It was a busy year for brand stunts, logo redesigns, new products and good old-fashioned ads.
It’s been quite the ride in advertising since Jan. 3, the first proper workday of 2023—when Ad Age published, among other stories, predictions from 33 execs about what the year might have in store.
Now that we’re on the other end of 2023, how much do you remember of the year’s twists and turns in the world of creative advertising?
For the quiz below, we put together 25 questions to test your knowledge of the past 12 months, with topics ranging from alien-language billboards to prehistoric product innovation—and everything in between. Along with our ranking of the 40 best ads of 2023, it’s a good snapshot of creative work that really got people talking this year.
Good luck with the quiz, and here’s to a creatively eventful 2024.
The soda giant’s visual rebrand—its first since 2008—was meant to reflect boldness and energy, as well as pop culture and digital cachet. Read more here about how designers reacted to the refresh.
After coming into possession of a taxidermied bear in 2015, Cornett execs invented a larger-the-life backstory for it—which eventually led to the movie eight years later. Read the whole sordid story here.
Read more here about the award-winning combination of buzzy yet strategic work that is Rethink’s specialty.
The chain achieved rankings of 62% for both likability and engagement in the same study. Read more here about OKRP’s “Whopper Whopper” campaign for BK.
Though he is indeed a purple blob—and has been described by McDonald’s execs as both the embodiment of a milkshake and a giant taste bud—Grimace was first known as Evil Grimace, a character who stole kids’ milkshakes. He was later reimagined as the friendlier Grimace we know today. Read more here about Grimace’s eventful 2023.
Mischief launched the Tinder campaign at the end of February. It included eye-popping print, digital and OOH ads illustrated by hyperrealist French artist Pol Kurucz, along with videos directed by Los Pérez of Biscuit Filmworks. Read more about the campaign here.
Jason Kreher opened the space in an abandoned DMV in the Lloyd Center Mall, the mostly empty Portland shopping mall where Tonya Harding once learned to skate. It was called, appropriately enough, DMV. Read more about the project here.
Hoffman was employee No. 8 at Wieden+Kennedy and is now the heart and soul of the agency, following the founders’ deaths in 2021 and 2022. Read our profile of her brilliant career here.
In a memorable performance, Spencer grilled Apple execs, including CEO Tim Cook, on how the company’s plans were coming along to be fully carbon neutral by 2030. Read more about the spot here.
Unveiled in the Netherlands, the Mammoth Meatball was created from the DNA of the long-extinct woolly mammoth and its closest living relative, the African elephant. It received global attention, including a mention from Stephen Colbert, who said Vow’s goal of “mixing and matching cells from unconventional species to create new kinds of meat” sounded a lot like Taco Bell. Read more about the meatball here.
Bud Light lost its place following the Anheuser-Busch InBev-owned brand's PR disaster over a promotion with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Read more about the controversy here.
The brand teamed up with the Galen College of Nursing to develop the NIL Student Nurse Initiative. The program, dreamed up by agency Doner, began by giving NIL sponsorships to four of Galen’s top nursing students.
Inspired by congressional hearings on extraterrestrials, agency Tombras identified aliens as its client’s new potential customer base. Read more about the otherworldly campaign here.
The agency operated its own car service throughout the week, offering free rides between Nice airport and Cannes to prospective clients willing to hear the agency’s elevator pitch on the way. Read more about the stunt here.
McDonald’s did indeed roll out campaigns inspired by the Chicken McNugget Theorem, late-night drunk orders and how eyebrows resemble the Golden Arches. It was Burger King, though, that questioned the existence of Santa.
The pet food company’s 60-second spot featured a chocolate Labrador who grows up alongside his owner from childhood to her having her own family as an adult. The other spots here were the top three runners-up. Read more about the Farmer’s Dog spot here.
Ogilvy made a two-minute spot—complete with loud on-screen graphics and intentionally awkward moments—for Island Wide Realty, a real estate company on New York’s Staten Island owned by Anthony Bernardo. Read the whole backstory of the spot here.
Already a popular endorser, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end hit the brand stratosphere this fall—appearing in more ads during NFL games than any other athlete, per iSpot.tv. Dodge ads, though, were not among them. Read more about brands’ love affair with Kelce, and about how the NFL reacted to the Kelce-Swift relationship.
Conan O’Brien’s erstwhile late-night sidekick directed a trio of spots from agency Quality Meats that showed characters from genre movies accosting people about not coming to the theater. Read more about the amusing campaign here.
Pratt was at his deadpan best in the campaign from Imagine Entertainment, in which he invented ludicrous stories about the brand’s history—suggesting, for example, that it was founded by a man named Aaron Turdberry. Revisit all the spots here.
Zaxby’s promoted its Fried Chicken Philly with cheeky outdoor ads in Philadelphia (along with a video starring Dolph Lundgren) poking fun at the original Philly sandwich. Read more about the amusing campaign here.
Tubi’s “Interface Interruption” used pre-recorded footage of the game’s real announcers before cutting away to show Tubi’s own interface—prompting people everywhere to scramble for the remote. Read more here about how “Interface Interruption” came together.
Amazon aired spots for Black Friday and Cyber Monday that harked back to its 1999 “Sweatermen” campaign, which in turn was an homage to the Mitch Miller and Lawrence Welk shows of the ’60s. Read more here about the nostalgia-upon-nostalgia marketing play.
The gag product, called the “Enema of the State Collectible Enema Kit,” was promoted by Travis Barker, drummer for Blink-182—which released the album “Enema of the State” in 1999. Read more here about the bizarre product.
“Play Is Your Superpower” launched with a freewheeling film starring a group of precocious kids—with a cameo from Jane Lynch. Read more about the campaign here.
