The Streaming + TikTok Era (2015-2030)
Nike's Kaepernick "Believe in Something," Apple's shot-on-iPhone, Allbirds direct-to-consumer wave, Liquid Death water cans, Duolingo TikTok, Mr. Beast as the advertising channel itself.
Part of Advertisements
28 moments in this segment.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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."
- — Absolut Drop "100 Years". 2017. Absolut Vodka's 100th-anniversary "Drop" film. Cinematic, allegorical, climate-positioned. Defined late-2010s "brand as cinematic statement" advertising.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
- — 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.
