Best new creative ads: Burger King, Vaseline, Nike and more
Every week, I attempt to curate a list of best new creative ads. View my weekly archive and an occasional point of view on the business of advertising. This week: ads from Apple, Vaseline, Burger King and and more.
Dutch Barn: million pounds
Very few brands have a sharply defined personality and use it consistently. Actor Ricky Gervais has cultivated an image of an irreverent, outspoken comedian who often speaks uncomfortable truth and calls out the hypocrisy in society (remember his famous Oscars speech?). His investment and endorsement of Dutch Barn vodka has had its share of controversial ads. The latest London Tube advertisement is not as provocative as some of the earlier ones but gets the job done – is noticeable, interesting and ‘on brand’.
Freshlynn: laundry drops for protection
Loved this series of short ads which have a literal take on ‘your detergent takes the life out your clothes‘ with some clever symbols such as the ECG graph and a shredder being cued to suggest the impact on clothes.
Agency: The Womb
The Hindu: election campaign
Media brands don’t always have to directly promote their brand. Sometimes, a social cause campaign (urging people to vote on election day) done cleverly creates affinity for the brand, subliminally. Here’s an example – cleverly converting the voter count as ‘writers’ which dovetails into the brand claim of ‘written by journalists’.
Apple: iPhone & Apple Watch – listen to your body
Advices are dime a dozen when it comes to health matters but listen to your body is the simple message in this ad promoting the Apple Watch + iPhone combination. Loved the line ‘Listen to your body. Not everybody’.
MacBook Neo: hand crafted ads
In these days of AI slop and brands deliberately choosing to create AI-generated content it is heartening to see old fashioned ‘hand-crafted’ art taking centre stage in an ad. Not just the ad but even the BTS video such as the one below help in brightening the halo around Apple. Subliminally it cues that the brand cares for its output, is creative, pays attention to details and so much more – consumers transfer such attributes to their brand choice. This is how premium and brand loyalty is earned.
The Hindu: new office
A tactical ad to announce a new branch address can also be an opportunity to create an interesting ad that is ‘deep’ in its messaging. I am not a big fan of this media brand but nicely done ad, nevertheless.
Agency: Talented
ITC Mangaldeep: sixth sense
The intent: convey that the visually impaired are part of expert fragrance testers at ITC. The logic: due to their heightened sensory abilities they ‘see with their noses’. An endearing little film to convey this story. I loved the small touches such as the setting (with temples in the distance) which to me sat well with the use case of this category in India.
Agency: Ogilvy
NASA: Earth Day
How do entities like NASA earn such respect globally, especially among the youth? In Indian schools a ‘research’ or a learning trip to NASA is coveted. People wear NASA branded t-shirts proudly. Aside from the serious scientific work they do a lot of work which makes the brand ‘cool’. On Earth Day, they again promoted a portal (launched in 2025, I think) where users can type in their name, view and export the graphic of that name spelled out in Earth features found in Landsat images, which resemble English alphabets. This is not exactly an ad campaign but a creative idea that ‘sells’ the brand for sure.
Burger King: London Marathon
In late 2024, Burger King created the ‘Bundles of Joy’ campaign which dramatised the craving for a burger after a particularly tiring task that drains you out (well, such as delivering a baby). At the recent TCS London Marathon, the brand offered their burgers to the runners at the end of the race. Not surprisingly the burgers were wolfed down lending themselves to a timer counter campaign in line with such running events.
Vaseline: nipple protection
Apparently, two in three long-distance runners suffer from chafed and bleeding nipples. It is seen as one of long-distance running’s most common and painful issues. At the recent TCS London Marathon, Vaseline became the Official Nipple Protector, distributing their products free to the runners.
The campaign’s creative strategy was born from a simple truth uncovered through the award-winning ‘Vaseline Verified’ platform: among the thousands of community-submitted hacks validated by the brand, nipple protection for runners surfaced as one of the most interesting and effective applications of Vaseline Jelly.
This is part of the Vaseline Verified campaign strategy through which community-submitted product hacks are ‘verified’ by the brand to protect consumers from fake claims. Nipple protection for runners surfaced as one of the most frequently cited and effective applications of Vaseline Jelly.
Agency: Ogilvy
Nike: London Marathon
More copywriting goodness from Nike in the context of marathons. This one in keeping with wry British humour, I suppose.
Casper: Daymares
A good night’s sleep ‘helps you have a great day, the next day‘ is a common promise in beds & furnishings. A new ad from Casper highlights ‘daymares’ (opposite of nightmares) and a has a lovely tag line.
Godrej Industries: re-branding
LinkedIn was lit with outrage and commentary on the new branding initiative from Godrej Industries. Many pointed out the likely confusion arising out of an iconic logo being replaced and that a similar logo already exists. It’s been clarified that the current, familiar logo will be used by Godrej Enterprises and the new branding for the entity Godrej Industries. The company has now issued a clarification. What caught my eye was the stance on it being similar to many other brands. While social media users lamented the lack of research and diligence in checking if such a logo already exists, the brand has conveyed that as part of its intellectual property diligence following the completion of the design process, it ‘discovered numerous other marks using simple geometric compositions like the GI identifier‘.
While choosing to represent the GI identifier in this simple form reduces its uniqueness, we nevertheless believe it is appropriate for our brand identity system encompassing the Godrej signature logo, the GI Identifier, a custom typeface, a bespoke sonic identity, and other elements.”
What I find surprising is the admission that it’s not unique. Are we all over reacting to an Australian agency (unlikely to be known in India) having a similar logo (okay, the other way around)? The larger issue is how the two Godrej entities with demarcate what the consumer gets to see and interact with – the old familiar logo of Godrej or the new one and will it cause confusion. Godrej Consumer Products is part of Godrej Industries with several popular brands in personal care. The packaging of the soap brands carry the old logo – will they all change now? Time will tell.
Which one was your favourite? Do comment in.