Categories: Articles

Ads Worth Watching… And Spreading

Some ads are worth watching (again and again). Totally true.

This week, I am attending the TED conference. TED has been working hard to highlight TV ads that are "ideas worth spreading." When I hear people say that they hate advertising, I don’t believe them. People hate bad advertising and, unfortunately, a good bulk of the work that comes out of the advertising industry is mediocre at best. If you poke around on YouTube or Facebook, you will discover that people love ads that tell a story. People love ads that make them laugh, think, cry, grow and more. Volumes have been written about what it takes to produce a great spot. Volumes have also been written about the abysmal failure and poor reception that TV ads get. Still, when it works… it just works. Once again, TED has selected ten ads that work. They are worthy of your time and attention. And, if they do the job they are supposed to do, who knows you may just become a customer… a loyal one.

TED 2014’s Ads Worth Spreading:

P&G – Thank You Mom.

IBM – A Boy And His Atom.

Guinness – Basketball.

Adobe – Click, Baby, Click!

Google Earth – Saroo Brierly: Homeward Bound.

Dove – Camera Shy.

New Zealand Transport Agency – Mistakes.

Virgin America – Safety Dance.

Honda – Hands.

Norwegian Students’ and Academics’ International Assistance Fund – Let’s Save Africa.

Inspired?

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.