Dave Dye's Top 10 Ads of All Time
As both an art director and creative director, Dave Dye has won more awards than is fair. He has started agencies and founded consultancies.
He is the co-author of “The Howard Gossage Show,” which 42 Magpies featured last month, and he is adland’s most celebrated archivist.
His blog-cum-podcast, “Stuff from the Loft,” is a comprehensive history of advertising creativity from the MadMen era to the present.
Dave writes:
The title ‘My Top Ten Ads’ makes me feel uncomfortable. ‘The Ads That Spring To Mind Today’ is more accurate.
There are a lot of ads I could’ve included but I’ve read so many people talking about Guinness “Surfer”, The Economist billboards, etc that it seems pointless to repeat it. (Both of the above are very good by the way. In case you didn’t know.)
I’ve tried to pick slightly lesser-known ads to make the list slightly more interesting. Except for Apple “Crazy Ones” and The Guardian “Skinhead”. Because, whatever day you ask me, they’d be in.
1. Agency: BETC Euro RSCG. Client: Canal+ Title: “Wardrobe”
Funny.
Clever.
I could watch this ad on a loop.
It makes me root for Canal+.
Watch the ad HERE.
2. Agency: Wieden+Kennedy, Portland. Client: Nike. Title: “Broke (Caitlin Clark)”.
I worked on the Adidas global account for 5 years. And Nike before that. It felt like the ‘someone has broken a record’ brief came around almost weekly.
People worldwide have been working on that brief for the last 50 years.
W+K alone must’ve run a thousand plus ads on it. It’s hard to constantly find new ways to say it. The best version I did, with Sean Doyle, was an ad for long-distance Noureddine Morceli. It said, ‘Gold medals don’t make hills any flatter.’
But damn! How did we miss this? It was sitting there all the time.
In March 2024, Caitlin Clark broke the women’s record for most points scored in a single basketball game.
3. Agency: Young & Rubicam, London. Client: Radio Society. Title: “Stop Listening”.
After listening to this ad, it’s hard not to think ‘radio is a pretty good medium’.
Listen HERE.
4. Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, London. Client: Youth Opportunities Programme Title: “Vicious”.
Demonstrating you understand your audience can be very powerful. But it’s hard to do.
For a start, you have to actually understand them; their issues, dreams and frustrations.
Understanding them is no guarantee they’ll listen to what you have to say. You have to force them to listen.
It’s hard to make it look this effortless.
5. Agency: Chiat\Day, Los Angeles Client: Apple Title: “The Crazy Ones”
I was on the One Show jury that all but ignored this campaign.
The debate was that it was like a mood film, a ‘ripomatic’, as it used to be called.
The ads were just old stock shots. Not fully created, shot and manicured from scratch.
What a bunch of idiots.
This film still makes me want to go out and buy something with an Apple logo on it.
30 years later.
To me, it’s more Apple than ‘1984’. And, I LOVE ‘1984’. I want to join that gang.
I want to be a round peg in a square hole.
Watch Picasso, Ali, John & Yoko, Maria Callas, Gandhi, Hitchcock, Henson and all HERE.
6. Agency: DDB, London. Client: DDB, London. Title: “I’m A Writer”.
I wish I could work at this agency. It sounds decent, thoughtful and got me to read every word of their house ad. It also says, every brief, even a job ad in the back of Campaign magazine, is an opportunity to do something great.
Sounds like a great place to work.
7. Agency: Grey, New York. Client: Petition for Stronger Gun Laws. Title: “Musket”.
I’ve watched a lot of debate about this issue.
The pro-gun brigade, generally Republicans, are always yelling about their Second Amendment rights; the right to bear arms. It’s in the American Constitution, so difficult to argue against. But hang on - what was a gun when the amendment was written?
Back in 1791.
Watch the ad HERE.
8. Agency: BMP, London. Client: The Guardian. Title: “Points of View”.
There are so many reasons to choose this.
It's so clever.
It's so simple.
It’s not like any other ads.
It's so appropriate.
It makes me want to be part of The Guardian gang.
It was so inspiring when I first got into advertising.
It was done by John Webster and Frank Budgen.
See the ad HERE.
9. Agency: Mad Dogs & Englishmen, New York. Client: Tiny Mythic Theatre. Title: “Tiny Mythic Theatre”.
10. Agency: Orchard. Client: Etsy. Title: “France”.
Normal people don’t like ads. They screen them out. Sometimes they pay to screen them out. Occasionally, you engage with one because it’s engaging. Usually the funny ones. This ad reeks of people having fun. Not a whiff of that worthy, serious, boring vibe that’s currently all the rage. I finally know what Etsy are for.
And enjoyed finding out.
See the ad HERE.
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