World's Best Ads of All Time | The Drum

The World's
Best Ads of
All Time

We asked our readers to nominate their favorite commercials ever. Leading creative directors from the World Creative Rankings and The Drum's Judges' Club then ranked the ads. Now, we bring you the top 100 TV and video ads of all time.

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100. Smash Martians

Brand: Cadbury's Smash

Agency: BMP

In the early 1970s, sales of Smash were stagnant, and as with most pre-1974 grocery marketing, ads took a ‘does what it says on the tin’ approach. That all changed when Smash Martians beamed down and shook up the sector.

99. Justino

Brand: Spanish Lottery

Agency: Leo Burnett Madrid

It takes a special ad to break through at Christmas, especially in Britain where crying over a Christmas campaign has become something of a national pastime. The Spanish Lottery broke through and perhaps won the season in 2015.

98. How Many Licks?

Brand: Tootsie Roll

Agency: Doner

Candymaker Tootsie Roll posed a query worthy of humankind's great philosophers and theologians in this classic animated spot.

97. Heimkommen

Brand: Edeka

Agency: Jung von Matt

For the German supermarket Edeka 2015 Christmas campaign a grandad went to extreme measures to bring his family together by faking his death. The ad has since been parodied multiple times even by an Italian PR agency who reworked it to make it about Parmesan cheese spoiling.

96. JR Hartley

Brand: Yellow Pages

Agency: Abbott Mead Vickers

In 1983, the British public’s heartstrings were well and truly tugged with the introduction of fictional character JR Hartley to promote the Yellow Pages, in an ad that depicts an elderly man curiously searching for a copy of Fly Fishing by… well… himself.

95. Silence the Critics

Brand: Ikea

Agency: Mother

With bars like ‘that crack in the wall needs addressing’ and ‘the state of the floor is just depressing’ it’s hard to believe Ikea only entered the UK Christmas ad game in 2019, when none other than grime artist D Double E featured on ‘Silence the Critics’ alongside some singing nick-nacks.

94. Bob Newhart

Brand: Stamps.com

Agency: Wieden+Kennedy

Back in the dot com boom, start-up Stamps.com pre-empted the DTC rush. To explain that product to American business owners and consumers, it produced a wacky sales testimonial starring hapless manufacturing tycoon.

93. Marriage Market Takeover

Brand: SK-II

Agency: Forsman & Bodenfors

Japanese skincare brand SK-II challenged the notion women who are still single into their late 20s are ‘leftover’. This moving four-minute film weaved views about love and life from both parents and daughters.

92. Come Together

Brand: H&M

Agency: DDB

H&M managed to tap none other than Wes Anderson and Adrian Brody for its 2016 Christmas ad. It’s easy to forget after four minutes of quintessential Anderson that the spot is even marketing H&M.

91. Where's the Beef?

Brand: Wendy's

Agency: Dancer Fitzgerald Sample

Wendy's took the side of hunger-conscious customers who want their pound of flesh from lunchtime. The campaign is one of the few to have entered the cultural lexicon with a phrase that still reminds customers to get their dollar's worth.

90. Orangeman

Brand: Tango

Agency: HHCL

What started out as a joke idea turned out to be a total hit for creative duo Trevor Robinson and Al Young. In 1991 Tango gave Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury and Partners a simple brief: ‘Make Tango Famous’ and thus ‘Orangeman’ was born.

89. Finishing School

Brand: Parker Pens

Agency: Collett Dickenson Pearce

This ad aired in the UK in the late 1970s, just as Penelope Keith – playing the school mistress – was becoming a household name. It’s iconic, if perhaps only because no one was ever quite sure just how tongue-in-cheek it was meant to be.

88. Kipper

Brand: Lego

Agency: TBWA

A Tommy Cooper impersonator voiced this 1981 commercial was gusto. It showcased the versatility of Lego characters with the strapline, ‘It’s a new toy every day’. The ad is so iconic in Lego’s archive it brought it back in 2008 to celebrate the toy company’s 50th anniversary.

87. We are Sinking

Brand: Berlitz

Agency: Bates United Oslo

There's no better way to promote language lessons than by showing the dangers of mistranslation. This misunderstanding could be straight out of a sitcom.

86. Dancing Babies

Brand: Evian

Agency: BETC

Born out of the fact that Evian was once the water recommended by doctors for babies, ‘Live Young’ is perhaps the brand’s most memorable campaigns, with the dancing babies as the jewel in the crown that saw Evian skate into the record books.

85. Ology

Brand: BT

Agency: J Walter Thompson

For decades, telecom giant BT delivered beloved ads, not least when it tapped Coronation Street actress Maureen Lipman to star in 1988’s ‘Ology.’ Here Lipman play the archetypal grandmother, Beattie (get it?), who phones her grandson to hear about his exam results.

84. Fifa World Cup 2018 trailer

Brand: BBC

Agency: BBC Creative

Publicizing the Fifa World Cup in Russia seems easy, but the BBC faced some challenges around impartiality, tensions were also high with Russia. BBC Creative’s answer was to go big on the mythologizing power of the beautiful game using an animated tapestry.

83. Fast Talking Man

Brand: FedEx

Agency: Ally and Gargano

Few ads so succinctly sum up the high-rolling, Wall Street era than this. It blends straightforward brand messaging with humor and a record-setting motormouth to leave a lasting impression.

82. Cindy Crawford

Brand: Pepsi

Agency: BBDO

Is this the ad that defines the 90s? Supermodel Cindy Crawford embarked on a slow-motion walk to a vintage Pepsi vending machine, aware of some slack-jawed expressions gawping at her. It's stuck with many since.

81. Football

Brand: Budweiser

Agency: DDB Needham

This sees a herd of unbridled Clydesdale horses playing football, in the lee of a majestic mountain range, while two cowboys look on. Viewers got used to those horses too, Budweiser used the idea for decades.