The riskiest commercials ever made

It is rare that an advertising critic will say, "I loved it because it was conventional". The industry praises the daredevils and risk-takers of creativity, so take a look at some of the riskiest ads ever made.

Two creatives have compiled lists of the riskiest advertisements from around the world.

McCann Sydney's Associate Creative Director Joe Hawkins

When you’re asked to pick five of the riskiest pieces of advertising you’ve seen, or at least know about, there’s a temptation to go to the classics: Apple’s ‘1984’, VW ‘Lemon’ and Avis’ ‘We try harder’ spring to mind. There’s no denying that each of these spots was considered risky, then and even now.
 
But risky in what way exactly?
 
There’s a good argument to say that you run an even riskier piece of advertising if it simply blends in, doesn’t get noticed, and produces no result.
 
So, to avoid choosing five spots that everyone ignored, I’m taking ‘risky’ to mean something that’s a bit out of category – something unexpected. And to avoid repeating what you’ve already read in a billion advertising texts, I’ll avoid the groundbreaking early classics and try to pick a few contemporary numbers.


1. Cadbury – Gorilla
Where to start. It’s Cadbury. Purveyors of Joy. Loved by millions of kids and families the world over. A new ad! Oooooo, exciting!! And then it hits. An eerie Phil Collins instrumental intro. ‘In the Air Tonight’! Sweet, I know this. Then there’s a close-up pan of a gorilla. Ok. And it’s sitting at a drumkit. Which is when pretty much everyone’s minds turned into Creme Egg. Dark, fruity and completely memorable.

2&3. Honda – Grrr & Cog
A Japanese car manufacturer wants to sell cars. They’re Japanese. They’re kinda conservative, right? Mah.
“I don’t want to see any cars!! I want pretty pictures, colours, nature, birds, a trickling stream. And I want the word ‘HATE’ to be spelt out in the first few seconds. Actually, let’s make it a song. A country and western sorta track. Old and crusty sounding singer. Good”
And to prove it wasn’t a bad hair day in the management department, it happened a second time (I may have my order arse-about here, but this isn’t supposed to be a history lesson).
“Ok, we want to show off the car. Nice driving shots? No, the car handles like a pig. Interior shots? No no no, interior’s a bit of a dog’s breakfast. I’ve got it, let’s dismantle the car completely and use the bits. Yeah yeah, one bit touches the next etc etc. It’ll be awesome!”
And it was.

4. Burger King – Whopper Sacrifice
Talk about backing yourself. Burger King dared people to de-friend 10 of their ‘mates’ on Facebook to receive a free $3.50 burger. That’s 35 cents a friend!! Disgusting! How could people be so vain and insincere and… oh, hang about. Cheap, effective, and banned by Facebook. Job done. One of the first inventively disruptive uses of a medium we still struggle to harness today.

5. Nike+
Nike was tanking in the running shoe department. But rather than create an advertising campaign to promote its shoes, it created a digital platform to promote the act of running. Hell, you didn’t even need to own Nike shoes to use Nike+. What seemed suicidal on paper proved to be a genius strategic, game-changing move. Now you can’t think about running without thinking Nike+.

Whybin\TBWA's National Digital Creative Director Russ Tucker

1. Red Bull Stratos
The next time you worry about launching that ad campaign you've been working on, spare a thought for those poor people who worked on the Red Bull Stratos project. Imagine the relentless planning, overbearing sense of worry and risk associated with live streaming a man jumping from the very edge of space to promote an energy drink. The last 'brand' to bravely put a man into space with such showmanship was probably NASA.

2. Yorkie Bar 'It's not for Girls' - JWT
Most chocolate is marketed towards women so Nestle created a chunky chocolate bar called the Yorkie bar.
They caused instant controversy by printing "It's not for girls" on the wrapper and tongue in cheek campaigns to build the brand.

3.  K-Swiss 'Kenny Powers CEO' - 72 & Sunny
The world of sports marketing is taken very seriously. K-Swiss broke that convention by appointing Kenny Powers as their game changing CEO.

4. Bodyform Facebook response video "the truth" - Carat
Bodyform UK hilariously responded to a man called Richard after he left a damning Facebook comment saying the brands ads had lied to him over the years. It could have gone horribly wrong but it went horribly right.

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