Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Advertising is often very difficult, but fortunately there are many different strategies to creating the perfect ad. In the age of image-based social media and infographics, many businesses are focusing their ads around a single large image meant to draw viewers in. Others are taking a slightly modified approach to traditional advertising. Instead of telling consumers why they need a product, they’re showing them.

Some businesses are literally turning the world upside-down with their ads. These ads encourage people to reflect on the world around them, so it will stick with them long after they see it. Here are 40 of the most creative advertisements out there. Hopefully these will inspire you to launch your own perfect ad campaign...

There are two kinds of advertisements: ads that blend in, and ads that captivate our attention. I’ll be taking this opportunity to focus on the latter category.

These are the head-turners that leave us with an unexpected smile. They’re the ads we don’t see every day, and the ones we applaud for their raw creativity and clever execution.

So take a gander at some of the best advertising methods I’ve come across, and add your thoughts at the end if I’ve missed anything noteworthy....

The U.S. women's soccer team has a roster of stand-out stars, but their individual strengths work best when they play as a team. That's the gist of a new, minute-long "American Woman" ad Nike launched as part of a bigger #NoMaybes campaign designed to elevate the team's profile during the FIFA Women's World Cup this week.

"We didn't want to go into this trying to make a women's spot—we wanted to make a soccer spot," said Michael McGrath, partner at Thousands Creative, the Portland, Ore., agency that created the ad.

Thousands Creative's own profile is getting a boost because of the work. The two-man shop was founded just a year ago by a pair of former Nike employees and currently has neither a website (just an empty Tumblr) nor publicly listed contact info....

Your memory of 2014 won’t be defined by those things. Instead, you’ll remember the Ebola outbreak, Lavern Cox, Ferguson, LeBron’s return home, the World Cup, True Detective, missing flight MH370, and maybe even Alex from Target.

These and many other cultural and political moments shaped the year and will continue to be part of our conversations in 2015. To commemorate these events, Beutler Ink created Here’s to 2014!, a graphic featuring 91 memorable moments. The poster is a follow-up to the 2013 edition, which featured Miley Cyrus, Prince George, and Pope Francis...

Think Nike: just do it. Think Apple: Hello. Think EA Games: Challenge Everything.

If your campaign speak keeps going and going and going like the Energizer Bunny, you may wear people out before they catch up with your this. Make it simple. Get on your Harley-Davidson until you can define your world in a whole new way.

Thinking big about speaking simply is power.

Complexity is difficult. Complexity will drown in the noise.If you can’t speak simply about whatever this is, take a step back, think bigger about simplicity. Do something different with this. Look at the heart and soul of this. Simple will rise above the noise.

Think Big. Speak Simply.