The Creatives Room

1990s Advertising

The 1990s was a decade of creative reinvention in advertising. 'Got Milk?' launched in 1993 and became one of the most imitated campaigns in history. Apple's 'Think Different' in 1997 announced a brand comeback that would define the next quarter-century. Guinness 'Surfer' raised the bar for what a TV commercial could look like. The decade also saw the birth of irony in advertising - a generation of creatives who'd grown up watching commercials began making them, and the self-awareness showed.

The campaigns in this collection

  1. KB10 - kodak · ogilvy & mather · 1995

    To drive film roll sales in 1990s India, Kodak needed to democratize photography, which was widely feared as an expensive and technically complicated hobby. Tapping into the deep cultural importance of documenting family milestones, Ogilvy reframed camera ownership as simple, affordable, and everyda

  2. Plank - good ads matter selects · aardman animations · 1993

    Good Ads Matter selects "Plank". An Aardman-animated short, selected for its craft, using charm to carry a social message.

  3. Circle of Life - Disney · walt disney pictures · 1994

    To generate anticipation for an original story not based on a familiar fairy tale, Disney bypassed traditional movie trailers and released the film's uninterrupted four-minute opening sequence as the theatrical teaser. This strategic move recognized that the sequence's combination of Zulu chanting,

  4. Game Gear: Super Sonic Sports Pack "Coffee, Tea or SEGA?" - Sega · goodby, silverstein & partners · 1992

    This campaign pitted the full-color Sega Game Gear against Nintendo's dominant, monochrome Game Boy. The strategy was built on the insight that teen and young adult gamers craved a more intense, less childish experience than the market leader offered. The creative idea was to frame the choice not as

  5. Go World "Dan Jansen" - Visa · bbdo · 1994

    To shift its Olympic sponsorship from functional payment-exclusivity messaging to a deeper brand bond, Visa launched a global platform celebrating the triumph of the human spirit. The strategy taps into the insight that Olympic viewers care far more about stories of resilience and redemption than ef

  6. Blackcurrant Tango - Tango · HHCL · 1996

    A man sips Blackcurrant Tango, is unimpressed, and a furious brand manager launches into an unbroken single-take rant across an office and out onto a street, ending with a challenge to fight a Frenchman who dared criticise the drink. The insight is that a soft-drink brand talking to teenagers wins o

  7. Grant Hill drinks Sprite - Sprite · Lowe & Partners/SMS · 1994

    This campaign sought to differentiate Sprite from its image-obsessed cola rivals by tapping into youth cynicism towards slick, celebrity-driven marketing. The core idea was to satirize the very nature of advertising by creating a disarmingly honest anti-ad. This inaugural "Image is Nothing. Thirst i

  8. Pink Moon - Volkswagen · Arnold Worldwide · 1999

    Four friends drive through the night in a VW Cabrio to Nick Drake's 'Pink Moon', arrive at a party, look at the noise and the crowd, exchange a glance - and simply keep driving. The insight is that the best part of a night out is frequently the journey itself, the being-together in transit rather th

  9. Holidays Are Coming - Coca-Cola Company · Wieden+Kennedy · 1995

    Coca-Cola manufactured a Christmas ritual by branding the arrival of the season itself: illuminated red trucks rolling through the dark, and a jingle that says only 'Holidays are coming.' The insight is that Christmas advertising fights over identical emotional territory every year, so the brand tha

  10. Holidays Are Coming - The Coca-Cola Company · Wieden+Kennedy · 1995

    Illuminated red trucks roll through a snowy night to a jingle, and arrive - and that arrival, repeated every year, becomes the thing that starts Christmas. The insight is that seasons in culture do not begin on a date, they begin when a signal appears, and a brand can appoint itself that signal. The

  11. World Cup 1998 Brazil at the Airport - Nike · wieden+kennedy · 1998

    The Brazilian national team, stuck in an airport terminal, simply start playing - off pillars, past check-in desks, over luggage - with no stadium and no tournament anywhere in sight. The insight is that Brazilian football is understood worldwide as a way of playing rather than a record of results,

  12. Heres To The Crazy Ones - Apple · TBWA\Chiat\Day · 1997

    Apple was weeks from bankruptcy with no product to sell, so 'Think Different' sold a worldview instead: a black-and-white roll call of Einstein, Gandhi, Ali and Picasso over a manifesto to 'the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels.' The insight was that Apple's remaining loyalists were not buying com

  13. Picks up more women - Daihatsu · Saatch & Saatchi · 1996

    A print ad for the Hijet MPV: a grinning man beside his van, which contains five delighted women, under the line that it picks up five times more women than a Lamborghini. The copy then lists the actual reasons - six seats, two sunroofs, five-speed box, three-year warranty, GBP 8,497. The insight is

Why this collection is worth studying

1990s advertising is worth revisiting for its diversity of approach. The decade produced earnest campaigns and ironic ones, minimalist print work and maximalist film productions, cause-marketing pioneers and pure entertainment. Understanding the range is as instructive as studying any individual piece. The 90s didn't have a single dominant aesthetic - it had several competing ones, and the best work played them against each other.

See also

Best Ads of the 1990s - The Creatives Room