35 years that changed advertising

8/14/2019 35 Years That Changed Advertising

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Keymoments,shockingandsubtle,sinceAdweeksfoundingByDavidGrinerNovember 11, 2013, 10:32 PM EST

35 Years That Changed Advertising

When Adweek began publishing its first issues in 1978, the industry it set out to cover was

at a crossroads. The Mad Men era was ending, ad budgets were about to boom, and the

days of digital were already nigh.

As we mark our 35th anniversarywhich, counting this year, is actually 36 yearsAdweek

today looks back at a few of the key moments, some subtle and some shocking, that

changed the nature of advertising and made marketing what it is today.

1978: The First Taste of Inbox Spam

ars That Changed Advertising | Adweek http://www.adweek.com/news-gallery/35-years-changed-advertisin

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Almost as long as there has been an Internet, a thick coating of spam has clogged the pipes.

It began when an eager salesman used the U.S. governments Arpanet to announce a

hardware demo to nearly 400 users (15 percent of the network). The military brass clamped

down hard, but an insidious industry was born.

Also this year: 3M launched its "Boise Blitz," in which samples of a new product were given

to hundreds of residents in one Idaho city. With an unprecedented 90% intent to

repurchase, the product soon debuted nationally as the Post-It Note.

Created this year: Hitachi Maxell's iconic "blown-away guy" photograph, shot by StevenSteigman for agency Scali, McCabe, Sloves.

Also this year: The first Star Wars action figures went on sale and quickly proved to be

staggeringly popular, totaling more than 40 million units and $100 million in sales.

1979: Saatchi Wins Britain for Thatcher


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When Britain's Conservative party took control of the parliament, bringing Margaret

Thatcher to power as prime minister, they definitely owed some of their success to Saatchi

& Saatchi.

The agency's "Labour Isn't Working" poster showed an unemployment line that seemed to

stretch for miles (though it was actually just the same small group of young Conservatives

pasted over and over). It became a centerpiece of the political debate. In 1999, Campaign

magazine named it "the best poster of the century."

Created this year: Anheuser-Busch's "This Bud's for You" slogan and ad campaign byagency D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles.

Acquired this year: SSC&B-Lintas by Interpublic Group.

Founded this year: Backer & Spielvogel

1980: Mean Joe Green Shows His Soft Side


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In 1980, Super Bowl ads weren't known as blockbusters. Until this one came along.

McCann-Erickson's "Mean Joe Greene" ad for Coca-Cola quickly became the stuff of legend

when it appeared during the Super Bowl featuring Greene's Pittsburgh Steelers and the Los

Angeles Rams.

In the spot, Greene is trying to walk off an injury when a young fan offers him a Coke.

Greene drops his signature surliness and tosses the boy his game jersey. The scenario

became a pop-culture sensationand the basis for a 1981 TV movie.

Founded this year: Digitas

Also this year: Ogilvy & Mather launched its Public Relations subsidiary, which by 2013

would have 85 offices worldwide.

1981: MTV Goes on Air, and Suddenly Ads Are Art

They began as pricey promotional clips created by mega-popular artists like the Beatles,

David Bowie and Pink Floyd. But music videos were democratized overnight with the

launch of MTV on Aug. 1, 1981.

The cable channel almost immediately broke radio's decades-long grip on music

promotion, and a new generation of artists became top sellers thanks to their videos, which


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served as long-form ads for new albums and singles.

Perhaps MTV's biggest impact on advertising, though, was its aesthetic. Many video

directors, including David Fincher and Michel Gondry, became top talents in advertising

and Hollywood.

Created this year:

The U.S. Army slogan "Be all that you can be," by agency N.W. Ayer & Son, which

resigned the account in 1986 amid allegations of kickbacks

TBWA's first iconic bottle print ad for Absolut

FedEx's first "Fast Talker" ad from Ally & Gargano

Marschalk Co.'s original "Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?" TV spot

Acquired this year: Regis McKenna, by Chiat/Day, inheriting Apple as a client.

Founded this year: Lowe Howard-Spink, eventually renamed Lowe & Partners Worldwide

1982: Bill Bernbach's Death and the End of an Era

He was known for pairing creativity with humility, yielding some of the best advertising of

its day. Bill Bernbach's work on Volkswagen ("Think small"), Avis ("We try harder") and

Polaroid ("It's so simple") brought humanity, wit and intellect to a field that struggled to

achieve even one of the three.

But when the iconic co-founder of Doyle Dane Bernbach passed away, the era he had

helped usher in also seemed to be on its last legs. The '80s would soon become known for

its shallow opulence and avariceand a time of ads starring beautiful people and big logos.

His ideas, though, would never die. Instead of being a relic, he was, like all great thinkers,


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simply ahead of his time.

Also this year: Paul Newman and neighbor A. E. Hotchner launched Newman's Own with a

policy of never advertising. "We considered advertising, but it takes so much money,"

Hotchner told Adweek. "It would reduce what we could give to charity."

Created this year:

Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, featuring an initially unpaid product

placement for Reese's Pieces that led parent company Hershey to invest $1 million in

advertising the film

Dunkin Donuts' Fred the Baker and his catchphrase, "Time to make the donuts," by Ally &

Gargano

Founded this year: Bartle Bogle Hegarty, along with Wieden + Kennedy.

1983: Apple Creates an Epic

It was, quite simply, the best TV ad ever created. And almost no one was around to see it.

That's because Chiat/Day's epic Apple ad, "1984," made its debut on a small Idaho TVstation in the last timeslot of the last day of 1983, one month before its Super Bowl

appearance.

The early airing made "1984" eligible for the 1983 ad awards, and that confidence proved

ustified. Apple's board fought to kill the ad, but Jay Chiat and Steve Jobs stood their

ground, helping ensure the Ridley Scott-directed spot would become one of the most

celebrated in advertising history.

Also this year: Michael Jackson and Pepsi forge a record-shattering $5 million


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endorsement deal.

Published this year: "Ogilvy on Advertising" by David Ogilvy

Founded this year: Goodby, Berlin & Silverstein

1984: "Where's the Beef?"

While its fame is inexplicably lasting, the catch phrase "Where's the beef?" actually had a

short shelf life in Wendy's advertising.

Written by Cliff Freeman during his last days at Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, the slogan was

simply the punch line to a TV ad featuring geriatric burger buyers who were unimpressed

with a competitor chain's "big bun." It soon exploded in popularity, and became the

definitive example of an ad slogan.

Wendy's abandoned the line in 1985, and adopted "Choose fresh" instead. But it wasalready part of the American vernacular, thanks in part to presidential candidate Walter

Mondale using it as a dig at primary opponent Gary Hart.

Created this year:

Frank Bartles and Ed Jaymes, fictional founders of Bartles and Jaymes wine coolers. The

folksy campaign was the work of Hal Riney, who cast two non-actors in roles that would

become 1980s ad icons.

Another Hal Riney brainchild, Ronald Reagan's "Morning in America" election ad, written

and narrated by Riney.

Also this year: AT&T was forced to break apart its Bell System monopoly, paving the way

for a new era of highly competitive telecom brands.

Merged this year: Fahlgren & Ferris and Swink Advertising, forming Fahlgren & Swink

1985: New Coke Sets the Bar for Brand Disasters


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"It can now be seen as the industry's biggest mistake." Those were the words of BBDO chief

Allen Rosenshine, basking in a brief moment of victory for his client, Pepsi.

Coca-Cola's attempt to modernize its recipe for a sweeter taste (largely in reaction to Pepsi's

growing popularity) sparked rapid and widespread backlash. Sales dropped 35 percent

among Southern bottlers, and the brand quickly retreated by re-launching Coca-Cola

Classic.

McDonald's and other chains soon dropped New Coke because of confusion and low

demand, but the reformulation would quietly survive for many years to come.

Also this year: The price of a Super Bowl ad surpasses $1 million per minute for the firsttime.

Created this year:

Visa's "It's everywhere you want to be" campaign by BBDO

Rolling Stone's "Perception/Reality" print ads from Fallon, named Print Campaign of the

1980s by The One Club.

In theaters this year: Lost in America, starring Albert Brooks as a beleaguered ad exec

based largely on his real-life brother, Cliff Einstein, president of Dailey & Associates.

1986: BBDO and DDB Create a 'Global Creative Superpower'


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Merger mania had arrived, and nothing made this more obvious than the birth of Omnicom

Group, made up of U.S. powerhouse agencies DDB, Needham Harper Steers and BBDO.

Completing the quartet later known as the Big Four, Omnicom pledged to be a "global

creative superpower" that could withstand the pressures of its aggressive peers: Interpublic

Group and Publicis (along with WPP in the coming years).

The transition was far from painless, though, with conflicts of interest driving away BBDO

clients worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Hill Holliday CEO Malcolm MacDougal joked

to Adweek that it was "a most interesting mnage a trois we'll all be fascinated to watch

who does what to whom."

Also this year: Apple shifts its advertising to BBDO, sparking recently ousted Steve Jobs to

buy a full-page Wall Street Journal ad congratulating Chiat/Day on "seven years of

consistently outstanding work."

Founded this year:

RPA

Hal Riney & Partners (previously the San Francisco office of Ogilvy & Mather)

Created this year:

The "Joe Isuzu" campaign from Della Femina Travisano & Partners

The California Raisins, a Claymation campaign from animator Will Vinton and agency

Foote, Cone & Belding

Acquired this year:

Backer & Spielvogel, by Saatchi and Saatchi

Ally & Gargano, by Marketing Corporation of America


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1987: Martin Sorrell Goes for Blood in Hostile Takeover of JWT

It was called Wire and Plastic Products, a maker of shopping baskets. That is, until Martin

Sorrell came along. The ultra-ambitious ad exec had been the architect of Saatchi &

Saatchi's recent acquisition, and by investing his way to the top of WPP, he created the

vehicle to accomplish even more.

In 1987, he showed the true scope of his ambition with a $566 million acquisition of J.

Walter Thompson, the first hostile takeover in advertising history and bone-rattling salvo

in the escalating acquisition wars.

Also this year: Black Monday pounded world markets, slicing the Dow Jones Industrial

average 22.6 percent. On the bright side, Adweek noted the event also "sounded the final

death knell on Madison Avenue for some of advertising's most despised charactersthe

yuppies."

Created this year:

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America's best-known PSAs, "This is your brain on

drugs" and "I learned it by watching you!"


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Bud Light spokesdog Spuds McKenzie, who debuted in a Super Bowl ad from DDB

Needham

The CDC's first major AIDS awareness PSA campaign, created by Ogilvy & Mather

Merged this year: Saatchi & Saatchi shops Ted Bates Worldwide Inc. and Backer &

Spielvogel Inc., becoming Backer Spielvogel Bates Worldwide Inc. Shortened in 1994 to

Bates Worldwide.

Acquired this year: Burton-Campbell, by Earle Palmer Browne

1988: Nike Unleashes 'Just Do It'

The night before one of the biggest campaign presentations of Dan Wieden's life, he just

wasn't feeling it. The Wieden + Kennedy founder was preparing to unveil Nike's first major

ad campaign, but the handful of TV spots "didn't look anything alike, and they didn't really

sum up to anything," he later told Adweek.

Inspired, oddly enough, by death-row inmate Gary Gilmore's final words, "Let's do it,"

Wieden wrote the line, "Just do it." It became a mantra that elevated Nike into a global

lifestyle and fashion brand accessible to beginners and Olympians alike. Marking the 25th

anniversary, Adweek called the line "one of the biggest ad ideas ever."

Also this year:

Diet Coke helped make cinema advertising a trend in the U.S., resulting in a lot of

negativity. "If we wanted to see Coke commercials," one movie-goer told Adweek, "we could

have saved the money and stayed home and watched TV."

Coca-Cola threatened to sue any of its bottlers who advertise that their versions of Coke

contained real sugar rather than high-fructose corn syrup.

Two political attack adsone featuring furloughed felon Willie Horton and one showingprisoners walking through a revolving doorwere largely credited with turning public

opinion against Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis.

1989: Y&R Indicted for Tourism Bribery


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It was a well-known fact among agencies that winning international tourism accounts

meant sharing the wealth with local officials. But that didn't stop the U.S. government from

indicting Young & Rubicam on bribery charges stemming from its 1981 win of Jamaican

tourism.

Even Y&R's competitors told Adweek the prosecution was naive, but the agency pleaded

guilty in 1990 to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and was fined $500,000.

Also this year: Digital printing enabled high-quality photography in outdoor ads. Adweek

noted that one of Coors Light's first vinyl boards, showing a woman lounging in a bikini,

was promptly stolen after being posted near a college campus in San Diego.

Created this year: The Energizer Bunny, by DDB Chicago

Acquired this year: Ogilvy & Mather, by WPP

Founded this year: Aegis, a media spinoff of France's WCRS Group

1990: Cable Comes of Age


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"It's time we stopped talking about broadcast versus cable," Ted Turner told a gathering of

TV

advertisers in 1990, "and started talking about television."

The cable king's confidence stemmed from the fact that more than 60 percent of TV

households had subscribed to cable, with CNN's audience growing from 2 million to 56

million in one decade. Thanks to improved metrics and flexible marketing partnerships,

brands began demanding more cable in their media mix.

"What I want to do," a Nestl Foods exec told Adweek, "is make [our agencies] look at cable

seriously, and not put on the normal blinders."

Created this year: The Taster's Choice couple, an American recreation of McCann

Erickson's popular U.K. campaign, the Gold Blend Couple

In theaters this year: Crazy People, a Dudley Moore comedy mocking the ridiculousness of

1980s advertising

Acquired this year: Franklin & Associates, by Earle Palmer Brown

1991: War and Advertising in the 24-Hour News Cycle


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It was the war that cemented the concept of 24-hour news, but for advertisers, nothing was

concrete. The rapid U.S. liberation of Kuwait and assault on Iraq in the Gulf War left

advertisers scrambling to avoid looking insensitive.

Many brands pulled all their advertising from broadcast and cable, while others changed

media plans by the hour as the war progressed. Diet Coke's lighthearted Super Bowl ads

were replaced by somberly narrated type announcing a $1 million donation to the USO.

Also this year: Due to unpaid bills and poor planning, an awkward and chaotic CLIO

Awards night became known as "The Most Bizarre Event in Advertising History."

Acquired this year: RSCG, by Eurocom, forming Euro RSCG

Founded this year: Sapient

1992: Lee Iacocca Retires as CEO and Ad Icon


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As he filmed the last of his 61 ads as the tough-talking face of Chrysler, CEO Lee Iacocca left

behind a legacy that empowered executives and frustrated agencies.

His success as a spokesman in the vein of Frank Perdue led many other corporate leaders to

insist they could do it, too. "I'm not sure if others should follow his lead," N.W. Ayer svp

Earl Shorris told Adweek. "For every Iacocca, I can think of 10 to 20 who have failed."

Also this year: New Coke is rebranded as Coke II, a name that would last for another 10

years, but only in limited distribution.

Founded this year: Olson

Created this year: "Beef, it's what's for dinner," a slogan and campaign from Leo Burnett for

the National Livestock and Meat Board

1993: "Got Milk?"


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It began with a simple focus-group insight: "The only time I even think about milk is when

I run out of it." Jeff Goody immediately scribbled the phrase "Got milk?"which would

soon become the tagline to rule all taglines.

Through cinematic TV spots and countless "milk mustache" ads, the line invented by

Goodby, Silverstein & Partners for the California Milk Processor Board would become the

best-remembered slogan of any beverage ever, including beer and soda.

Created this year: Michael Jordan and Larry Bird's epic game of H.O.R.S.E. in "The

Showdown," a Super Bowl spot for McDonald's from Leo Burnett. In 2013, USA Today

rated it the No. 1 Super Bowl ad of all time.

Founded this year: WongDoody

Acquired this year:

Scali, McCabe & Sloves by Interpublic Group, getting subsidiary The Martin Agency as

part of the deal

TBWA by Omnicom

1994: Birth of the Banner Ad

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Retailer. It all had to start somewhere, and boy did it start oddly.

The first banner ad of note appeared on Wired magazine's early web presence, HotWired. It

simply asked, "Have you ever clicked your mouse right HERE? You will." Though

unbranded, it was an AT&T ad that shuttled readers off to a landing page about art

museums and other educational destinations. The reported click-through rate? A

staggering 44 percent.

Also this year: After 79 years and countless memorable ads, D'Arcy Masius Benton &

Bowles lost Budweiser to DDB Needham, which had been creating Bud Light ads.

Acquired this year: Ammirati & Puris, by Interpublic Group

1995: Buffett Buys Out Geico

As far back as 1951, Warren Buffett saw the potential of Geico. At age 20, he invested half

his net worth in the insurer. He continued investing until 1995, when he bought the last

remaining 49 percent of shares.

"He told us to keep doing what we were doing, just do it faster," Geico marketing vp Ted

Ward told Adweek. Buffett's enthusiasm turned Geico into one of the world's largest

advertisers, with an annual media budget now in the range of $1 billion.

Also this year: R/GA shifted its focus to being an interactive agency.

Acquired this year:

Chiat/Day, by Omnicom, merging it with TBWA

Arnold Communications, by Snyder Communications.


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Founded this year: Razorfish

Created this year: Chick-fil-A's cow-centric "Eat Mor Chikin" ad campaign, by The Richards

Group

1996: Seagrams Breaks the Liquor Ad Ban

Liquor brands had voluntarily kept themselves out of TV advertising since 1948, but that all

ended when Seagram made the gradual but deliberate decision to start promoting Crown

Royal in select TV markets.

The ads began in March, and by November, the U.S. liquor trade association had decided to

follow Seagram's lead and end its voluntary ban, despite opposition from socialconservatives and President Clinton. By 2013, distillers were spending nearly $250 million

a year on TV advertising.

Also this year:

An article titled "The Virus of Marketing" in Fast Company popularized the term "viral

marketing."

Daniel Snyder, 32, became the youngest-ever CEO of a NYSE-listed corporation when the

Snyder Communications IPO raised $130 million.


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Merged this year: Ammirati Puris Lintas and Lowe Group

Founded this year: Mother

1997: Drug Ads Get the Green Light for TV

For pharmaceutical marketers in the 1990s, a "brief summary" was anything but brief. The

FDA required almost every drug ad, even on TV, to include this laundry list of potential side

effects, warnings and limitations.

In 1997, the FDA loosened its broadcast rules by instead allowing a "major statement,"

covering only the drug's most crucial information. Pharma ad spending promptly exploded

from $340 million in 1997 to $1.2 billion in 1998. Today it is around $3.5 billion.

Also this year:

Alex Bogusky was named partner at Crispin Porter

Clear Channel bought billboard firm Eller Media, resulting in the creation of Clear

Channel Outdoor

Created this year:

Apple's "Think Different" campaign from TBWA/Chiat/Day

MasterCard's "Priceless" campaign from McCann Erickson

In theaters this year: The James Bond film "Tomorrow Never Dies," bolstered by an

unprecedented $100 million in product placement deals with eight brand sponsors.

1998: Google Gets Going


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When Google incorporated in 1998, founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page had two key

assets: a $100,000 check from Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim and a meticulously

well-thought-out plan for revolutionizing Web search.

Their academic paper, "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine,"

created a clear road map for Google's success, with one big exception: it balked at ads. The

founders expressed concern that "advertising-funded search engines will be inherently

biased towards the advertisers and away from the needs of the consumers."

Also this year:Wieden + Kennedy created a Calvin Klein campaign that featured email addresses as a call

to action. Emailing one of the ad characters would initiate a series of fictional

correspondence, which lasted three years and paved the way for future social-media

campaigns.

Created this year: The first Priceline.com ad featuring William Shatner.

Published this year: Luke Sullivan's copywriting guide, "Hey Whipple, Squeeze This."

Acquired this year:

Abbott Mead Vickers, by Omnicom Hal Riney & Partners and the Evans Group, both by Publicis

Founded this year: 360i

1999: The Death of David Ogilvy, 'Father of Advertising'


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Putting research behind your advertising, creating a brand, respecting your audience

these are just a few of today's standard advertising axioms largely credited to David

Ogilvy. The British-born founder of Ogilvy & Mather revolutionized advertising and created

a global empire along the way.

After WPP's hostile takeover in 1989, Ogilvy drifted out of the limelight and died 10 years

later at age 88. Former Ogilvy & Mather chairman Kenneth Roman wrote in Adweek that

Ogilvy's strength stemmed from his boundless curiosity: "Even as he elevated to world

renown, he never pontificatedhe interrogated, even with dinner partners. His great secret

was an inquiring mind."

Also this year: The city of Halfway, Ore., was paid $100,000 to change its name to Half.com

for a year.

In theaters this year: The Blair Witch Project, whose shoestring budget was amplified into

$248 million in box office revenue thanks largely to innovative Internet marketing that

made the events of the film seem real.

Merged this year: Ketchum and Earle Palmer Browne

Acquired this year: Havas, by Vivendi. The ad portion of the resulting Vivendi Publishing

Group was spun off into its own company, Havas Advertising, in 2000 and later shortened

to Havas.

Founded this year: Digital agency Huge

2000: The Dot-Com Super Bowl


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Computer.com. Kforce.com. OurBeginning.com. These and many other Super Bowl

advertisers were virtually unknown before 2000. And millions of dollars later, they remainso today.

A baffling 47 percent of Super Bowl advertisers that year were websites, flush with

speculative investment cash and doomed to collapse when the bubble burst just two

months later. By 2001's big game, the tally of dot-com advertisers went from 17 back down

to threethe same as in 1999.

Also this year: Google launched Adwords, which today generates the bulk of the search

giant's $40 billion+ in annual ad revenue.

Acquired this year:

Young & Rubicam, by WPP

Saatchi & Saatchi, by Publicis

Deutsch, by Interpublic Group

Published this year: "The Cluetrain Manifesto," a treatise that largely predicted the coming

age of social media, by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger.

Created this year: Geico's Gecko, by The Martin Agency

2001: BMW's 'The Hire' Redefines Branded Content


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Hollywood A-listers have never been known for their love of advertising, which made it all

the more impressive when Fallon and BMW created "The Hire," a series of big-budget

branded short films that accelerated digital video into the mainstream.

Helmed by top-tier directors like Ang Lee, John Woo and Tony Scott, the videos increased

BMW sales by double digits for two consecutive years, helping the automaker surpass

Mercedes.

Created this year: "The New York Miracle" tourism campaign, launched just two months

after the 9/11 terror attacks to demonstrate New York City's resilience.

Founded this year:

The Barbarian Group

AKQA

2002: Wendy's Loses its Founding Father


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He was a high-school dropout by age 16, a millionaire by 35, and at the time of his death at

age 69, an American advertising icon who had starred in more than 800 commercials.

While most executive spokesmen were known for their intensity, Thomas was known for

his warm, humble and occasionally bumbling charm.

After Thomas's death, his 6,000-restaurant chain (and agency Kaplan Thaler) struggled to

find the right replacement. His daughter, Wendy, has appeared in several ads, but so has a

younger redhead character played by an actor.

Also this year:

Interpublic Group stock plummeted and its acquisition plans stalled due to accounting

irregularities at its flagship shop, McCann Erickson. The holding company settled with the

SEC in 2008, paying a $12 million fine.

Coca-Cola officially discontinued New Coke, being sold as Coke II.

Acquired this year: Leo Burnett and D'Arcy, both by Publicis

Founded this year: mcgarrybowen

2003: iPod Finds Success in Silhouette


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Apple has always been proud of its product design, so showing off the new and innovative

iPod in ads seemed like a no-brainer. But initial spots for the device after its 2001 debut

proved bland and forgettable.

In 2003, TBWA\Chiat\Day persuaded Steve Jobs to try something completely different:

stylized dancing silhouettes dangling white earbuds. The campaignand the iPodquickly

became cultural icons.

Created this year:

Honda and Wieden + Kennedy's $6.2 million masterpiece of meticulous advertising,"Cog"

The enduring Las Vegas tourism slogan, "What happens here, stays here," by R&R

Partners

McDonald's first global ad campaign, with the slogan "I'm lovin' it," launched by DDB

Worldwide's German subsidiary, Heye & Partner.

Founded this year: MySpace

2004: Crispin Hatches Subservient Chicken


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With its hauntingly large eyes and garters, it wasn't the world's most appetizing poultry.

But among marketers, Subservient Chicken created a voracious appetite for digital

innovation. And it sold plenty of Burger King sandwiches, too.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky and The Barbarian Group created the creature by having an actor

in a chicken suit perform hundreds of tasks. When visitors to the website typed commands,

the supposed live feed of the chicken seemed to do almost anything. The result, while

admittedly silly, revolutionized the way advertisers thought about engaging fans online.

Published this year: "Lovemarks" by Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi

Founded this year:

72andSunny

Anomaly

Facebook

Merged this year: Avenue A and Razorfish

2005: GoDaddy Undresses the Super Bowl


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The Super Bowl has never been a forum known for its high art, but it took a little-known

URL booking service to prove just how low the bar could go. Since running its first spot

featuring scantily clad model/wrestler Candice Michelle, Go Daddy has become

synonymous with salacious Super Bowl ads.

Since then, several other brands have tried to hop on the controversy train, with many

explicitly hoping to get banned for extra buzz. Go Daddy, for its part, says it plans to drop

the sexy stunts and try a new tack in 2014.

Created this year: Calton Draught's "Big Ad," an early viral sensation created by George

Patterson and Partners.

Acquired this year: Grey Global, by WPP

Founded this year: YouTube

2006: R/GA Redefines the Role of Agencies with Nike+


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Never afraid to reinvent itself, R/GA also helped reinvent the expectation of agencies with

Nike+, combining hardware, software and social media to help runners track and share

their experiences. It continues to evolve long after Adweek named it the Digital Campaign

of the Decade at the end of 2009.

"With the launch of Nike+, marketers realized they could create useful, personal tools that

extended beyond traditional marketing," R/GA creative chief Nick Law tells Adweek today.

"What these marketers didn't realize was just how difficult it is to develop, manage and

grow a behavior-changing product, which is why eight years later Nike is still in a category

of one."

Also this year: Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion.

Created this year:

The Crash the Super Bowl promotion from Frito-Lay and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners

Office Max's Elf Yourself site

Blendtec's "Will It Blend?" video series

Merged this year: Foote, Cone & Belding and Draft (both Interpublic shops), forming

DraftFCB

Founded this year: Droga5

2007: Mad Men Makes Advertising Cool Again

Sexism. Adultery. Fall-down drunkenness. You wouldn't think such themes would help

re-ignite America's admiration for the ad industry. But the stylish savoir faire of AMC's

Mad Men helped highlight the industry's legacy of intellect and cool creativity.


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Dr. Isabella Cunningham, chair of the University of Texas at Austin's advertising program,

says interest in the field has clearly increased among students, though it hard to say how

much is due to Mad Men. "The positive image of advertising and public relations has

improved considerably in recent years," she says. "Maybe it is a function of the fact we're

being considered more cool than we used to be because of the image in the media."

Also this year: Holding company MDC increases its stake in Crispin Porter + Bogusky from

49 percent to 77 percent. MDC later acquired the remaining shares, as well.

Acquired this year:

Avenue A | Razorfish, by Microsoft

Digitas, by Publicis

Founded this year: Engauge, through the merger of Ten United, Spunlogic and Direct

Impact

2008: Facebook Seals MySpace's Fate

At one point, it seemed like a fair fight. MySpace and Facebook had been locked in aCoke-and-

Pepsi showdown since 2006, when Mark Zuckerburg opened his college-centric social

network to the public.

In 2008, Facebook surpassed MySpace in the coveted Alexa site rankings, the first clear

sign that Facebook would become what it is today: the dominant social network not just for

America, but for the world.

Also this year: Barack Obama's presidential victory was seen as a sign of the importance of


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social media in political fund-raising and organizing.

Created this year:

Progressive spokeswoman Flo, by Arnold Worldwide

The first "E*trade Baby" spot from Grey

Acquired this year: Huge, by Interpublic.

2009: AT&T and Verizon Wage $4 Billion Ad War

It was a showdown that made the Cola wars look like a schoolyard scrap. In the battle for

cell-service supremacy, AT&T and Verizon spent a combined $4 billion in 2009, blanketing

the airwaves with confrontational spots mocking each other's network strength and device

limitations.

The clear winner, of course, were the agenciesMcCann-Erickson for Verizon and BBDO

for AT&T. The pace has kept up, too, with both brands remaining as two of the top five ad

spenders per year.

Also this year: Cliff Freeman and Partners, launched after the success of Freeman's

"Where's the beef?" slogan for Wendy's, quietly closed its doors after being dogged by client

and talent losses in the 2000s.

Created this year:

Tourism Queensland's The Best Job in the World, created by CumminsNitro

Burger King's Whopper Sacrifice app on Facebook from Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Acquired this year:

Avenue A | Razorfish, by Publicis


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Nitro Group, by Sapient

Founded this year: Digital agency Breakfast

2010: Old Spice, the Brand Your Brand Could Smell Like

Few campaigns have come to epitomize the new nature of advertising quite like Wieden +

Kennedy's hilariously swaggering "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like." Though

primarily meant for TV, the initial spot starring towel-clad actor Isaiah Mustafa exploded

online, tallying tens of millions of views.

W+K quickly made the most of it, creating 200 rapid-fire response videos in which Mustafa

responded in character to influencers and consumers who engaged with the brand. Even

today, brands with three times the budget struggle to match Old Spice's social success.

Also this year:

Industry icon Alex Bogusky left Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Facebook ad revenue surpassed $1.2 billion.

Chevrolet moved its advertising to Publicis Worldwide after 91 years with Campbell

Ewald.

Founded this year:

Barton F. Graf 9000

Victors & Spoils

2011: Pepsi Drops to No. 3


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Think of it as losing the battle but winning the war. After opting to sit out the Super Bowl in

2010 and focus on digital, Pepsi slipped embarrassingly to the No. 3 soda spot a year later,

with Coca-Cola and Diet Coke owning the top two positions.

It might have looked like it was losing the Cola wars, but Pepsi had actually outmaneuvered

Coke by focusing on snack brands like Frito-Lay and Quaker. In 2012, PepsiCo's revenues

were more than $66 billion, compared to Coca-Cola's $48 billion.

Created this year:

Volkswagen's "The Force" by Deutsch, Los Angeles.

Chipotle's "Back to the Start," by CAA

2012: Red Bull Takes Extreme Advertising Into the Stratosphere


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When you've seemingly exhausted every extreme activity on earth, there's only one logical

place left to go: space.

Red Bull came pretty close when it sponsored skydiver Felix Baumgartner's 24-mile leap

from the edge of the atmosphere. Eight million people tuned in to YouTube to watch the

heavily branded event in real time, with many more watching on TV.

Baumgartner may have been the one breaking a world record, but it was Red Bull who

tacitly turned it into a challenge: Would any other brand be willing to go this far, literally or

figuratively?

Created this year:

Dollar Shave Club's highly popular online launch clip, "Our Blades Are F***ing Great" by

web video shop Paulilu

"Dumb Ways to Die," a light-hearted Australian train safety video that tallied more than

64 million views on YouTube

Acquired this year:

AKQA, by WPP

Aegis, by Dentsu

2013: Omnicom and Publicis Announce Mega Merger


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When you start running short on major independent agencies, what's left for the Big Four

holding companies to acquire? Each other, apparently.

In a deal that will radically reshape the agency ownership landscape, Omnicom and

Publicis announced they would merge to form a $23 billion conglomerate that dwarfs the

current $16 billion top dog, WPP.

Some competitors say such a move is outdated and driven by leadership looking to secure a

legacy amid dwindling options for growth. But it's doubtful this will be the last massive

merger. Because over the past 35 years, one fact has been proven time and again: If there's

one thing agency executives love more than upping their client rosters, it's one-upping each

other.

Created this year:

Ram's "Farmer" spot, created by The Richards Group and featuring a Paul Harvey speech

from 1978

Dove's "Real Beauty Sketches" by Ogilvy Brazil

Merged this year: Publicis shops Digitas and LBi


35 years that changed advertising

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