Teddy Bears And Taylor Swift Scares: 5 2016 Ads You Should Watch (Again) Right Now
So long 2016, it’s been emotional. From the fallout surrounding Brexit and Trump to the sad deaths of too many much-loved celebs to list at the top of an article, it’s a year a lot of us will not be sad to see the back of.
But 2016 has also had its fair share of highlights (although admittedly they are a lot harder to find).
On the sporting field we saw footballing minnows Leicester City defy all the odds to win the English Premier League title, the Chicago Cubs finally win their first World Series after 108 agonising years, and Team GB enjoy a golden summer at the Rio Olympics and Paralympics, surpassing even their incredible medal haul in London.
Pokemon Go managed to get kids (and some rather grown-up kids) out and about, the Queen celebrated her 90th birthday in style, and we even saw a puddle in North-East England become an internet sensation.
Adland also did its best to lift the collective global gloom with some truly inspiring campaigns. But which ads from 2016 were your favourites?
To round off the year, rather than our regular 5 ads round-up, we thought we would look back at the last 12 months and choose our favourite 5 ads of the year. Well, when I say ‘our’, what I really mean is mine. And this is just the 5 ads I like the most today. It will probably change tomorrow.
Anyway, hope you like them. 🙂
5. Apple Music: “Taylor v Treadmill”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egHjkeiqjrA
It probably says a lot about me that one of my favourite campaigns of the year is a video of a much-loved music star falling flat on her face (literally). But after years of watching some rather serious Apple campaigns, it was nice to see the tech giant finally lighten up. But the ad did a lot more than just make me spit out my morning coffee out through my nose. In fact, why not check out our analysis on why the ad was a success in AdWeek.
4. Sandy Hook Promise: “Evan”
It’s not many times that an ad campaign makes me sit back and question exactly what I have just seen. But that’s what this gun control campaign from Sandy Hook Promise did. Brilliantly spinning the high school romance on its head, “Evan” is an incredible campaign that you should watch right now. In fact, what are you waiting for? Stop reading this and watch it now. Seriously.
3. Prudential Singapore: “Project Reconnect”
I’ll be honest, before watching this ad from Prudential Singapore, even the thought of watching people looking at each other for four minutes made me feel uncomfortable. So I can’t even imagine how the participants of this campaign must have felt actually doing it. But, despite my initial misgivings, no video made my eyes water more in 2016.
2. Heathrow Airport: “Coming Home”
Forget bouncing dogs and singing James Cordens, you have to take your teddy bears hats off to Heathrow Airport for coming up with the best Christmas campaign of the year.
1. Channel 4: “We’re The Superhumans”
Any notion that the Paralympics should in any way play second fiddle to the Olympic Games was quickly blown away by this incredible spot from Channel 4. Simply breathtaking from the first to last frame.
Honorable mentions:
