Best ads in 20 years

January 15, 2003 10:40 AM

Best ad campaigns of the last 20 years Adweek posts its list of the 20 best ad campaigns over the last 20 years. Of the 20, two were single commercials rather than entire campaigns. One was Apple's "1984" ad; I won't spoil the other one for you.
posted by joaquim (14 comments total)

I don't get it. Which one was the other ad?
posted by jonson at 11:02 AM on January 15, 2003

Notice the conspicuous lack of any ad campaigns for dotcoms.
posted by pjdoland at 11:07 AM on January 15, 2003

jonson -- not Pepsi but .......
posted by briank at 11:07 AM on January 15, 2003

Coke.

Actually, the FedEx nomination was for a single ad, too.
posted by me3dia at 11:15 AM on January 15, 2003

I just get a bunch of ads. Am I missing something?

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posted by bonehead at 11:18 AM on January 15, 2003

it's too bad that they don't have streamable video clips of the winners on the site. It would be nice to be able to watch some of those.

Personally, my all time favorite is the etrade.com (i think) superbowl ad that has a monkey jumping up and down for 30 seconds and ends with something like "We just blew $1 million dollars". Is that commercial available online anywhere?
posted by milnak at 11:19 AM on January 15, 2003

it's too bad that they don't have streamable video clips of the winners on the site.

Hell, it'd be nice if they put links on each page so you could go from one to the next instead of having to go back to the list.
posted by me3dia at 11:22 AM on January 15, 2003

Notice the conspicuous lack of any ad campaigns for dotcoms.

it's too bad that they don't have streamable video clips of the winners on the site.

Neither of these are actually all that surprising, given that this feature is over four years old.
posted by jjg at 11:24 AM on January 15, 2003

Honourable mention to the Rutger Hauer Guinness ads. I'm not sure if they aired in the states, though.
posted by nthdegx at 12:24 PM on January 15, 2003

Rutger Hauer Guinness ads?? That sounds great!

I want more stout, f*cker!
posted by Kafkaesque at 12:44 PM on January 15, 2003

nice catch jjg. the list was pretty dated.

yes the apple ad was breakthrough for its time but that was 19 years ago.

when all is said and done it is just an ad. and the ad didn't really communicate anything about the product. it had talk value but little else.

instead of adweek, i like to get my news from adweak.
posted by birdherder at 12:54 PM on January 15, 2003

is it me or does the rolling stone campaign look plenty retarded? does anyone have a memory of it/your response to it from when it ran? it looks plenty retarded.
posted by Peter H at 1:04 PM on January 15, 2003

given that this feature is over four years old.

OK, make that the best ad campaigns of the last 24 years.
posted by joaquim at 1:34 PM on January 15, 2003

it's too bad that they don't have streamable video clips of the winners on the site.
Here is an archive of Sportscenter ads. I've heard people comment about these many times, but never saw any, on ESPN-international they don't show them, I guess they get in the way of all that fabulous France League soccer and golf updates.
posted by planetkyoto at 4:09 PM on January 15, 2003