73/100British Airways ‘Face’: the advert with no aeroplane in it
Saatchi & Saatchi turned 24 million passengers into a human face assembled in the Utah desert. A review of Hugh Hudson's 1989 British Airways commercial.
Campaigns
Individual advertising campaigns reviewed and given a Crown Score. Who made it, why it worked, and what to steal.
73/100
87/100Marmite “Love It or Hate It”: thirty years of advertising to people who will never buy it
Two juniors at BMP DDB wrote down their own disagreement in 1996. Three IPA papers, a same-sex kiss investigation and 738 complaints later, the line has not changed once.
87/100Volvo Trucks “The Epic Split”: the product demo that won an effectiveness Grand Prix
Forsman & Bodenfors put Jean-Claude Van Damme between two reversing trucks in one take to prove a steering system. The craft, the view counts and the dealer evidence, reviewed.
80/100Boddingtons “The Cream of Manchester”: the campaign that outlived its brewery
BBH sold a bitter as a luxury cream for eight years and took Boddingtons from 200,000 barrels to 850,000. Then the owners closed the brewery the advertising had romanticised.
83/100Always Like a Girl advert reviewed: the film that made femvertising
Lauren Greenfield's casting-session film for Always won a Cannes PR Grand Prix and an Emmy, shifted attitudes in 150 countries, and started every argument about brand purpose since.
79/100Smash ‘Martians’: the funniest strategy ever put on British television
Boase Massimi Pollitt gave the insult to a family of tin robots and sold instant mash to a nation of potato peelers. A review of the 1974 Smash Martians advert.
83/100Snickers advert reviewed: You’re Not You When You’re Hungry
Betty White in the mud, an IPA Gold and 15.9% global sales growth. We review the Snickers platform that turned one repeatable sentence into sixteen years of measurable fame.
81/100Renault Clio “Papa? Nicole?”: the seven-year soap opera that sold a supermini
Publicis ran two words for seven years, ended it with a wedding watched by an estimated 23 million people, and sold more than 300,000 Clios in the UK. A full review.
77/100KFC ‘FCK’: the apology that rewrote the rules
Mother's three letter press ad turned KFC's 2018 chicken shortage into the most copied corporate apology in Britain. We rate the idea, the craft and the evidence.
78/100Nationwide “A good way to bank” advert: Dominic West, the fairer-share pitch, and whether it is working
Seven films, one ASA ruling and an agency change later, Nationwide's Dominic West campaign is the most effective piece of financial advertising in Britain. Here is the evidence and the verdict.
85/100Cadbury “Gorilla”: the drum solo that won Britain back
Fallon's drumming gorilla contained no product, no message and no apology, and it lifted Dairy Milk sales by around a tenth in the year after a salmonella recall.
95/100Volkswagen “Think Small”: why the greatest print ad ever made still works
DDB's 1959 Volkswagen Think Small campaign put a tiny Beetle on an empty page and admitted its faults. We review the idea, the craft and what it taught advertising.