Video: The Ten Most Innovative Ads

BCB selects the television ads that changed the game.

George Orwell called advertising "the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket," and there's little doubt that the medium – and television commercials, specifically – has to answer a few serious charges. For one, it can only serve its purpose – to arouse your appetite for goods – if you notice it, and this gets harder as people become numb to the messages advertising carries.

More: A Visionary Local Ad Man
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So, while no one celebrates radio spots, which mostly blare and grate, there have been some television commercials in the past thirty years that so toyed with the conventions of the medium, or so altered the way we view advertising, that we think they deserve special mention.

10. Burger King  – Subservient Chicken (2008)
Recalling Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram’s frightening 1961 experiments about obedience and authority, Burger King’s innovation is to prove that we all have a deep-seated capacity for sadism – and, perhaps, a deep-seated desire for the BK Tendercrisp. As you issue increasingly demeaning orders to the chicken, remember that there's a real person inside the suit.

9. Canon – Digic (2005)

It's all in the details, from the faux-retro digital interface to the utter believability of the rodeo clown's pained expression to the way the pixilated interface hammers home the brand message. Watch as Canon's Digic brings the Lego guys into sharp focus.
Thanks @glasfurdwalker.
 

8. Calvin Klein Jeans – Calvin Klein Banned Ad (90s)

From the So Bad It's Good department: before there was Marky Mark in his tighty-whiteys, there was Brandon from Kentucky. How Calvin Klein got away with these kiddie-porn-inflected, voyeuristic, and excruciatingly awkward TV spots is anybody's guess. Actually, he didn't: the spots were pulled after an ad-standards uproar.
 

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Comments

What about Apple's "Think

Comment by Anonymous, December 23, 2009 at 20:11

What about Apple's "Think Different"? That one should have been #1!!!! It's iconic and truly inspiring. It's the predecessor to the Black Eyed Peas & Barack Obama. I can't believe it's not even on the list!!! Yet, you put on Calvin Klein twice! (wow - I've typed a lot of exclamation points...)

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