Viral Era (2005-2014)
Dove Real Beauty Sketches, Cadbury Gorilla, Old Spice Guy, Always #LikeAGirl. YouTube + Facebook turn ads into share-fests. The Super Bowl spot becomes the measure of all things.
Part of Advertisements
28 moments in this segment.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
