9 Inspiring Ads That Work and Why They’re So Effective

Ever seen an advertisement that REALLY made you stop and think? Well, behind those inspiring ads are hours of planning, idea generating, and creative thinking. Coming up with great aren’t as simple as plastering your product everywhere and hoping people will catch on. You’ve got to get inside the heads of everyone in your target market. You’ve got to grab their emotions so tightly that they’ve got no choice other than to do exactly what you want them to do. Here are a few great ads that do just that:   #1 Save The Children     …Powerful stuff, right? I mean, I don’t know about you. But if I saw this ad while tossing out my leftover food, I’d probably think “Wow. I’m pretty fortunate. DEFINITELY fortunate enough to donate a few dollars to Save The Children.” So, yeah. This ad uses emotional appeal to get people to donate pretty well.     #2 Gillette     This is a really cool ad. I mean, if you were sitting at a hockey game, this is something you would definitely notice. And that’s why it works so well. It’s something that catches your eye and, when it DOES catch your eye, you want to tell people about it. And, when you tell people about it, Gillette gets their advertising. Pretty clever!     #3 Save The Children (…again)   Okay… clearly, whoever is coming up with these brilliant ads at Save The Children knows what they’re doing. This is another emotion-invoking one. It uses something that we’re all familiar with – Employee of the Month boards – to illustrate a huge issue: child labor.     #4 Budweiser     Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably saw the recent “Break The Internet” Paper magazine cover featuring an oiled-up Kim Kardashian’s backside. Of course, the photo ended up inspiring lots of ads and spoofs, and this Budweiser ad is one of them. Budweiser used something very relevant in pop culture to draw attention to their products. Everyone’s talking about Kim Kardashian right now, so they used that to their advantage to get everyone talking about Budweiser.     #5 Livegreen   This ad uses litter to call people names. And it works. It’s a good combination of doing something shocking enough to get people talking and doing something emotion-invoking enough to inspire people to do better.     #6 Simonis   This roofing company uses shock value and humor. Why? To make them stand out. To make them memorable in the minds of potential customers. Think about it – when is the last time you saw a roofing company do any kind of marketing this awesome? Probably never. Lots of companies that do “boring” work fall into the trap of thinking their marketing needs to be “boring” too. But that isn’t the case. Boring doesn’t stand out, but THIS ad does. That’s why it works!     #7 Frontline     Well, this is ONE way to show people what it’s like when dogs get fleas… Gross. And also probably pretty annoying for that poor Golden Retriever. I mean, I have two dogs, and just seeing a photo of this ad makes me think about how awful it would be if they had fleas. So imagine if I’d actually leaned over this balcony and seen the ad in person. I’d probably have grabbed whoever I was with and been like, “Whoa, you HAVE to come see this!” It’s another one of those images that gets people talking because it’s so creative. And that’s why it works.     #8 Seatbelt Billboard   Yet again, here’s an ad that’s successful because it’s creative and eye-catching. I mean, you’d definitely NOTICE this if you saw it while driving around. Whoever created the ad knew that. The ad also uses fear (if you don’t buckle up, you could be thrown from your car) to get people to do something: buckle up. Pretty effective, if you ask me.     #9 PurpleFeather   I saved the best for last. And yes, I’m definitely biased because I’m a copywriter. But you have to admit, this is pretty amazing. In the video (which went viral), the writing company clearly shows how good copy gets results.   Have you seen any other inspiring ads lately? Let us know in the comments below.