28 Epic Outdoor Ads That Made The Whole City Say “Damn, That’s Clever”
How many billboards do you pass on your daily commute, and how many could you describe by the time you get home? Outdoor advertising is one of the least forgiving mediums in the business. People don’t sit down to look at a billboard. They pass it at speed, half-distracted, and the ad gets a glance at best. That limit is why the sharpest ideas in advertising have so often ended up on roadsides, bus stops and pavements.
The street is part of the ad. An ad on a screen or a printed page is confined to its frame, but a billboard comes with its surroundings attached: the sky behind it, the building it’s bolted to, the traffic in front of it. Good outdoor and ambient advertising uses that setting. In this collection, a pedestrian crossing becomes a carton of McDonald’s fries, a city bus disappears into a snake for the Copenhagen Zoo, a park bench is built to look like a Kit Kat, and a 3D crocodile waits at the bottom of an escalator.
One idea, very few words. The work below comes from agencies such as Clemenger BBDO, TBWA, Scholz & Friends, JWT and Saatchi & Saatchi, along with a few strong student pieces. Almost all of it follows a simple principle of outdoor advertising: if an idea needs too many words to land, it probably isn’t finished yet. The briefs couldn’t be further apart, from beer and house paint to tailgating and child neglect, yet a seat-belt warning has to work just as fast as a beer ad. That economy is exactly what sets a great creative outdoor advertising agency apart.
Worth studying, not just admiring. Outdoor is also where rivals go after each other in plain sight, as the BMW vs. Audi billboard exchange shows. If you work as an art director, copywriter or strategist, or you’re a student building a portfolio, these 28 creative billboards and outdoor ads are useful studies in saying a lot with very little.
1. Belt Up
Agency: Clemenger BBDO, Wellington, New Zealand
2. Anando Milk
Agency: McCann Erickson, Mumbai, India
3. Copenhagen Zoo
Agency: Bates Y&R, Copenhagen, Denmark
4. Colorado State Patrol
Agency: Amélie Company, Denver, Colorado, USA
5. QuitPlan
Agency: Clarity Coverdale Fury, Minneapolis, USA
6. Berger Paints
Agency: JWT Mumbai, India
7. Powerhouse Gym
Ad School: Savannah College of Art & Design, Savannah, USA
8. Koleston Natural Hair Colors
Agency: Leo Burnett, Beirut, Lebanon
9. BMW vs. Audi – Billboard Battle
10. Global Coalition for Peace
Agency: Big Ant International, New York, USA
11. Craftsman Tools
Agency: Y&R Chicago, USA
12. McDonald’s: MacFries Pedestrian Crossing
Agency: TBWA Switzerland
13. JobsInTown.de
Agency: Scholz & Friends, Berlin, Germany
14. Imodium
Agency: Unknown
15. Heineken: Beer?
Agency: TBWA, Amsterdam
16. Panasonic Nose Hair Trimmer
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi Indonesia
17. National Geographic: 3D Crocodile Escalator
“Ready for an adventure through the Brazilian forests?” Agency: Unknown
18. Kit Kat Bench
Agency: JWT Manila, Philippines
19. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
Agency: Unknown
20. American Disability Association
Advertising School: School of Visual Arts, USA
21. Australian Childhood Foundation
Agency: JWT Melbourne Australia
22. Dutch Stutter Foundation
Agency: Y&R Not Just Film, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
23. Elm Grove Police
Agency: Cramer-Krasselt, Milwaukee, USA
24. Frontline Flea & Tick Spray
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi Jakarta, Indonesia
25. Orphea
Agency: Publicis Italy
26. British Airways
Agency: Ogilvy One, London, UK
27. Virgin Australia: AUS to USA
Agency: Clemenger BBDO, Sydney
28. Mercedes-Benz vs. Audi
Our picks? The BMW vs. Audi billboard battle (No. 9), the Kit Kat bench (No. 18) and the Mercedes-Benz retort (No. 28), each of which makes its point in a few words or none at all. Here’s a challenge for you: tell us about an outdoor ad you’ve seen in person, on your own street or commute, that could hold its own against everything on this list. Bonus points if it never made it to an awards show.
Share this post with a designer friend and voice your views in the comments below.
