When you hear slogans what comes to mind?  If by only hearing the slogan you automatically know the brand or product then the company had a successful ad campaign.   This article will be the first in a series on the Top Ad Campaigns in the 20^th Century according to Ad Age.  For a campaign to be eligible for the Top 100 they had to qualify one of the following three ways:

1. If it was a watershed, discernibly changing the culture of advertising or the popular culture as a whole.
2. If it itself was credited with creating a category, or if by its efforts a brand became entrenched in its category as No. 1.
3. If it was simply unforgettable.

Doyle Dane Bernbach, the ad agency who started the creative revolution has 9 ads in the top 100, including both number 100 and number 1.  N.W. Ayer & Son another famous ad agency placed 5 ads in the Top 100.

Numbers 75-100

We will start with number 91 the 1988 Motel 6 ad campaign, “We’ll leave a light on for you”, by the Richards Group.  This ad has been out for over 20 years and still has endured as the slogan for the company, a sign of a good successful campaign.

The next in the countdown is number 84 the 1975 BMW campaign, “The ultimate driving machine” by Ammirati & Puris.  The campaign began the concept of a sports sedan and helped spur growth of the BMW brand in the United States.

AT&T’s 1979 campaign “Reach out and touch someone” came at a time long before cells phones when talking on the phone, especially to someone long distance, was much of a luxury then it is today where you can do video calls with Skype to somebody half away around the world.  The ad came in at number 80, was used by AT&T until the mid 1980s, and was created by N.W. Ayer

The next campaign has been used with celebrities in hundreds of publications in the last 17 years.  Number 79 in our countdown to number 1 is “Got Milk?” campaign of the California Milk Processor Board.  The 1993 ad created by Goody, Silverstein, & partners was initially commissioned to help with the sagging milk sales in the state of California.  Many of the ads which are still running today feature prominent celebrities including actors, actresses, singers, and top athletes with a prominent milk mustache.

Rounding out our discussion of numbers 75-100 is the worldwide leader in sports ESPN’s 1995 “This is Sports Center” ad.    Fifteen years later the slogan is still the opening for Sports Center, ESPN’s top rated sports news show.

Look for the next set in the series as we countdown the top ads of the 20^th Century.