Advertising evolution has been remarkable. While we bid bye to the decade, here’s retroversion to the most famous ads of the decade that broke the chain of stereotypes.
The first printed ad was introduced in 1472 for William Caxton’s book and placed them to church doors in England. With time, advertisements started gaining ground, and then came the golden age of advertising – the 1900s, where personalization was truly integrated with the commercials.
The Internet came into existence and further altered the advertising motive. Online advertising became popular and soon was transformed to mobile advertising, digital advertising, and so on.
Storytelling and Emphasis on Moral
Back then the main focus was on the products and how they would sell them—even if the commercial lacked logic, you would find it on the billboard. Today, advertising demands a certain style of storytelling and a motive, in which you can place your brand.
Throughout the decade, we have witnessed some of the best work from the creatives of advertising agencies. From political stands on social issues to using humor in the advertisements, several ads stood out from the generic advertising style. For instance, the “Love has no Label” campaign from the Ad Council—it creatively endorsed the importance of inclusivity and acceptance, or McCann’s “Fearless Girl”—that has now become a permanent symbol of women empowerment and a powerful statement for female leadership in the business world.
We inspected the most famous ads of the decade and their impact on sales,
1. NIKE (2002)
- Target Audience: New Gen Athletes/consumer between ages 15-17
- Tag Line: Dream Crazy/Just Do It Campaign
- Product: Sports apparel
- Aim of the campaign: Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything
Nike has the age-old classic ‘Just Do It’ campaign, which has been the most famous ad campaign for decades. In the event of the 30th anniversary of the Just Do It campaign, Nike rolled out its most controversial and bold ad of the decade.
The ad starred Colin Kaepernick—who was allegedly in controversy since 2016. He kneeled during the US National anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice. The ad featured other celebrities such as Odell Beckham Jr., Shaquem Griffin, Lacey Baker, LeBron James, and Serena Williams.
Nike has been vocal about the social issues and utilizes the message creatively in the marketing campaign. Nike’s approach to utilizing controversy as a driving force and support “the underdog” was an excellent attempt to directly connect with the opinions of the target consumers.
Among the veteran brands, it can be argued that Nike is brave to voice the social issues and take a stand despite the backlash. After ‘Dream Crazy’ videos were surrounding the internet with #JustBurnIt and people burning the Nike products, but it managed to reach the right audience and win the outstanding commercial at the Creative Arts Emmys.
2. DOVE (2004)
- Target Audience: Females between ages 18 to 35
- Tag Line: Evolution-Real Beauty
- Product: Bath and body range
- Aim of the campaign: Targeted beauty stereotypes and the repetitive use of unrealistic, unattainable images, which consequently pose restrictions on the definition of beauty.
In the early 2000s, Dove executives surveyed more than 3,000 women from 10 countries, in an attempt to learn about women’s interests and priorities. The survey reported that only 4% of women felt they were beautiful—globally!
The major contribution to this declining self-esteem in women is due to the unrealistic body depiction shown throughout the ages. In an attempt to revive the brand and stand for the age-old gender stereotypes, Dove introduced the Evolution: Real Beauty campaign.
The campaign strikes a global conversation to widen the definition of beauty. Dove changed the culture of advertising and challenged the beauty norms by selecting ‘real’ women—such as old women with wrinkles, overweight women—, not supermodels for their advertisement. The audiences tend to connect with the real women concept as they were relatable and introduced a fresh perspective for the media.
Dove’s campaign proved to be successful amongst the crowd and received tremendous publicity.
Being one of the first digital campaigns, it managed to receive support from the online community and reach over 200 million globally.
The campaign still stands strong and is a good example of fempowerment marketing. Dove also followed the campaign with other famous ads like Real Beauty sketches, Beauty Bias, etc.
3. Coca-Cola (2011)
- Target Audience: Millennial
- Tag Line: Share a Coke
- Product: Soft-Drink
- Aim of the campaign: To create a platform where people won’t just consume the product but moreover love the brand
Coca-Cola is one of the most popular beverages consumed worldwide. In 2011, the Coca-Cola team came up with the idea of the longest-running marketing campaign—#ShareACoke.
It was initially launched in Australia, where generic terms and 150 of the country’s most popular first names were printed on the bottle. Due to the limited names the campaign was named #ShareACoke.
The idea was to involve people and reunite them to share a good time over Coca-Cola. Soon the campaign was launched worldwide. The campaign received a positive response around the globe and was listed among the most famous ads throughout the decade.
Coca-Cola’s campaign is regarded as all-time successful. Coke managed to connect with people on a personal level. People unknowingly were marketing the product for Coca-Cola. Furthermore, it is one of the first companies to utilize social media to further augment the campaign.
Share a Coke started with generic and 150 common names; in 2015 they opened an e-commerce shop where consumers could purchase customized name bottles. Later, the lyrics of the song were too were added. Further, to enhance sales where the consumer could add their names to the lyrics of the song and listen to it at shareacoke.com. By 2018, Coca-Cola added name labels that can be removed and stuck anywhere else like phones, books, clothes, etc.
Even in 2020, Coca-Cola dedicated its campaign to the holiday heroes, which included everyone from daily helpers to caregivers. The brand is creatively enhancing the same campaign and progressively contributing to sales. As of 2020, the number of sales has increased by 4.93%.
4. Always (2015)
- Target Audience: Millennial women ages 13-34
- Tag Line: Rewrite the Rules
- Product: Sanitary Pads/Tampons
- Aim of the campaign: To dismantle the gender stereotypes ingrained through ages
In 2014, Always and its parent company, P&G surveyed around 1,300 American women. The survey concluded that the majority of women lost their confidence before puberty.
Also, only 19% of women felt positive for the statement ‘like a girl’, while the majority associated the tag line as an insult.
Lauren Greenfield, a famous documentarian and photographer directed this ad. A specific group of individuals was asked how to do things “like a girl”, the responses were disheartening and actions were depicting the typical stereotype. Later, girls between the ages 5-13 were asked to do the same and gave the best of them.
The key highlight was the moment when one of the girls was asked ‘What does it mean to you when I say, ‘run like a girl?’ answered, “It means to run as fast as you can.”
This is one of the most powerful and famous ads and an important step towards vocalizing woman empowerment through marketing campaigns.
5. Gillette (2019)
- Target Audience: Evenly targeted at men and women
- Tag Line: The best a man can be
- Product: Razors
- Aim of the campaign: It’s only by challenging ourselves to do more, that we can get closer to our best.
Another call-out to the classic ad, Gillette to re-idealized its old campaign “The best a man can get” and turned it into “The best a man can be”. This ad too had to face little backlash from the audience and was tagged as anti-male.
Machismo has been a huge part of brands associated with products for men. Even Gillette’s product shares a huge part with masculinity. The strategy of the brand was to redefine masculinity amidst the hot climate of the #MeToo movement.
The ad cleverly presented the flaws in carrying forward the traditional “toxic masculinity” and how men need to rethink the phrase men will be men. The brilliant line “The boys of today will be the men of tomorrow” made it clear that we need to rework the concept of masculinity and not present the age-old cliché to the new-gen.
Gillette targeted a broader initiative, and the main aim was to promote positive, attainable, inclusive, and healthy versions of what it means to be a man.
Threats of boycott emerged after the ad but it did not affect the sales of the product. The only statement the officials released was “We expected debate — discussion is necessary. For every negative reaction, we’ve seen many positive reactions, people calling the effort courageous, timely, smart, and much-needed. At the end of the day, sparking conversation is what matters.”
Leap of Faith
If we closely inspect the commercials have fairly developed throughout the decade. The age-old toxic and demeaning ad strategies’ have been boycotted and rooted out of the system. Today, the brands have understood that if they want to appeal to the millennial crowd they have to take a stand against the bias and refrain from offending the crowd. Famous Ads such as Gillette’s “A best a can be” and Nike’s “Dream Crazy”; may not have received praise universally, but had a positive effect on the millennial.
Today in the age of social media brands do not have to wait for a campaign to put out their thoughts or condemn an act. Social media platforms are used to share their opinions on an issue or take a stand. Advertising reflects society and this new age of advertising will surely have a positive impact on the crowd.
Also Read: Made in India: 20 Famous Indian Brands thriving throughout the World
Content Writer,
Vidya Joshi
