Modern advertising is so shiny and clean—it’s nice when things get roughed up a bit. The two spots atop this week’s Top 5 are refreshingly dusty, as they both visit the great expanse of the American West for some wry storytelling. So gather around, kick aside the tumbleweeds and settle in for the best in creativity from the past week.

5. Apple TV: The G.O.A.T.
Agency: TBWA\Media Arts Lab

It’s great for soccer fans that Apple has gotten so invested in the sport lately, from creating “Ted Lasso” to striking a 10-year streaming deal with Major League Soccer. It means Apple is crafting lots of fun soccer-themed marketing—which last year included the Lasso billboards for the World Cup, as well as a partnership with the FIFA 23 video game. We get cool little one-offs, too, like this billboard in Miami welcoming Lionel Messi to Inter Miami FC. All hail the G.O.A.T.!

Also read: A marketing guide to the Women's World Cup

4. Brady: Safe Stories
Agency: Dentsu Creative

On a more somber note, Dentsu Creative and Brady found an artful way to address the persistent issue of what it calls “family fire”—i.e., injury and death caused by firearms that aren’t locked away safely. This campaign looked at one element of family fire in particular—death by suicide involving guns that are too easily accessible. The agency gathered stories of close calls from people who survived moments of crisis, then packaged them in a book that doubled as a gun safe.

3. Pinterest: Unboring Your Boardroom
Agency: In-house

If you’re an advertising platform, engaging marketers with business-to-business campaigns is a clever strategy. We’ve seen the likes of Spotify and TikTok do this well, and now it’s Pinterest’s turn. The visual inspiration platform hooked up with three creative agencies to redesign their boring conference rooms. The results were wacky and fun, and those shops are surely more likely to collaborate with Pinterest on client projects in the future.

2. Apple: Battery for Miles
Agency: In-house

The first of two advertising dispatches from the prairie this week, this one, from Apple, followed a tractor driver hauling an enormous pumpkin on what we learn is going to be a very long ride. Luckily, he has the right smartphone for the job. And the spot has just the right music, too—a Ludacris track that’s lyrically apt, yet a world away from the dusty ennui depicted on screen.

1. Wyoming Department of Health: Hairy Times
Agency: Sukle Advertising & Design

The politicization of COVID-19 has cast a shadow on all vaccines, not just COVID shots, making the problem of vaccine hesitancy worse—particularly in red states like Wyoming. For this campaign, Sukle Advertising & Design embraced a tactic long known to be disarming—humor. There’s so much to like about this work—the history (it’s based on a real incident from 1922), the casting, the cinematic visuals, the understated comedy, the slow burn of the narrative. Selling vaccines has been a thankless task for a while—let’s hope more inclusive, well-crafted messaging like this makes a difference.