My Most Immortal Ad: Sergio Lopez

It’s an obvious choice when you think about it. To this date it remains the most awarded campaign of all times. It was a song, an animated film, a book, an online game for Metro Train in Australia. A public service announcement. And yet people engage with it in every channel throughout the world. A public service announcement (thought it was worth the reminder).

I selected it because the idea is pure and smart. The execution nimble, unpretentious and seamless. It is funny in an unapologetically dark way. The song adheres itself to the brain with superglue. It’s easy to share, actually it made it difficult to resist sharing it. Virality, engagement, shareability, integrated… this campaign set the bar.

But most of all because it divides advertising history into the old world and the current one. While it did well in creative categories it didn’t perform as well in craft related ones. Not because it didn’t deserve it but rather because the old guard accustomed to mistake production extravaganza with production excellence didn’t see the writing on the wall.