Whether it’s a childhood jingle that you can still sing word for word, or a campaign that influences the way you work today, everyone has an ad that has really stuck with them.
Mediaweek has been asking the industry to take a trip down memory lane, to find out all about the ads that made us.
Maddy Hunter – Social Media Manager, Wellcom
Ghost Chips, 2011
I’m a Kiwi who has recently made the move over to Sydney so I don’t have a huge amount of knowledge on pivotal Aussie ads. Ghost Chips, however, is legendary in New Zealand. An anti-drink
driving ad with dark humour to drive home the message.
To this day, phrases are still quoted and the sentiment is still remembered – a true cultural phenomenon.
Something I took from it as a kid and still use (almost too) regularly is; “I’m internalising a really complicated situation in my head.“ Great content sticks around.
Alli Galloway – CMO, Vinyl Group
Qantas – I Still Call Australia Home
There are so many brilliant catchphrases from 90s TV ads that I still use today, “I feel like Chicken Tonight”, “The Dolmio Grin”, “Is Don Is Good” and both “Not Happy Jan”, and “Gogomobile” from Yellow Pages ads have stuck with me since childhood!
However, the ad that had the most impact on me was the 1998 Qantas epic “I Still Call Australia Home” – the extended cut blew my mind and is probably the reason at age 18 I decided that I was going to finish school and travel as much as I could. It portrayed Australia as such a remarkable country, but opened up the concept there was a whole world out there to explore. This ad, along with its predecessors in the series, ignited my travel bug!
An earlier version of it featured several popular Aussie music icons of the time, Kate Cerebrano and Jack Jones singing the Peter Allen classic. When I finally made it to places like London, New York and Venice, I had distinct memories of the visuals in these ads – that’s what makes genius creative, when it stays with you and inspires you to do something big.
Wade Maris – EVP ANZ, Sporting News Australia
Kia’s getting a ute
Obviously, there’s a bit of recency bias on this one as its relatively new but loved the way Kia has created anticipation and excitement in what is a crowded and competitive sector in announcing their entry into the Ute category.
As someone in works in sport, getting talent to participate in campaigns is never easy, so Kia’s marketing team and creative agency have done a great job, whilst obviously having a decent budget to secure the likes of Ash Barty, Steve Waugh, Damian Oliver, Alexander Volkanovski, Buddy Frankin, Scott Sattler, Dermott Brenton, Dylan Alcott, Jessica Watson, Mckenzie Arnold, Kerri Okeefe, Wendell Sailer and host of others.
It’s not just the talent that makes this memorable, athletes are known for being confident and having an ego, so it’s fun to see the talent lean into this, throwing out suggestions via the “Humble brag” on why the Ute should be named after themselves.
Crucially, it also set the tone for when the UTE reveal did happen, with the KIA Tasman name being fairly recognisable and the product hasn’t even launched yet.
See also: The Ads That Made Us: Spray & Wipe, Pixie Caramel, and Decore
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Top image: Maddy Hunter, Alli Galloway, Wade Maris