5 Jaw-dropping Ad Campaigns that have broken new grounds in the advertising industry

Written by Vismaiy

Advertising has been an ever-growing and ever-evolving industry that is known to break new barriers in communication and push boundaries between people. In the recent past, there have been several innovative campaigns that caused massive disruption and made it to the news headlines around the globe. Here are 5 jaw-dropping ad campaigns that have broken new grounds in the advertising industry.

AIR Jordan – Snapchat

Labelled as ‘the world’s first social commerce experience in augmented reality’ AIR Jordan cooked up one of the most interesting ad campaigns in recent times. Teaming up with Snapchat, the campaign allowed users to celebrate 30 years of Michael Jordan’s iconic free throw line dunk, with a hidden surprise. By bringing him back in action in augmented reality with Snapchat AR Lens. This was no ordinary Snapchat AR Lens as it allowed users to purchase the Air Jordan 3 Tinkers on the app. The sneakers sold out in less than 23 min and generated four times the average user engagement on Snapchat.

Skittles – Super Bowl Commercial

Ever imagined having a Super Bowl ad without broadcasting the ad at the Super Bowl? Yep, you read that right. Skittles’ Exclusive – The Rainbow is a one of a kind ad campaign which was designed and broadcast to one kid in California. We can’t even begin tell you about it, just watch it here.

Volkswagen – The Fun Theory Piano Staircase

To encourage people to take the staircase instead of the elevator DBB Stockholm and Volkswagen came up with an innovative campaign which was to convert a set of steps at the Odenplan subway station in Stockholm into working piano keys. Aptly titled “The fun theory” the main objective and mission of the initiative was to “change people’s behavior for the better by making it fun to do.”
Each step in the staircases were turned into piano keys and each of the keys play an individual note every time anyone steps on them, converting the entire subway station into a giant piano. Like woah. I know, right!

Misereor – Social Swipe

Social Swipe is an interactive charity billboard. It is the world’s first interactive advertisement display that accepts credit donations. The donors only need to swipe their credit card through the display to make a donation of 2 Euros to the charity Misereor, an organization fighting poverty and injustice based in Germany. The campaign was designed by Kolle-Rebbe, an ad agency based in Hamburg and according to them, ‘The challenge was to increase people’s willingness to give and remind them, in an attention-grabbing way, that even a small donation can have a big impact. Our objective was to devise a solution that was both entertaining and innovative.’ There were two creative executions. On one display the credit card cuts through the image of the bound hands of an imprisoned Filipino child. In the other, the donors could use their credit card to cut a slice of bread from a loaf. The bread represented the cost to provide a daily meal for a family in Peru.

AIG Japan Rainbow Jersey

The campaign spearheads a large-scale communication campaign being undertaken by AIG Japan to declare its stance against all forms of discrimination and prejudice. Custom-designed, developed and created by the agency for AIG Japan Holdings (AIG Japan), as a symbol of its ‘DIVERSITY IS STRENGTH’ campaign. HAKUHODO developed the ‘UNITED BLACK FABRIC’, an innovative new kind of fabric that appears black on the surface, but reveals the colors of the pride rainbow when stretched. An ad film was also created, starring players from the All Blacks, the New Zealand men’s national rugby team, and the Black Ferns, the New Zealand women’s national rugby team.

If you have come across some more innovative ad campaigns that have pushed the limits of the industry, let us know in the comments.