ad of 2009; spawned a children's book series + 10M+ user-submitted "Simples" toys.
75. 2009 — Evian "Rollerbabies". July 2009. Evian's CGI roller-skating babies dancing to "Rapper's Delight." 70M+ YouTube views in 2 months. Guinness World Record for "most-viewed online ad" of 2009.
76. 2009 — 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.
77. 2010 — Old Spice "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like". February 2010. Wieden+Kennedy + Isaiah Mustafa's "Smell like a man, man" Super Bowl ad. The 2010 "Response" video campaign — 186 personalised YouTube responses to fans in two days — won the Cannes Film Grand Prix. Redefined what Super Bowl ads could become.
78. 2010 — Snickers "You're Not You When You're Hungry". February 7, 2010. Snickers' Super Bowl ad with Betty White as the team's exhausted player. 70 different celebrities used the template over a decade. Voted Ad Age's #1 Super Bowl ad of all time in 2014.
79. 2010 — Glico Pretz "Ghibli"-Style Ads. 2000s onward. Glico's Pretz snack TV ads in distinctive Studio-Ghibli-adjacent anime style. Defined a generation of "soft anime-aesthetic" Japanese food advertising.
80. 2010 — 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.
81. 2010 — Allstate "Mayhem". July 2010. Allstate's "Mayhem" character (Dean Winters) — embodies whatever bad-luck event the ad shows. Won Cannes Lions Silver + Effie Gold. Defined a generation of insurance-as-character advertising.
82. 2011 — Skechers Shape-Ups Scandal. 2011-2012. Skechers Shape-Ups campaign claimed the shoes would tone women's glutes. FTC settles for $40M. The most-prominent advertising-claim consumer-protection action of the early 2010s.
83. 2011 — Volkswagen "The Force". February 2, 2011. VW's "The Force" Super Bowl ad — small Darth Vader trying to use the Force on household objects, then on the family Passat. Most-shared Super Bowl ad of all time at that point.
84. 2011 — Cravendale "Cats With Thumbs". 2011. Cravendale milk's "Cats With Thumbs" — Wieden+Kennedy London. Cats with opposable thumbs threaten to steal the milk. Pure absurdist British creative; won the 2011 Cannes Lions Bronze.
85. 2011 — 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.
86. 2011 — Chrysler "Imported From Detroit". February 6, 2011. Chrysler's Super Bowl XLV ad with Eminem driving through Detroit, narrating "Imported From Detroit." Post-2009-bankruptcy comeback ad; voted Ad Age's ad of the year.
87. 2012 — Haribo Gold-Bears Jingle. 1990s. "Haribo macht Kinder froh und Erwachsene ebenso" / "Kids and grown-ups love it so, the happy world of Haribo." The cross-European jingle that became one of the most-recognised pieces of advertising music in Europe.
88. 2012 — 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.
89. 2012 — P&G "Thank You, Mom" Olympics. 2012-2018. Procter & Gamble's "Thank You, Mom" Olympics campaign — Wieden+Kennedy. Six editions across Summer + Winter Games. Won the 2012 Emmy for Outstanding Commercial; one of the longest-running Olympics brand sponsorships.
90. 2012-06-20 — Amul Girl — India's Topical Mascot. 1966 onward. The Amul Butter Girl — Sylvester daCunha's polka-dotted Indian girl topical-news billboards. Running for 60 years; longest-running mascot ad campaign in advertising history. New billboard every week, commenting on news events.
91. 2013-02-02 — Milk Mustache Celebrity Posters. 1995-2014. The "Milk Mustache" celebrity portrait campaign for the Milk Processor Education Program. 250+ celebrities. Defined the celebrity-print-ad model of the late 1990s — also intersected with Naomi Campbell, Britney Spears, Michael Jordan portraits already in the loreline.
92. 2013-03-29 — Cadbury Dairy Milk India — "Kuch Khaas Hai". 1994. Cadbury India's "Kuch Khaas Hai" ("Something special") campaign — woman dancing on cricket pitch after husband's six. Repositioned chocolate from kid-only to adult-too. Defined modern Indian advertising emotion.
93. 2013 — Oreo "Dunk in the Dark" Tweet. February 3, 2013. During the Super Bowl XLVII power outage, Oreo tweets "You can still dunk in the dark." 16K retweets in an hour. The single most-cited "real-time marketing" moment in social-media history.
94. 2013 — JCPenney "Mass Apology" Ad. May 2013. After Ron Johnson's disastrous CEO tenure, JCPenney runs a 30-second TV ad apologising directly to customers. The single most-noted brand-apology ad of the 2010s.
95. 2013-10-01 — Absolut Vodka Bottle Series. 1980 onward. TBWA's Absolut Vodka campaign — minimalist photographs of the bottle with one-word puns ("Absolut Perfection," "Absolut Heaven"). Ran 1500+ executions over 25 years; the longest continuous advertising campaign in history.
96. 2014-04-22 — Casper Subway Posters. 2014-2017. Casper Mattress's NYC subway-poster campaign — long-form copy, illustrated, conversational. Defined the late-2010s DTC subway-poster aesthetic that Glossier, Allbirds, Hims, Warby Parker all copied.
97. 2014 — Nando's South Africa — Roast Campaigns. 2002 onward. Nando's South African ad campaigns — TBWA/Hunt/Lascaris's consistently controversial topical roasts on Mugabe, Zuma, Trump. Banned + reinstated repeatedly; defined African advertising provocation.
98. 2014 — 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.
99. 2014 — Always #LikeAGirl. June 26, 2014. Always' "Like a Girl" ad — flipping the insult into a celebration. 75M YouTube views. Won the Emmy + the Cannes Glass Lion Grand Prix. Defined the purpose-driven viral campaign of the mid-2010s.
100. 2014 — 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.
101. 2014 — Beats by Dre "The Game Before the Game". June 2014. Beats by Dre's World Cup ad with Neymar, Suarez, Lebron, Bartoli, and Daft Punk soundtrack. 25M views in days. Defined the modern sports-brand cinematic-ad template.
102. 2014 — Lacoste "Life is a Beautiful Sport". 2014. Lacoste's "Life is a Beautiful Sport" — BETC Paris's slow-motion ballroom-dance commercial. Won 18 Cannes Lions; defined the late-2010s "luxury sport-lifestyle" advertising aesthetic.
103. 2014-07-24 — Absolut "Statehood" Campaign. 1985 onward. TBWA's Absolut Vodka campaign — minimalist bottle photographs with one-word puns ("Absolut Perfection," "Absolut Heaven"). Ran 1500+ executions over 25 years; longest continuous ad campaign in history.
104. 2015 — Always Super Bowl 2015. February 1, 2015. Always' "#LikeAGirl" Super Bowl ad — the first Super Bowl ad explicitly framed around feminist empowerment. Most-shared Super Bowl ad of 2015. Mainstreamed purpose-driven advertising in big-budget broadcast.
105. 2015 — Sport England "This Girl Can". January 2015. Sport England's "This Girl Can" — real (un-airbrushed) women working out, "I jiggle therefore I am." Won the 2015 Cannes Glass Lion Grand Prix; got 1.6M British women more active.
106. 2015 — Apple "Shot on iPhone". 2015 onward. Apple's "Shot on iPhone" billboard campaign — user-submitted photos. Won the 2015 Cannes Outdoor Grand Prix. The most successful long-running user-generated brand campaign.
107. 2015 — Maggi India Lead Recall — Brand Crisis. June 2015. Nestlé India's Maggi noodles found to contain excess lead. Banned for 5 months; Nestlé loses ~$50M weekly. The defining 21st-century Indian brand-crisis case study; Maggi's recovery campaign became a textbook example.
108. 2016-11-17 — Lucky Strike "Reach for a Lucky". 1929. Lucky Strike's "Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet" — explicitly targeting women dieters. Edward Bernays (Freud's nephew) ran the campaign. The launch of consumer advertising as psychological manipulation.
109. 2017 — Samsung "Growing Up" Anti-Apple Ad. November 2017. Samsung's "Growing Up" — 90-second ad mocking iPhone limitations through a switcher's journey from 2007-2017. Most-discussed brand-vs-brand attack ad of the decade. Universally praised for execution.
110. 2017 — Nike "Equality". February 12, 2017. Nike's "Equality" 2017 ad with Lebron, Serena, Kevin Durant. Aired one month into Trump's presidency. The opening shot of the late-2010s wave of "brands taking political stances."
111. 2017 — Absolut Drop "100 Years". 2017. Absolut Vodka's 100th-anniversary "Drop" film. Cinematic, allegorical, climate-positioned. Defined late-2010s "brand as cinematic statement" advertising.
112. 2017 — Pepsi Kendall Jenner Disaster. April 4, 2017. Pepsi's Kendall Jenner protest ad — tone-deaf appropriation of Black Lives Matter imagery. Pulled within 24 hours after universal backlash. The defining brand-marketing-disaster of 2017.
113. 2017 — 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.
114. 2018 — 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.
115. 2018 — Nike "Believe in Something" (Kaepernick). September 3, 2018. Nike's "Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything." with Colin Kaepernick. Stock dropped 3% on day one; recovered to a record high within 2 weeks. The defining political-brand ad of the 2010s.
116. 2018 — Hyundai "Hope Detector" Super Bowl. February 4, 2018. Hyundai's "Hope Detector" Super Bowl LII ad — cancer-survivor reunion with their doctors at the stadium. Voted the most-emotional Super Bowl ad of the decade by USA Today's Ad Meter.
117. 2018 — Tide "It's a Tide Ad" Super Bowl 2018. February 4, 2018. Tide's Super Bowl LII campaign — every commercial revealed to be "secretly a Tide ad." Won Best Super Bowl Ad of 2018 across all critic polls. The meta-advertising peak.
118. 2019 — Gillette "The Best Men Can Be". January 13, 2019. Gillette's "The Best Men Can Be" — confronting toxic masculinity. ~1M dislikes on YouTube; ~300K likes. Polarising; debated for months. Marked the peak (and breaking point) of brand-as-conscience advertising.
119. 2020 — Mr. Beast Becomes a Distribution Channel. 2020 onward. Mr. Beast's reach (~300M subs) makes him a single-person mass-media platform. Brands sponsor his videos at $1M+ per integration. The first true post-broadcast advertising model.
120. 2020 — Liquid Death Mountain Water. 2019 onward. Liquid Death — water in a tallboy beer-can — markets itself as a heavy-metal-aesthetic brand. By 2024: $263M revenue. Sponsorship deals with Tony Hawk, Steve-O. Created the "anti-brand brand" template.
121. 2021 — Duolingo Owl TikTok. 2021 onward. Duolingo's Zaria Parvez transforms the brand into a chaotic TikTok-native green-owl character. 9M+ followers by 2024. Reshaped what a Fortune-1000 brand can sound like on social.
122. 2022-05-10 — KFC Translation Mishap in China. 1987. KFC opens its first China store in Beijing — "finger-lickin' good" reportedly mistranslated as "eat your fingers off." Folk story (probably embellished) that became one of the most-cited advertising-translation cautionary tales.
123. 2023-03-14 — Tetley Tea Folk. 1973-2002. Cluedo-esque animated tea-factory workers ("Gaffer," "Sydney," "Maurice") for Tetley. 30 years of British TV; phased out for "modernisation" 2002 — caused public protest.
124. 2023-04-16 — Pocari Sweat Ads. 1980 onward. Otsuka Pharma's Pocari Sweat — sky-blue cans + summer-school sentimentality. One of the most-recognised Japanese commercial soundtracks; defined the "youth-nostalgia ad" template that K-pop dramas later borrowed.
125. 2023 — Tubi "Interface Interrupted". February 12, 2023. Tubi's Super Bowl LVII ad — fake Fox Sports "click here to dismiss" overlay tricked millions of viewers into reaching for their remotes. The most-discussed prankster Super Bowl ad in decades.
126. 2023 — Rihanna Super Bowl Halftime — Fenty Reveal. February 12, 2023. Rihanna's halftime show doubled as a Fenty Beauty product placement — the powder-touchup mid-performance went viral immediately. The defining "halftime show as advertising" moment.
127. 2023 — Coca-Cola "Masterpiece". March 2023. Coca-Cola's "Masterpiece" ad — a Coke bottle travels through famous paintings (Vermeer, Hokusai, Munch). Mixed CGI + live action. Defined the early-2020s "AI-aware brand storytelling" aesthetic.
128. 2023 — Coca-Cola "Create Real Magic" (AI). March 2023. Coca-Cola launches the first major brand AI-image generator (built on Stable Diffusion + DALL-E). User-submitted Coke-themed AI art rotated through Times Square billboards. The first Fortune-500 brand to commit publicly to generative AI.
129. 2024-02-05 — Wendy's "Where's the Beef?". January 1984. Wendy's 81-year-old Clara Peller asks "Where's the beef?!" at a competitor's drive-through. Walter Mondale used it in the 1984 Democratic primary debate against Gary Hart. The fastest-spreading viral phrase of the pre-internet era.
130. 2024 — AI-Generated Ads Mainstream. 2024. Coca-Cola's "Create Real Magic" (already in loreline), Mango's fully-AI-generated campaign, BMW's "M-Mobility" generative-AI ads. The first year AI-generated imagery routinely shipped in brand advertising; major industry pushback from photography unions.
131. 2024 — Super Bowl 58 — CeraVe + Michael Cera. February 11, 2024. CeraVe's Super Bowl LVIII ad with Michael Cera — peak ARG-style absurdism. Built up over a 6-week pre-Super-Bowl rollout of Michael-Cera-bottles. The defining "Super Bowl ad as a 6-week campaign" template.
132. 2024 — 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.
133. 2024 — Cetaphil Super Bowl 2024 — Taylor Swift Easter Egg. February 11, 2024. Cetaphil's Super Bowl LVIII ad — a father and daughter bond over Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. The TikTok-Taylor-fan-economy ad of the decade.
134. 2024 — Apple Vision Pro Launch Ad. February 2024. Apple's "Hello Apple Vision Pro" — sci-fi-cinematic launch film for the most-hyped tech-launch of 2024. Universally praised as an ad; mixed reviews on the product. Showcase of Apple's post-iPhone launch-ad template.
135. 2024 — Figma Config Keynotes as Marketing. 2022-2024. Figma's annual Config conference keynotes became their primary marketing channel. Apple-keynote-style production for a design tool. Demonstrated SaaS branding could live entirely outside traditional advertising.
136. 2025-10-18 — Havaianas — Brazil's Global Sandal. 1962-present. Havaianas' transformation from cheap Brazilian flip-flops (the 1962 launch) into a global premium brand (1990s rebrand under Carla Schmitzberger). The most successful brand-positioning pivot in Brazilian commercial history.
137. 2026-04-02 — Skol "Desce Redondo". 1998. Skol's "Desce Redondo" ("Goes Down Round") campaign — F/Nazca's edgy beer creative defined Brazilian advertising attitude. Made Skol Brazil's number-1 beer brand for two decades.

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