Top 6 Craziest Yet Thought-Provoking Ads of 2017

Creative marketing is more than just putting a smile on people’s faces and grabbing their attention. Companies that create an artistic splash can capitalize on multiple strands. With the audience already clutching for straws in a deluge of information overload, brands need to come up with amazing, useful and memorable ideas to etch their message on the minds of their consumers or lose their identity to a nameless and faceless sea of oblivion.

In this saturated digital environment, digital marketers need to make sure that their brand can be seen and heard, while putting it at the forefront of people’s mind. Creative advertising that is easy, succinct, witty and simply digestible can help you make a big difference. If you are up for a little magic and aspire to communicate with your audience in a way that they have not seen before, you can still make your brand stand out from your competitors.

A creative ad can increase sales and heighten brand awareness. Coming up with some smart and amazing ways in which advertising affects consumer behavior will help brands create a stronger, memorable and thought-provoking ad. Creative marketing is something that can make a difference, drive business performance and shift consumer perceptions.

2017 saw myriad faces of marketing campaigns, running the gamut from digital to print to even statues. Here are 6 of the most creative and craziest ads of 2017 that will make you look twice and imprint their essence in your mind.

Let’s get into it!

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  IKEA’s Special Offer for Pregnant Women

Who could have thought that pee advertising could be such a jaw-hanger? Pee on an advert and get a special discount. Sounds weird? Thanks to pregnancy test kits, this advert is all that people could talk about.

IKEA has come up with a tongue-in-cheek approach to its marketing campaign that presents pregnant women with a special price on a new baby crib. At first sight, IKEA’sad, which was initially featured in a Swedish women’s magazine, appears as a typical advert promoting the Sundvik baby crib. But if you read the description carefully, women are asked to pee in a marked area. It acts as a pregnancy test, showing a special discount offer on the baby crib when it detects a positive!

•  Nike’s Ad features Arab Female Athletes

Nike advert features five successful Arab female athletes from different parts of the Arab world exercising and competing. The brand has made a successful attempt to smash stereotypes about women leading home-bound and restricted lives in the conservative society of Middle East. Nike aims to highlight the stories of successful professional women athletes o instigate others. In this inspirational ad, the brand wanted to use the prowess of sports to change the society in a positive way.

• Procter & Gamble: The Talk

Procter & Gamble, best known for selling myriad brands of beauty soaps, has come up with a thought-provoking, heart-wrenching ad, known as ‘The Talk’. The campaign #MyBlackIsBeautiful aims to make the world a better place, devoid of bias and offering an equal opportunity of success for everyone, regardless of the race, gender and the color of their skin.

The two-minute ad depicts black mothers sharing the harsh realities of being an ethnic race, and the truths about racial stereotypes and bias spreading like wildfire in the U.S. This powerful #TalkAboutBias ad from P&Gis designed to celebrate cultural identity and launch a conversation about racial prejudices that children will inevitably face sometime in their lives. This type of great marketing campaigns can change minds and inspire a real, lasting change.

• MailChimp’ “Did You Mean MailChimp” Campaign

Did You Mean MailChimp’ is one of the best marketing campaigns of MailChimp so far? The brand launched an artful campaign to play on its own name – MaleCrimp, MailShrimp, KaleLimp, FailChips, VeilHymn, SnailPrimp, JailBlimp, WhaleSynth and NailChamp. They all rhyme with “MailChimp.

The company is not troubled by what people call it, but rather concerned about providing the right tools for their clients, while giving them the confidence to grow their company in the best possible way.

• CNN Facts First

CNN, the most trusted tag in the realm of worldwide news, launched an ad campaign that differentiates CNN from other cable-news networks. CNN’s ad campaign “Facts First” was a direct response to Trump’s attack on the media.   The short ad features a single, unchanged visual of an apple in a minimalist fashion.

“This is an apple. Some people might try to tell you that it’s a banana. They might scream, ‘Banana, banana, banana,’ over and over and over again. They might put a banana in all caps. You might even start to believe it’s a banana, but it’s not. This is an apple.” The voiceover states.

• Burger King “Flame Grilled”

Burger King has creatively leveraged photos of restaurant fires in its creative marketing campaign.The campaign “Flame Grilled since 1954” shows an unbelievable series of print ads, portraying real-life emergency scenes of actual Burger King Restaurants at times when it caught fire. The brand wanted to convey the message that no matter what the situation is, they always flame-grill their burgers, even in the midst of disastrous upheavals.

Final Words

You have seen a barrage of ad campaigns hither and thither through your years, but the above-mentioned ones will surely inspire you to spruce up your next marketing campaign.It is awe-aspiring that brands of today don’t feel any hesitation to weigh in on some hot-button topics.Let’s see what 2018 has in store for the advertising world!