The Creatives Room

Ogilvy - Best Campaigns

David Ogilvy believed advertising should sell, and sell it did. But the agency he founded in 1948 also understood that the most effective advertising is the most human advertising - work that respects the intelligence of its audience and earns their attention rather than demanding it. From the Hathaway Man to Dove's Real Beauty, Ogilvy has produced campaigns that are as strategically rigorous as they are creatively ambitious.

The campaigns in this collection

  1. Eyes where you need them - Volkswagen · Ogilvy South Africa

    The new Amarok has a 360-degree system including a Terrain Camera that shows the ground beneath the vehicle, effectively eyes underneath. So the launch put eyes underneath as well, running outdoor placements built to be double-taken rather than read.

  2. Dad’s Manual - Cochez · Star5 Ogilvy · 2026

    The insight is that fathers rarely wait for the right moment to give advice; it comes out while they are fixing or assembling something with their children. For Father's Day, Cochez turned flat-pack assembly instructions into Dad's Manuals, where each numbered step of a bicycle, skateboard or dresse

  3. Bubbles - Taste the feeling - Coca Cola · Memac Ogilvy Dubai

    Memac Ogilvy Dubai gave Taste the Feeling a literal visual proof for Coca-Cola Middle East. Look closely at the bubbles rising through the glass and each one is a crowd of people at a sold-out concert, hands up, packed into a stadium. The equation is direct: the fizz of a Coke is the same rush as be

  4. Poetry and Paint - Destination Canada · Ogilvy · 2018

    "Poetry and Paint" for Destination Canada, presented with The New Yorker: an artful branded travel film using the magazine's prestige to sell Canada's culture and landscapes.

  5. Navidad - Decathlon · Ogilvy Madrid · 2022

    "Navidad" (Christmas) for Decathlon: a lone rider in a quiet forest frames the gift of the outdoors - the retailer pitching sport and nature as the season's best present.

  6. For You - DAZN · Ogilvy · 2017

    "For You" for DAZN: a player facing the wall in a packed stadium captures live football's tension - the streaming service delivering the game's drama straight to fans.

  7. Poetry and Paint - Destination Canada · Ogilvy · 2018

    "Poetry and Paint" for Destination Canada, presented with The New Yorker: an artful branded travel film using the magazine's prestige to sell Canada's culture and landscapes.

  8. My Origin - Poland Spring · Ogilvy · 2021

    Poland Spring "My Origin". A rugged figure amid natural spray frames the water's natural-source story.

  9. A New Era of Voice - Samsung · Ogilvy · 2024

    Samsung "A New Era of Voice". A nostalgic media moment sets up the leap to a new era of voice technology.

  10. Bear - MOL · Ogilvy · 2015

    MOL "Bear". A surreal boat-and-bear image opens a fable about nature and unlikely companionship.

  11. Unsung Hero - Thai Life Insurance · Ogilvy & Mather · 2014

    Thai Life Insurance "Unsung Hero". Quiet everyday acts of kindness frame life insurance as looking after others.

  12. Move X iPhone - True · Ogilvy & Mather · 2017

    True "Move X iPhone". An orchestral performance frames the phone alongside artistry and precision.

  13. The Heartbeats Experiment - Germanos · Ogilvy & Mather · 2017

    Produced for Cosmote Group's Germanos (a Greek electronics and telecom retailer) by Ogilvy & Mather, directed by Jean Paul Frenay with Francois Starr as DP, shot in Romania via Central Athens Film Productions. The 'Heartbeats Experiment' restages one high-adrenaline historical battle scene and captu

  14. The Originals - Volkswagen · Ogilvy · 2021

    Volkswagen "The Originals". VW celebrates its original, iconic models and their legacy.

  15. Legacy Lives On - HSBC · Ogilvy · 2024

    HSBC "Legacy Lives On". HSBC frames wealth and banking around building a legacy that endures.

  16. Beauty Tips by Reshma: How to get perfect red lips - make love not scars · ogilvy & mather · 2016

    'Make Acid Unavailable to the Common Man': the after-effects of acid attacks - peeled skin, lost sight, a lifetime of visible pain - as the case for restricting over-the-counter acid sales. The insight: the weapon is a household purchase; the campaign attacks availability, the one variable regulatio

  17. Mothermonials #TheBeautyTestStopsWithMe - dove · ogilvy · 2021

    Dove's 'Mothermonials' #TheBeautyTestStopsWithMe: Indian matrimonial biodatas read like product labels - fair, slim, good-looking, listed before any personality - so Dove asks mothers, the traditional authors of those biodatas, to rewrite the script. The insight: the beauty test is administered at h

  18. The Waste Auction - Hellmann's · Ogilvy Brazil · 2023

    Hellmann's 'The Waste Auction': Brazil wastes $11.6bn of food yearly, mostly at home - 53% of people reject imperfect ingredients. The insight: auction the ugly produce and the bidding itself re-prices imperfection; a mayonnaise brand whose whole use-case is transforming leftovers has native authori

  19. Words Kill Wars - ADOT · Ogilvy & Mather, Japan · 2014

    For ADOT, addressing conflict between Ukraine and Russia, this campaign makes an argument for dialogue over arms. The insight: wars are ended not by more weapons but by conversation, so Words Kill Wars reframes language itself as the decisive weapon, the one that stops fighting rather than starting

  20. Mini kiosk for mini coke – Little things to make you happy - Coca-Cola · Ogilvy & Mather, Berlin · 2015

    To launch its tiny cans, Coca-Cola built a tiny kiosk - a fully working miniature of a street vending stand, scaled to the product. The insight: a size change is invisible on a shelf but irresistible as an environment; making the WORLD match the product turns a line extension into street theatre and

  21. Others’ taste sweet beside it. - KFC · Ogilvy · 2015

    KFC's Turkish campaign sells the intensity of its flavour by comparison. The insight: heat and spice are relative, so a burger this bold makes every rival taste bland, others' taste sweet beside it positions the competition as timid by contrast rather than naming them.

  22. Cyberbullying & Cyber harassment touches too many teens - Fondation Jasmin Roy · Ogilvy Montréal · 2017

    For the anti-bullying Fondation Jasmin Roy, Ogilvy Canada photographed students absorbed in their phones at school. The insight: cyberbullying's damage is invisible on the surface but total for the victim, so each student's hand reveals a shape that visualises the harm being inflicted through the sc

  23. Am I Next - the chaeli campaign · ogilvy south africa · 2019

    "Am I Next" for The Chaeli Campaign: South Africa's femicide rate is above the global average, and the organisation's point is that disabled women are just as exposed. Fronted by founder Chaeli Mycroft, an ability activist with cerebral palsy, the work dramatises one sad realisation - the only thing

  24. Creative Print Ads - Comfort · Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai · 2015

    Provocative ad for Comfort fabric conditioner. Stretching out even the most rigid, unbending figure argues the product softens and relaxes the stiffest of fabrics - a deliberately edgy visual metaphor.

Why this collection is worth studying

Ogilvy's archive spans eight decades and every medium imaginable, which makes it one of the most useful bodies of work for studying how great creative thinking adapts across eras and channels. The brief changes, the media changes, the culture changes - but the underlying discipline of finding a truth and expressing it clearly remains constant. That's the Ogilvy lesson, and it hasn't aged.

See also

Ogilvy Best Ads & Campaigns - The Creatives Room