Items23The creator’s order
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PG TipsThe PG Tips chimpanzee ads (UK, 1956 to 2002)
The grandparent of every comic mascot campaign. For more than four decades, chimps in human clothes played the "Tipps family," with actors supplying their voices, sending up whatever British family life looked like that year. The best-remembered moment…0 - 2
Mr. WhippleA fussy grocer begging customers, "Please don't squeeze the Charmin!" over and over. Character actor Dick Wilson played Mr. Whipple in more than 500 commercials between 1964 and 1985, which makes this one of the purest examples of a single gag repeated until it became part of the culture.
The…0 - 3
Amul girlIndia's answer to the editorial cartoon, sold with butter. Since the late 1960s, the moppet in a polka-dot dress has commented on the week's news from Amul billboards, painted bus panels and posters, with punning one-liners that change as fast as the headlines.
The topicality is what keeps it…0 - 4
Miller LiteMiller Lite's "Tastes Great, Less Filling" campaign (US, 1974 to the early 1990s)
The campaign that made light beer feel safe for tough guys, by staging a barroom argument with no possible winner. Opposing camps chanted "Less filling!" and "Tastes great!" while former football players and other…0 - 5
Energizer BunnyA pink drumming rabbit that started life in 1988 as a dig at a rival: the Energizer Bunny was created as a parody of the Duracell bunny. The joke then grew far beyond its target.
Its cleverest phase had the bunny wander onto the sets of realistic-looking commercials for fictional products and…0 - 6
Got Milk?A campaign built on deprivation: people caught in an uncomfortable situation with a full mouth and no milk to wash it down. Goodby Silverstein & Partners made it for the California Milk Processor Board, and the first spot, "Aaron Burr," directed by Michael Bay, aired nationwide on October 29,…0 - 7
Jack BoxA fast-food founder with a giant round clown head, played completely straight. Jack in the Box revived its old mascot in 1994 as a no-nonsense businessman, and the first new ad opened with him blowing up the board of directors as payback for having been scrapped in 1980.
That deadpan corporate…0 - 8
This Is SportsCenterESPN's long-running promos imagine its own campus as an ordinary office where star athletes just happen to wander the corridors. Shot in a deadpan mockumentary style, the spots lampoon sports and sports broadcasting from the inside.
The premise never needed changing because the cast refreshes…0 - 9
Real Men of GeniusBud Light's mock-heroic salutes to everyday oddballs, delivered as power ballads. An announcer, Pete Stacker, raised a toast to some unsung figure, while Dave Bickler, the lead singer of Survivor, wailed absurd backing lines over the top.
It began as a radio campaign in 1998 under the title "Real…0 - 10
GEICO GeckoThe mascot who was only supposed to fill a gap. GEICO's gecko debuted in 1999, when a Screen Actors Guild strike kept live actors out of commercials, and the pun on a name people kept mispronouncing did the rest. He was meant to be temporary and was kept on.
What makes this campaign worth studying…0
