Advertising that Inspires

I just got brain damaged from one of those ‘buy now!’, ‘sale sale sale!’ ads. I swear if I see another tacky 3D animal animation talking to a real person about magical broadband speed or ugly typography I might quit TV. I’m craving some good, perhaps inspirational ads.

Advertising and inspiration don’t appear in the same sentence often, actually, it’s more of a once-in-a –blue-moon type things. Rarely do I find an ad that’s going to ‘inspire’ me to buy that washing powder, take up that health insurance policy or skull that vodka while keeping in mind the brand rather than writing off my urge that is second nature.

Inspirational ads do exist. They entertain us, bring perspective and ever so subtly introduce an idea, splashing a bit of colour into our mundane average lives. I never give too much thought to the brand, not until the end. But always without fail, I find myself admiring their creative agency’s capacity to weave a story and bring to life the saying ‘accentuate the positive’. These stories play on our emotions, dreams, curiosity, identity, moral values, pride, child-like innocence and most of all possibility to be greater that what and who we are.

As an ad enthusiast, I love it when I stumble upon such gems. It gives me faith that creativity and aesthetics has once again prevailed over sales objectives. Ads that makes me feel good about a brand? Ads that I watch like episodes of Gossip Girl? Bring it on!.

Johnnie Walker



Simple and full of flavour. What is it accentuating? History. Johnnie Walker is timeless, it just is. It makes me want to grab that bottle and drink down all the pride, reinvention and drive. I love Robert Carlyle's accent and delivery. In other movies he often came across as a bit icky (Trainspotting) but he cleaned up nicely for this TVC.

Optus Whale



I have to say this is a beautiful ad. I love the music and whale sounds. The idea of communicating to whale is way awesome (like Dory from Finding Nemo but with more grace). If you haven't had the chance to visit their website definitely check it out. I go there to relax. Hope they never take down the site. It made it on the Favourite Website Award (FWA) too!

XBox 360



I remember the first time I saw this ad nearly three years ago. My friends and I immediately put the story to practice. Like careless children we ran around the uni campus shooting at each other. It was fun. It made me want to buy an Xbox360 and let me tell you not many ads have that effect on me.

These are some ads I found crawling through my Youtube 'favourited' videos. I'm sure there are many more out there that I’ve missed, if anyone has suggestions post it and let me know