1) Tata Steel - We Also Make Steel : what has always intrigued me about Tata as a brand & it’s advertisements, is the brand’s focus on development of a rich brand culture through it’s ads, not just merely creating ads to entice sales. In the 1990’s, even before I was born, Tata Steel came up with a campaign that for me defines the brand to this date. The 1990’s ad showcased the brand’s corporate philanthropy projects, but unlike all the other brands of the time, the Tata Steel ad made no mention of their primary business. What makes the ad one of the best of all times, according to me, is how it signs off with “we also make steel”. The whole ad doesn’t stress upon the primary business of the brand but yet, speaks so much of the company and it’s philosophy. The ad has a major impact on the audience and I feel, eventually, it’s the impact that drives the consumer’s desires towards a brand and Tata Steel achieved it with perfection.
2) Ariel - #ShareTheLoad : we live in a society wherein the onus of taking care of the household work is without any doubt, always put on the women of the house. In majority, we aren’t a matriarchal thinking society, patriarchy is deep rooted into our system. In such a scenario, for a brand like Ariel to step-up as an advocate of gender-equality and create a campaign like #ShareTheLoad, speaks volume of how far the world of advertising has come in India. In a series of ads, Ariel showcased how the men of the house should take equal responsibility of the household chores - it’s the perfect ad for the 21st century. Equality above gender in the end is what we strive for in today’s day & age. The campaign was the brain-child of Mediacom and BBDO.
3) Always - Like A Girl : being a student of Advertising, I often see ads from the prism of impacting the consumer psyche, as an extension of breaking ideas of stereotyping in our society. This ad doesn’t come across as setting almost a forced narrative of gender equality and more so; talking about taboos of society for the sake of it but instead, articulates as to how the very psyche of our male-dominated society must give way to a more liberal and free-flowing culture of free expression to women. The ad asked girls to do any activity they deemed to be “like a girl”. The ad symbolizes how teenage girls became rather submissive when told to do an activity “like a girl” as opposed to younger girls, who performed without any sense of burden or pre-conceived societal notions on how a girl must act. This ad was created by Leo Burnett and garnered 60M views on the video-steaming site, Youtube.
4) BurgerKing - McWhopper : will a study on some of the best recent time ads, be even deemed complete without mentioning about an epic rivalry between Burger King and McDonald’s! It’d be wrong to say that these two brands are at loggerheads, it’s simply more than that. The rivalry is often backed with good humour, leaving brand loyal’s from both the side’s rather amused and not offended. The 2016 McWhopper campaign was an attempt by Burger King to merge with it’s biggest competitor in McDonald’s and co-create the McWhopper burger. The idea behind this campaign was to initiate a socially responsible campaign, wherein a major portion from the sales of this burger would’ve gone to the “Peace One Day” NGO. It’s a shame that McDonald’s did not agree to this idea. It nonetheless articulates how out of the box thinking never fails. The McWhopper ad was published in The New York Times and Chicago Tribune - gaining a tremendous support from the fans of both, Burger King, as well as McDonald’s. The ad was created by Y&R New Zealand.
5) Coca Cola : I’d like to buy the world a Coke : please don’t consider the ranking of this epic ad at 5th as a measure of it’s effectiveness. The ranking is rather random in it’s nature because this ad simply deserves no less than the tag of “one of the world’s greatest ad of all time IF not the greatest”. In times wherein the world still struggled to follow the norms of social harmony and equality for all, wherein civil rights were still not absolute and the struggle for justice loomed large on the suppressed class of blacks and browns - we saw Coca Cola take a stern stand on equality. This campaign saw people of all races & religion come forward and talk about how Coca Cola as a brand, believes in the idea of the world being one and we all being equal, in-spite of the colour of our skin, our beliefs or for that matter, even our nationality. Almost 50 years to the ad, it still remains as relevant as ever. This ad is one of the major reasons why I fell in love with advertising and this list just wouldn’t be justified had I not mentioned it here. The ad was created by McCann.
Go on, tell us some of your favorite Ad campaigns. After all, the Ad-Mad community shall have all the fun!
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