The top 5 creative campaigns you need to know about right now

It’s been a spring full of comic advertising, and that continued this past week with several top-notch uproarious efforts. We saw a great parody of the advertising business itself (who can resist that?), as well as an auto glass campaign with truly absurdist humor. A third campaign had a serious point to make, and did so in a humorous fashion. Elsewhere, Caitlin Clark got a nice minimalist ad from a major brand as she made her WNBA debut, and an Apple rival took a moment to kick the iPad Pro maker while it was down. See this week’s full Top 5 below. Read about Ad Age’s 2024 Leading Women here 5. E.l.f.: So Many Dicks Agency: Oberland E.l.f. launched an out-of-home campaign with an attention-grabbing twist to point out inequities in representation on boards of publicly traded companies. The ads point out there are more guys named Dick on corporate boards than there are entire groups of diverse people, including Hispanic women and Native American women. These kinds of purpose initiatives can be boring, but this approach adds energy to the message. E.l.f. is a credible brand to be delivering it, too—it’s one of only four publicly traded U.S. companies (out of 4,200) with a board that’s at least two-thirds women and one-third diverse. Speaking of boards, here’s Ad Age’s primer on how to get a seat. 4. Gatorade: Caitlin Clark—It Is Just Getting Started Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day LA Caitlin Clark’s WNBA debut was an exciting moment last week, and Gatorade celebrated the rising women’s basketball star with a minimalist ad showing her hitting shot after shot from the three-point line in an empty gym—as oncreen text notes her accomplishments as a legendary college player. Clark’s Indiana Fever didn’t fare so well against the Connecticut Sun in the season opener, but as the Gatorade spot notes, Clark is just getting started—on the court and in her advertising journey with brands. 3. AICP: The Journey Director: David Shane Sure, this is just for advertising people, but we couldn’t not include it: David Shane’s wonderful short film for the AICP about a man’s arduous journey to see his advertising masterpiece (a cheesy bread commercial) in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art—a perk of all AICP Award winning work. Written by Shane, Ian Reichenthal and Michael Clancy, the film strikes just the right balance between being a parody of (always a solid strategy) and a tribute to advertising creatives and their sometimes lofty framing of their work. It also caps a string of amusing industry spoofs by the AICP this year. Ad Age Creativity Bookmark our section covering the best in brand creativity every day Read more here 2. Samsung: Uncrush Agency: BBH USA It’s been a while since we’ve seen Samsung land a good punch in its decade-long tussle against Apple, but the company picked a good moment to come out swinging again—with a response to Apple’s ill-fated “Crush” commercial. Crafted as a kind of sequel, the Samsung spot shows a woman walking into the aftermath of the Apple ad, with destroyed objects everywhere. She grabs a damaged guitar, sits down on the paint-spattered industrial crusher and starts to play. “Creativity cannot be crushed,” reads the onscreen text. It’s simple and well made, was turned around in impressive time—and got tons of attention. A success all around. 1. Auto Glass Now: No Windshield Agency: Erich & Kallman Sometimes, the dumbest humor is the best. That’s certainly true of this campaign from Erich & Kallman, masters of the absurd, for an auto glass company. Four spots promote Auto Glass Now’s windshield glass by imagining if you didn’t have any—a promisingly silly setup that leads to hilarious visuals, as our protagonists are pummeled in the face by high winds while driving. But in classic Skittles fashion (Eric Kallman created many of the candy brand’s most iconic absurdist ads two decades ago), the weird setup is just the starting point—the humor really derives from the mundane conversations our hapless protagonists end up having. Another comedy gem from an agency that specializes in them. See all of Ad Age’s 2024 Creativity Award winners here

The top 5 creative campaigns you need to know about right now

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