Whether it’s a childhood jingle that you can still sing word for word, or a campaign that influences the way you work today, everyone has an ad that has really stuck with them.
Mediaweek has been asking the industry to take a trip down memory lane, to find out all about the ads that made us.
Jess Hope – Head of Growth & Innovation, Social Soup
McVitie’s Jaffa Cakes – Total Eclipse
“Whatever hat you wear in the media industry, whether you think creatively or see strictly in data points, delivering an ad that creates real-world behavioural change is the thing we’re chasing. If nothing else, it’s so we can finally explain our jobs to our families.
“In many ways, I blame Jaffa Cakes’ Total Eclipse for striking my early curiosity with advertising. I distinctly remember re-enacting the ‘full moon, half moon, total eclipse’ step by step – something that would now be a brilliantly simple social challenge – with friends and family. That idea has renewed my obsession with the ad in many ways.
“Having had my fair share of successes and even more failures in the 25 years since, landing a ‘playful’ moment that could be shared by all generations is a rare strike of genius: Eating Jaffa Cakes any other way would simply feel like a crime, which is exactly how you measure impact and effectiveness, in my opinion. The only way to top it would be the gluten-free version, but I’m biased (and coeliac).”
Richard Knott – GM ANZ, InfoSum
You Know When You’ve Been Tango’d
“If you’re a certain age and grew up in the UK, then everyone knows what it means to be “tango’d”. Quite literally.
“It was hugely popular to recreate this in school playgrounds (stealth slapping people around the head yelling ‘you’ve been tango’d) until anyone caught doing it was suspended. The ad became notorious. Schools were complaining and doctors were reporting that kids were presenting with perforated eardrums. The furore ultimately led to the ad being banned – to be subsequently remade with the slaps being replaced by a kiss.
“However, the original – responsible or not – is the one everyone remembers. The ad’s creators have been quoted as saying that word of mouth was their media spend as they didn’t have the budget to compete with the soft drink giants of the time. Well, they certainly nailed that. It’s a great example of something going viral in the pre-internet days.”
Olivia Hannah Matthews – Head of Brand Strategy, Enigma
Yellow Pages, French Polisher TVC
“Part of the iconic Yellow Pages brand work, which ran in the early ‘90s while I was at university and thinking about applying for my first gig at a London agency. Party time was all the time, so this ‘morning after the house party’ was right in my sweet spot.”
See Also: The Ads That Made Us: Dumb Ways to Die, Haribo Starmix, and Pixie Caramel
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Top Image: Jess Hope, Richard Knott, Olivia Hannah Matthews
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