This week: An allegory about the energy crisis, tipping for ketchup and a beautiful celebration of disability.

5. Dali Museum: Dream Tapestry
Agency: Goodby Silverstein & Partners

Bringing DALL-E and the Dali Museum together was obviously going to be a creative match made in heaven, but this idea really uses the AI tech to its best advantage. The software transforms people’s written descriptions of their dreams into actual artworks displayed on a 12-foot "tapestry" screen on The Dali’s gallery walls. According to Jeff Goodby, it will provide a "collective image of what we are dreaming of as a country." That could be very revealing. 

Related: How ad agencies are using AI image generators

4. Erste Group: Believe in Christmas
Agency: Jung von Matt/Donau

We've seen some bleak European Christmas ads this year, including Penny’s The Rift and Posten’s Santa and Mother Earth, but this one by Austrian banking group Erste is more darkly allegorical than anything else so far.  It directly references the energy crisis and gas prices in Europe as villagers struggle in the freezing winter while a mysterious villain goes around turning the heating off and sabotaging gas tanks. Who on earth could it be? (Clue: it’s not the Grinch.) Luckily, they manage to thwart his evil plans and help each other to stay warm. 

3. Spotify: Wrapped 2022
Agency: In-house

Spotify’s end-of-year wrap ups have become an annual event, so much so that every year the reveal is followed by endless memes and tweets. Meanwhile, its in-house marketing team has yet to run out of creative steam. This year’s outdoor ads lure you in with word searches, puzzles and trivia in a bid to be more interactive, while mobile users get a peek at their “listening personality” and “audio day.” As usual, it’s all designed to be highly shareable; this year including WhatsApp and a Snapchat lens.

2. Heinz: Tip for Ketchup
Agency: Mischief

This playful promotional campaign ostensibly encourages people to lobby restaurants to serve Heinz Ketchup instead of any other brand, but like its other recent campaigns, the real aim is to remind you that there really is only one ketchup brand.  To take part, people need to add a $1 tip to their restaurant bill, write "tip for Heinz" and share on Instagram. Heinz, which is dedicating $125,000 to the project, will reimburse them or even cover their whole meal. Restaurants also have an incentive; they can win a year’s supply of free Heinz Ketchup if they switch.

1. Apple: The Greatest
Agency: In-house

Apple's spot created for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities is a joy. Top-notch direction from Kim Gehrig unfolds the stories of seven different people going about their days in ways that are celebratory, playful and moving at the same time. It's set to an uplifting soundtrack, based on the words of Muhammad Ali and performed by some of the talents from the cast.  What's more, the ad also effectively communicates all the brand's accessibility tech. Like Channel 4’s Paralympics campaigns, this moves the dial on portrayals of disability in advertising; but this goes broader than athletes to portray ordinary (if super-talented) individuals from all walks of life.