What classic ad campaigns don’t you like or understand why they are perceived as good as they are?

I’ll start the classic absolut vodka campaign. It just says absolut and then any other word with the bottle, I don’t get it.

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I mean this in a genial way, read up on the Absolut campaign.

It was so epic because each print piece involved a different artists take on it, including Andy Warhol.

Apart from that, I personally like the gift the brand name imparts on that simple two word headline.

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@sc4 I would argue that it would not be anywhere near as memorable if it was thought up in today’s world.

Kars 4 Kids. A lot of people love this campaign but I always felt like the kids weren’t really believable. They might even be lip-syncing. Points for the pink branding, but the hero worship of these ads is a bit much. Not Ringan’s best.

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Ha. Radiohead. Eww.

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Cadbury Gorilla

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@cw2 Oh absolutely. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before. An event. Also, the visual simplicity and purity of thought are incredible.

Fearless Girl, for countless reasons presumably everyone here is aware of.

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Fun fact, the agency originally suggested it should be a cow, as an equivalent opposite to the bull. But the client was concerned that women might find being compared to a cow offensive. So then the client suggested it should be a girl. ‘Fearless Cow’ doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.

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1984

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Ehh, I still dig it. Sir Ridley before he got to his peak.

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Not a fan of Always “Like a girl” because as a parent of two STEM oriented girls it felt too focused on empowering physical ability/confidence and left out artistic or other skilled confidence. But even more than that, I felt like it was a one-off and Always never followed up with a long term effort to keep it going. Dove real beauty ran more than a decade. It manifested itself in all kinds of ways, year after year and caused a cultural shift. Always had everyone’s attention and it seemed they took their ad awards and moved on.

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I don’t know that they classify as classic, but my answer is Geico ads.

For as long as I can remember, even when they squeeze in diverse talent, the storylines all scream frat-boy humor. Purely anecdotal, but my POC friends are indifferent towards them while my white friends find them hilarious.

Not my taste I guess.

Also that Absolut campaign was iconic when in comes to branding.

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Mine is Go Forth. Not that it was super popular with normal people, but its become one of the go-to references for ad people. “We wanna make it like Go Forth...” “It’ll be like Go Forth...” I just think it was weird for weird’s sake and thats what a certain breed of ad creative likes about it.

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I loved go forth. All the ensuing copycats just proved how hard it is to do manifesto-y work well. On a related note, when it came out my partner and I joked that we we’re going to start an agency called Manifesto where we create one go forth-esque spot and just swap the end logo for each client.

Diesel’s “Be Stupid” campaign.

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That Gun Violence History book. Black pencil, srsly, D&AD?
Crap didn't realize this was only about classic ads. Nvm.

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Yeah History of Gun Violence was pretty meh. I dont think it changed anything.

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I thought the idea of Nike partnering with Colin Kaepernick was genius.

I thought the TV commercial was super boring, but im pretty sure it won a Grand Prix

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That’s hard to believe. 1) they would never have dropped him and 2) WK don’t have that influence.

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The Man in the Hathaway Shirt.

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It’s because ads were so cut-and-dried back then. Even just an eyepatch made people curious.

Can't think of one right now, but I wanted to say this is a quality post, loving the responses.

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What this underscores to me is just how fleeting ads are.

There are occasionally transcendent ones that become part of the pop-culture lexicon as a reference or touchstone of an era, but they’re ephemeral by design.

And you could say the same about film, music or tv but there are connoisseurs of those formats that are keepers of the cannon.

After a round of some industry awards, the fame/reputation of even great ads begins to decay.

With the possible exception of some long running tag lines, the relevance of advertising is over in a blink.

Zoom out. The brand equity is still there. It still gets passed along to every new campaign, extending the life of the brand.

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