Here are the 30 most creative classic ads I've collected:

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1. Vaseline

Principle: Iconic Layering

Use something iconic to stand your product on top of.

2. Range Rover

Principle: Create An Exclusive Club

Show them everybody else — and how you differ from them.

The more expensive your product is, the more you have to do this.

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3. Band Sports

Principle: The Subtle Joke

People love British humor because of how subtle it is.

This is gold.

4. Keloptic

Principle: POV hacking

Everyone has had the experience of putting on glasses and seeing differently.

Notice how this ad was done with the viewer in mind. Genius.

5. Surreal

Principle: The Third Door

If you can’t afford celebrity endorsements, think outside the box.

6. Plum Guide

Principle: Sell the YOLO

Everyone is procrastinating on their next holiday.

If you remind them how scarce life is, you create activation energy.

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7. Hublot

Principle: Turning Sh*t into Sugar

Bernie Eccleston (billionaire) was attacked in London for his Hublot

He told Hublot to use his battered face as an ad campaign:

"See what people will do for a Hublot"

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8. Porsche

Principle: The Inner Child

Appeal to their inner childhood dream state.

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9. Loctite

Principle: Conversation Hacking

If nobody is talking about your product, find what people are talking about -- and insert your product into the conversation.

10. KFC

Principle: Call out the elephant in the room

If you can't sue them, use them as marketing material.

11. Gameboy

Principle: Your Product > Survival

Position yourself at the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Gameboy is more important than sleep, food, and shelter.

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12. New Balance

Principle: Create humor by connecting two unique audiences.

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13. Wilson's

Principle: The Disclaimer

Use the headline to create extreme emotion.

Use the disclaimer to turn it into a smile.

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14. Luxor

Principle: Advertising is Alchemy

If someone can create a great ad for highlighters, what's your excuse?

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15. Spotify

‍Principle: The Left Turn

Take them down one road... and then take a sudden left turn.

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16. The Economist

Principle: Call Out Your Anti-Customer

Rather than tell them about the wonderful people that use your product -- show them the people who criticize your product.

You can create an aspirational brand by showing them the anti-customer who dislikes your brand.

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17. Porsche

Principle: Funny Humble Brag

If you're going to humble brag about your product - make it funny.

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18. Staedtler

Principle: The 2nd Read

This ad is like a Christopher Nolan movie.

The multiple layers make you want to read it again and again.

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19. Coca-Cola Light

Principle: The 10x Rule

10x the benefit you are trying to advertise to make the point.

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20. Toyota

Principle: The Extreme Stat

90% of statistics are made up. The more specific the number and the funnier the claim - the better.

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21. Alka Seltzer

Principle: Show Them The Pain

Remind them what happens if they don’t use your product.

Accessing those painful memories will create enough emotional energy for them to take action.

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22. Timex

Principle: Create an Enemy

Turn your competition into the enemy by pointing out their weaknesses.

Position your product as the savior from the enemy.

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23. Nescafe

Principle: Stand On The Shoulders of Giants

Take something iconic your audience recognizes — and then layer your product on top with a relevant twist.

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24. Omega

Principle: Anchoring

A $235 watch is framed as more valuable because it's worn by an Astronaut in a $27,000 suit.

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25. Rolls Royce

Principle: The Weakness Reframe

If you can't offer a feature, find a way of reframing this to focus on your strength.

Ogilvy called this "the best headline I ever wrote" -- and it has the same principle as this Porsche ad.

True story - When the Chief Engineer read the advert he said:

"It is time we did something about that damned clock"

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26. BIC

Principle: 1+1=11

BIC sells razors and pens.

They took out ads next to one another for both products.

If you think outside the box, 1+1 can equal 11.

27. Nicototinell

Principle: Vanity > Health

If you want people to stop a negative action, appeal to their narcissism.

28. Nike

Principle: 4 Words

"If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter" - Cicero

29. British Airways

Principle: A picture paints a 1,000 words

"The world's fastest airline"

London > Singapore in a blink of an eye.

30. Bose - Noise Cancelling Headphones

Principle: Contrast your selling point with the most extreme setting

It’s impossible to view this ad without a change in your heartbeat

Bonus: Rolls-Rocye

Rolls-Royce stopped exhibiting at car shows.

Instead, they started exhibiting at private jet shows.

"If you've been looking at jets all afternoon, a £300K car is an impulse buy. It's like putting the sweets next to the counter." - Rory Sutherland

The 20 Most Creative Social Media Ads

1. Fiverr

Principle: The Handbrake Turn

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2. Sunnei

Principle: Multi Tab

Use Multiple iPhone Safari tabs to showcase your product.

Genius.

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3. Liquid Death

Principle: Weakness Reframe

Use your negative reviews and comments and turn them into hilarious ads.

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4. WWF

Principle: Ride The Wave

When everyone is talking about one thing -- insert yourself into the conversation.

5. CRAFTD

Principle: Meme Announcement > Boring Sale Announcement

The more relatable the meme, the more share opportunity it has.

Think "Would I share this with my contacts?"

6. Therabody

Principle: The Group Chat

If you want to put your marketing on steroids, reverse engineer it from the group chat message you want people to send.

7. AG1

Principle: Classical conditioning

Your brain sees this screen and wants to take action.

8. The City of LA

Principle: Meta Marketing

Sometimes being out of ideas can be the idea.

9. Apple

Principle: Minimalism.

Bonus: Notice the sexy locked Apple in the top left corner too.

10. Papier

Principle: CMO = Chief Meme Officer

11. AG1

Principle: Ride The Wave

AG1 taking advantage of the Chat-GPT wave by running AI conversations as ads.

12. IKEA

Principle: Punch Upwards

If you're a commodity product, don't be afraid of punching up at luxury goods.

13. Liquid Death

Principle: The Outrageous SMS

People hate ads that look like ads.

Make it something they want to forward to friends.

14. Hims

Principle: Emojis Speak a 1,000 Words

If Hims was to describe what they mean, this advert would get banned.

But if they use emojis, it's allowed AND it makes the customer laugh.

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15. Wonderskin

Principle: The Worst Case Scenario

Take them to the worst-case scenario -- and show how reliable your product is.

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16. Ridge Wallet

Principle: The Pink Elephant

Show them the boring grey competition -- and then present yourself as a pink elephant.

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17. Converse

Principle: Copy & Paste

People don't think from first principles - they think in analogies.

To give an elevator pitch for your product, use an analogy from another industry.

"The leather jacket of sneakers"

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18. Huel

Principle: Camouflage

They've run a customer's tweet and meme as the ad.

It camouflages it as social content on the newsfeed.

19. Morning Brew

Principle: Show Them The Future

Compare your innovation to the legacy competition

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20. Calm

Principle: The Absurd Scroll Stopper

This is one of my favorite social media ads I've seen in a long time.

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Bonus: Norwich City - World Mental Health Day