Gravity Lights And Celebrity Flights: The Top 10 Most Shared Ads Of The Month

As temperatures dip and the state of global politics continues to keep blood pressures soaring, the advertising industry seems determined to provide some light relief.

In these gloomy times, October’s crop of high-sharing adverts is a sort of antidote: charming, brightly-coloured, and imbued with the blind optimism of a labrador puppy.

No ad embodies this better than this month’s number one, Shell’s pop-tastic ‘Best Day Of My Life’. A curious hybrid of music video and product launch, the spot brings together musicians from around the world (including Jennifer Hudson, Steve Aoki and Luan Santana) to perform a cover of American Authors’ 2014 smash-hit. Surrounded by a candy-coloured set, the song sets the stage for a presentation of Shell’s latest technological advances.

Surrounded by a candy-coloured set, the song sets the stage for a presentation of Shell’s latest technological advances.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCs8kqUng4s

And they certainly have a lot to show off. Including powering homes with coffee grounds and something called a ‘gravity light’, the energy company seemingly has a World’s Fair worth of gadgets to show-off. However, the combination of famous faces and a catchy song are the major draws here, propelling ‘Best Day Of My Life’ to 9.8 million shares.

As always, tech is a major theme in this month’s chart, with major brands clamouring to reveal their latest products. At number two, we have Nintendo’s first look at their highly-anticipated handheld gaming device, Switch. Making use of a modular, changeable handset, the spot gives a run-through of the myriad ways you can play. At number 9, HP makes a similar case for their nifty bluetooth printer Sprocket.

At number 3, Microsoft goes big with the announcement for its Surface Studio: a frankly monolithic touchscreen-cum-monitor designed to revolutionise your home and office. But the really exciting tech spots come from LG, teaming up with Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s video collective HitRecord, and Google, who use a few carefully-place jabs at Apple to launch their own smartphone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzMLA8YIgG0

Demonstrating its new Pixel handset, Google’s spot has all the usual specifications of a product launch, while taking time to mock the latest iPhone’s lack of a headphone jack and unsightly bump. Far less combative, LG’s ‘Everyday, Spectacular’ uses handheld footage of musicians around the world to splice together a single song. A website founded by Gordon-Levitt to bring together creatives of all kinds to collaborate on projects, HitRecord is an intriguing partner for a brand as established as LG.

It wouldn’t be a month in the advertising world without a spectacularly expensive and confusing spot, and Dior’s ‘The Absolute Femininity’ takes the cake. While the title suggests an unpublished Nietzsche essay, the spot actually features Charlize Theron wandering a bleak desert landscape. Before you get too excited, this isn’t a surprise Mad Max: Fury Road sequel. At number 7, Alicia Vikander stars in a synth-scored ad for Louis Vuitton, while Jennifer Aniston makes her comeback by befriending a precocious lad on a longhaul Emirates flight. It’s a cute, well-executed idea, which could undoubtedly be expanded into a new ‘Home Alone’ film.

But October’s most gripping ad has to be adidas’ latest, ‘Football Needs Creators’. While sports brands are constantly raising the stakes with ever more elaborate campaigns, adidas succeeds by condensing an inspiring life story into an energetic few minutes. Essentially a fast-forwarded biopic of 23-year-old Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba, ‘Football Needs Creators’ perfectly balances humour and tension to produce an excellent example of the genre. The ad has been shared over 350,000 times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkky0mmayj8

That’s all for now – see you next month!

Most shared ads of October 2016

1. Shell – Best Day Of My Life #makethefuture

1,017,534 shares

2. Nintendo – First Look at Nintendo Switch

498,042 shares

3. Microsoft – Introducing Surface Studio

387,029 shares

4. Adidas – Football needs creators feat. Pogba

345,393 shares

5. Dior – Dior J’adore – The Absolute Femininity