Characters

Mad Men premiered on AMC in 2007, thus reminding a world that otherwise may have forgotten about the peak of one of the flashiest and most lucrative industries.

While Budweiser was making ads directed towards young, party crazed dudes, Dos Equis opted to feature a Hemingway-esque figure to aspire to. The most interesting man in the world.

Ask any old timer from the Mad Men era what they think of modern advertising, and there’s a good chance they’ll scoff in your face (trust us, we tried). But one brand that can’t be denied, at least in their effectiveness, is GEICO.

He’s the coolest, pinkest, most energetically obnoxious toy bunny around. Energizer brand batteries rolled out the Energizer Bunny in 1989, and he did way more than hide eggs once a year.

“Introducing the world’s newest, silliest, hamburger-eating-est clown…Ronald McDonald!” Scared of clowns? Maybe you should avoid time traveling back to 1963.

The ads featured a sweet, baby faced mascot named Speedy who would sing a jingle that told of the relief brought forth by the effervescent tablets.

When Wieden & Kennedy rebranded Old Spice, they launched a campaign that helped redefine the brand. “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” took the concept of manliness from scruffy and expected to classy and cool.

James Montgomery Flagg’s poster of Uncle Sam was just one of 46 illustrations he completed for war efforts before his death in 1960. Dubbed “The most famous poster in the world,” this commanding image of the fictional Uncle Sam pointing his finger directly at the viewer spoke to Americans.

Simple. Effective. Funny. These three characteristics defined the first great campaign of the new millennium, from TBWA/Chiat/Day.

Before he “switched to Sprint” Paul Marcarelli started his 10 year contract with Verizon as their test man in 2002.

This was the decade of the great creative Super Bowl face-off from two of the game’s largest advertisers. Overall, Pepsi won, but as the 1990s ended, Budweiser dominated.

The “Fast Talker Campaign” for Federal Express featured John Moschitta’s rapid fire, non-stop speaking about the fast-paced business world. Its launch is still considered one of the greatest comedy spots of all time.

Burger King released Subservient Chicken as a launch for their new chicken sandwich, taking the tagline “Chicken Your Way” to an all too literal place.

From 2001-2002, Clive Owen teamed up with BMW to take action packed chase scenes to a whole new level of bad-assary. The Hire, a series of 8 short films designed to subtly highlight the auto brand’s features, was perhaps the earliest successful example of a brand producing video content specifically for internet release.

With the outbreak of the second World War in 1939 came a huge depletion of the industrialized workforce. Enter Rosie the Riveter, a powerful character created by a government campaign aimed at recruiting women to join the munitions industry.