"Damn. I wish I came up with that."

For me, that's the benchmark of an excellent campaign. Something rooted in an idea that feels familiar but maybe you haven't thought about recently. It's something you don't have to be a creative to feel. 

Obviously, campaigns mean different things to different people; they hold different points in your consciousness. Some are nostalgic (think Hovis), some are emotional (any John Lewis ad), some are funny, others are just downright weird and entertaining (Kenzo). We all have our favourites. 

Here's six campaigns from the last 25 years that sparked that tiny flash of envy in me. I hope they do the same for you.

Case studies 

VW ‘Small, but tough’ (2004)

A commercially successful campaign that managed to be entertaining and celebrate the product's best features all at the same time? Rarer than you think!

I remember being shown this advert by the great Paul Belford in my first year at university. The mighty gorilla smashing everything before hurting his foot on a Polo is a true ‘smile in the mind’ moment. It celebrated the car’s durability with a wink, leaving you with that wonderful combination of admiration and envy.

Fans wanted in on the action too. With one aspiring VFX artist creating their own version of the ad where the car survives a bomb. Although maybe on the wrong side of ‘poor taste’ it still fit with the campaign strategy and showed how a great campaign should be able to run and run.

Sony Bravia ‘Bouncing balls’ (2005)

How do you sell the quality of a television’s dynamic colour range? You throw thousands of colourful bouncy balls down a San Francisco street. That’s how. 

Add to the beautiful non-CGI balls a cover of José González’s “Heartbeats”, (a song that played as my wife walked down the aisle), and you’ve got the ingredients for an ad that will be referenced by envious creatives for years to come. 

The Sony Bravia ‘Bouncing Balls’ ad changed the way people advertised leaps in television technology. It made it OK to ditch the speeds and feeds; to not focus on the gadget making it do that thing and instead focus on the emotive aspect of the product, and what it unlocks for the customer. It’s something I’ve drawn on a lot in my own career. 

“Colour like no other” was a statement of intent as much as a tagline. It reminded the world that emotion sells pixels far better than specs ever will.

Snickers ‘You are you not you when you’re hungry’ (2008)

An idea so good that I honestly kick myself that I wasn’t there when it was conceived.

Most great campaigns are usually born from a simple idea. In this case it was the relatable feeling of hunger or, more specifically, ‘hanger’.

The ad is simple: when you are hungry, you’re not on your ‘A’ game. You become grumpy and simple tasks become insurmountable challenges. Everything becomes a little bit more irritating. Enter the cure: Snickers. Packed with everything needed to keep hunger at bay. 

Chocolate itself is an impulse. You don’t really need it, but you crave it. Tying this into the core human experience of hunger makes Snickers a very lucrative solution to a universal problem. 

Simple, funny and infinitely adaptable. It’s a reminder that the best ideas come from everyday experiences we can all relate to and that chocolate might just solve everything.

Old Spice ‘the man your man could smell like’ (2010)

Wieden & Kennedy’s masterpiece in deploying humour to change perception of a tired brand. 

The Old Spice ‘The Man Your Man Could Smell Like’ series of ads were aimed directly at women tired at seeing their much more expensive body wash being pinched by their male partners. A gold nugget of an insight that people all over the world can relate to. (Including, I’m sorry to say, my wife.)

The campaign expertly treads the razor-thin line between speaking to a new customer base (“hello ladies”) without alienating their more traditional customers. A harder challenge than you would expect. 

Ending with “anything’s possible when your man smells like Old Spice and not a lady” is such a fun thought that you can’t help but think of other ways to bring the campaign to life. 

It’s proof that when you combine insight with personality, even the most outdated product can feel like the coolest thing on the shelf again.

KFC ‘FCK’ (2018)

Sometimes the best creative is born from disaster and there’s nothing more disastrous to a fried chicken shop than running out of chicken. It’s exactly what happened to KFC and the brand had to act fast to limit the embarrassment.

An ad as an apology is nothing new. It’s been done by all sorts of companies. It’s the speed and smartness of this that stood out and if you can laugh at yourself at the same time then that’s a win in my book.

The ‘FCK’ was there all along, hiding in plain sight and waiting for its moment to shine. It was fast, self-aware and completely human. A shining example of how owning your mistakes can win more hearts (and headlines) than pretending they never happened. A masterclass in reactive marketing and a trusting client that resulted in a net-positive for KFC.

If I have my conspiracy hat on, the one question you have to ask is would KFC have fabricated the lack of chicken to hit the numbers this campaign did? I’d definitely consider it…

Charli xcx ‘Brat Summer’ (2024)

Less campaign, more cultural phenomenon. 

Charli xcx turned an album into a movement. One drenched in lime green and radical self-expression. ‘Brat’ became a mindset: confident, chaotic and defiantly unserious. It had the sort of impact that creative directors spend their careers trying to achieve, but it came directly from the artist herself. 

It proved that modern marketing works best when it doesn’t feel like marketing at all. It works when it’s authentic, organic, and impossible to ignore.

Final Thoughts

Each of these campaigns captures the same spark. That “damn. I wish I came up with that” moment.

Whether through humour, honesty, emotion, or chaos, they all tap into something deeply human. They remind us that the best ideas aren’t just clever, they make you feel something. And that’s the kind of work I love.