Every week I attempt to share a compilation of clutter-breaking ads. It’s that time of the year when lists are in vogue as we revisit the best creative ads of 2025.
Dreamies: Ad Attack
Food advertising has a common proposition for both humans and pets: it is so irresistible that you’ll go to any length to get it or safeguard it from others. DREAMIES™ from Mars set up what looked like a regular vinyl billboard with just a pack shot. The twist: it was an installation with hundreds of cats made to claw across the billboard, scaling buildings and rooftops as they typically do. The craft and attention to detail were top notch and so was the idea.
Hermes: luxury advertising
Luxury marketing is a all about creating irrational desire and make people crave for the brand, irrespective of the price tag. Visual design, signature style, intrigue and ‘presentation’ plays a critical role. We can see all of these in abundance in these set of static creatives for Hermès.
Kelloggs: See you in the morning
As I said in my blog post: Most brands under-invest on distinct brand assets. A slogan, design element, brand colours – they can all become powerful tools to aid recall and serve as a cost-effective brand reminder. The most famous of such would perhaps be the Nike ‘swoosh’ and the ‘Just Do It’ tag line. Even after decades, we associate the ‘priceless’ property with MasterCard. But brand teams tend to get bored with consistency and seek ‘newness’ every now and then, without giving a chance for any brand asset to be established. Recently, Kellogg’s launched an initiative to reinforce Cornelius the cockerel, the brand’s mascot since 1958. As part of the campaign is a poster which playfully highlights the original or OG nature of Kellogg’s. Brilliant use of typography and reminded me of the outdoor work from Coca-Cola, which too has strong brand assets.
AXE: power of sweetness
The brand Axe (known as Lynx in some markets) was criticised ages for their blatantly sexist advertising. The brand has retained its core promise of ‘attraction to the opposite sex’ but has managed to bring in humour in their hilariously silly premise.
Cadbury: Made to share
‘An idea with legs‘ was how some highly ‘campaignable’ (meaning extendible across various creative expressions and formats) ideas were referred to back when I was in advertising. ‘Made to share’ is one such with the creative expression of ‘who gets how much‘ of the slab.
Dream11: who is in your team
Being forced to work with a celebrity can be a boon and a curse in advertising. Sometimes, the creative is simply told to figure out a script after the celebrity has been signed up. In many such cases, the constraints are real. What I particularly liked about the film was the focus on a solid creative idea first and then some great scripting, despite having a plethora of celebrities at one’s disposal. The icing on the cake was the performances of the stars.
Sky Bet: Cheltenham
Sometimes, we don’t need to oversell an ad (for a racing platform pertaining to Cheltenham Festival) to ‘over explain’ why we like an ad.
Fiverr: AI campaigns
AI this, AI that. Am glad a brand poked fun at the trend even though the marketing & creative fraternity is their core business audience. Fiverr, an online marketplace for freelance services tapped into real concerns and insights about the use of AI: driving home the fact that it still takes human creative chops to make AI work for brands. Loved both their 2025 films.
Britbox: see it differently
A master-class in craftsmanship, an ad for Britbox shows an actor journeying through 11 different sets and genres, to demonstrate the breadth of the catalogue (or is it catalog?) on the platform. The ad was filmed in one continuous take, captured by a 50-person crew over 14 hours, 45 minutes, and 31 seconds. Great stuff – the kind ad agencies deserve all the compensation and praise.
Chupa Chups and Jellies: chemistry and humour
Some advertising ideas just take a split second to drive home the point and bring a smile.
A variant of the Chupa Chups brand in India saw a hilarious ad made for the Indian market. Having worked in the confectionery category, I know how tough it is to ‘make’ a story out of literally nothing (by way of product differentiation). Kudos to the team.
WorkDay Rockstars: undercover
In 2023, Workday launched its ad during Super Bowl, cleverly playing up on the common practice of calling someone a ‘rock star’ at work. The premise makes for an engrossing watch in a new ad to announce their AI Agents featuring Gwen Stefani, Paul Stanley (of KISS) and Billy Idol.
Native RO: taking on the leader
A couple of hilarious films for Native RO as they take on a market leader in water purifiers. I particularly liked the focus on addressing the biggest pain point consumers have with the ‘other’ brand and how the exaggerated humour was used.
Canva: outdoor campaign
Across corporate teams and educational institutions, tools like Canva are used to create social posts, presentations and other brand collateral. ‘Make the logo bigger’ is a trope that never fails to evoke smiles or groans among creatives. It is panned as the most common request from brand owners. This outdoor and others in the series use the familiar Canva user interface which also enables the drag & drop ease of use functionality.
Acciona: illustration billboards
An outdoor campaign with clever use of negative space from Noma Bar’s signature style illustrations, showcases the seemingly small innovations which make a big impact for Acciona Australia who claim to ‘provide sustainable solutions to the global challenges facing humanity’
Times: 240 Years: comparison
News brands literally witness global events unfold before them. UK’s famous masthead The Times launched a campaign to celebrate its 240th anniversary.
Air India: the sound of new India
Air India suffered a tragic accident in June 2025, the same month this campaign was released. I thought the film did a great job of conveying that a lot has changed in India over the years and we carry both the tradition and the modern well.
Astronomer: crisis management
A communication crisis came about for the corporate brand Astronomer after the infamous Coldplay-incident. The company’s ex-CEO and head of HR came under intense scrutiny and trolling. I quite liked how the brand & PR team handled the aftermath through an announcer video, starring Gwenyth Paltrow as ‘temporary spokesperson’. It does make an indirect reference to the incident but cleverly diverts the discussion towards the core business. “We’ve been thrilled that so many people are interested in workforce data automation‘ adding a bit of levity to the whole situation. The question ‘how is your social media team holding up?’ seemingly referring to the severe trolling leads to announcements on job vacancies. In just one minute, they have made light of the situation conveying that it’s business as usual and the company brand is much bigger than any two individuals. Loved it.
Amazon Books: bring a book to life
Very often, taking the literal meaning of a well-known phrase and dramatising it makes for compelling creative. Here’s one for Amazon Books as show what happens when books come to life.
Nedbank: beware
Nedbank tells the story of Anna in a format that has seen some great advertising: lead the viewer up a garden path only to reveal a twist in the tale. The viewer is made to believe that Anna is a ballet dancer by profession only to be told ‘You work hard for your money. She works hard for your money too.’
Tesco Mobile: Gen Z language
It is a universal insight that there is a chasm between the world of parents & their kids, especially teens. According to research commissioned by Tesco Mobile in the UK, almost half of parents not confident in understanding the language that children use online. I liked these set of outdoor ads as they forewarn parents about potential online safety issues.
Cadbury Bournville: copywriting for TV
There is great copywriting involved in TV ads too but in a different context. It is more about script writing and great dialogues. A TVC for Cadbury Bournville has some fantastic copywriting. The idea: there is some amount of snobbery involved in finer things like wine, gourmet food and dark chocolates. The ad positions Cadbury Bournville as ‘just an enjoyable chocolate‘, shorn of all the pompousness around dark chocolates among those who consider themselves connoisseurs.
Telstra Scammageddon: alien humour
Telstra in Australia released an ad with actor Steve Buscemi as some sort of evil overlord who commands his minions to conquer Australia through a cyber attack, only to be foiled because they attempted it on a Telstra network which has a strong screening filter of incoming calls. Crazy good.
Columbia Sportswear: engineered for whatever
A new brand platform for Columbia sportswear was anchored on the brand’s heritage of testing their gear so that they are made suitable for extreme weather conditions. The creative idea, ‘Engineered for Whatever’ busts the perception that nature is ‘sweet and beautiful‘ by juxtaposing with the nasty & real side of it.
TD: owning a piece of a brand
The business of advertising presents opportunities for creative thinking – not just conjuring up pretty pictures or crafting clever lines. TD offers investors in Canada the ability to invest in Partial Shares. To highlight that without naming the shares one can own, they placed outdoor installations in front of iconic brand outlets with only a portion of the logo visible. Apparently, advertisers cannot legally display other brands’ logos in their ads and this idea cleverly circumvents that restriction too.
Which one was your favourite? Do comment in. Watch out for the second part of this compilation.
