72/100Heinz “The Wait”: the ad that made ketchup the hero by leaving it out
Heinz's 2024 advert The Wait, by Chilean agency 1984, never shows a bottle. We review the insight, the craft, the awards and why absence sells for a category leader.
Campaigns
Individual advertising campaigns reviewed and given a Crown Score. Who made it, why it worked, and what to steal.
72/100
92/100Guinness adverts: every great one, reviewed and ranked
From the 1999 Surfer to the 2025 Premier League films, the ten Guinness adverts that matter, ranked with credits, verified results and a Crown verdict on each.
88/100John Lewis, The Long Wait: the advert that started the Christmas arms race
Dougal Wilson's 2011 film for John Lewis held one twist back until the final seconds, and turned the UK festive schedule into an annual creative arms race.
76/100Aldi Christmas advert reviewed: ten years of Kevin the Carrot
McCann Manchester turned the cheapest item on the Christmas table into a decade-long franchise, a Grand Euro Effie, an IPA Silver and a queue outside the shop.
74/100Sainsbury’s Christmas advert ‘1914’ reviewed: great craft, contested ground
AMV BBDO and Ringan Ledwidge staged the 1914 Christmas truce for Sainsbury's, won a D&AD Graphite Pencil and 727 ASA complaints, and never settled the question of whether a chocolate bar earned it.
83/100Yorkshire Tea advert reviewed: Where Everything’s Done Proper
Lucky Generals hired famous Yorkshire people to do menial jobs at a tea factory, and took Yorkshire Tea from third to first past PG Tips without cutting its price.
73/100Burger King “Moldy Whopper”: the bravest food advert of the century, and the least appetising
INGO Stockholm, DAVID Miami and Publicis let a Whopper rot for 34 days to prove there were no preservatives in it. We review the idea, the awards and the testing data that says it backfired.
88/100Nike advert review: Dream Crazy and the Colin Kaepernick decision
Nike put Colin Kaepernick on the thirtieth anniversary of Just Do It, watched a boycott start and the share price fall, then closed at a record high ten days later.
67/100Three “Dance Pony Dance”: the moonwalking Shetland that sold a network by selling nothing
Wieden & Kennedy London put a moonwalking Shetland pony in a field in 2013 and put Fleetwood Mac back in the top twenty. We review the idea, the craft and the missing business case.
77/100Dove “Real Beauty Sketches”: the most-watched advert of 2013, reviewed with the criticism attached
Ogilvy Brazil's 2013 Dove advert put an FBI-trained forensic artist behind a curtain and won a Titanium Grand Prix and a Grand Effie. We review the idea, the numbers and the case against it.
84/100Compare the Meerkat: how a 5p keyword built a category leader
VCCP's meerkat began as a footnote asking for a cheaper search term than "market". Seventeen years on, Aleksandr Orlov is still the most commercially literate joke in British advertising.
82/100Should’ve gone to Specsavers: five words, two IPA golds, twenty-four years
Graham Daldry wrote it in 2002 as a device for generating scripts, not a promise. Two decades and two IPA golds later, Specsavers has finally started to change it.