Best Advertisement Examples 2026
From Apple 1984 to Dollar Shave Club, we break down 20 of the best video advertisement examples and the exact elements that made them unforgettable.
Published 2026-04-15 · Video Marketing · Neverframe Team
Video advertising is one of the most powerful forces in modern marketing. According to Wyzowl's State of Video Marketing report, 89% of consumers say watching a brand video convinced them to make a purchase. And yet, most video ads are forgotten within seconds of ending. The difference between an ad that drives action and one that disappears into the scroll is not budget — it is craft, strategy, and an understanding of what makes people feel something. In this guide, you will find 20 of the best advertisement examples ever produced, a breakdown of what they did right, and a clear framework for applying those principles to your own campaigns. Whether you are a CMO running a $5M media budget or a founder launching your first product ad, these video ads will show you exactly what great looks like — and how AI video production is making it more accessible than ever.
What Separates Great Video Ads from Forgettable Ones
Most brands treat video advertising as a production problem: get a camera, write a script, hit publish. The brands behind the best advertisement examples in history treat it as a communication problem: what does the viewer need to feel, believe, or understand — and how do we make that happen in the shortest possible time?
Think with Google research consistently finds that the first five seconds of a video ad drive the majority of brand recall. That means creative decisions — not media spend — determine whether your ad works. The brands that win are the ones that understand the psychology of attention, the mechanics of storytelling, and the visual language of their platform.
Great video ads share a few universal traits: they open with a hook that demands attention, they build emotion or curiosity quickly, they are specific rather than generic, and they end with a clear and motivated call to action. The 20 advertisement examples below demonstrate exactly how the world's best creative teams execute on each of these principles — across formats, budgets, and categories.
For a deeper dive on strategy before we get into examples, see our guide on AI video marketing for brands and our complete AI video production guide.
20 Best Video Advertisement Examples (And Why They Work)
Category 1: Emotional Storytelling
These are the ads that make you feel something before you consciously register the brand. They operate on empathy, memory, and human truth — and they are among the most shared advertisement examples of all time.
1. Apple "1984" (1984)
Directed by Ridley Scott and aired exactly once during Super Bowl XVIII, Apple's "1984" is the most cited advertisement example in marketing history. A woman in bright athletic gear throws a hammer at a giant screen broadcasting totalitarian messaging — a direct metaphor for IBM's dominance of the computer industry.
Why it works: it did not sell a product. It sold a worldview. Apple positioned itself as the force of liberation against conformity before a single Mac had shipped to consumers. The imagery, the silence, the single line of copy — it all created a moment that felt cinematic, not commercial.
Key element: Positioning through cultural narrative rather than product features.
2. Nike "Dream Crazy" ft. Colin Kaepernick (2018)
Nike's 2018 campaign opened with a close-up of Colin Kaepernick's face and the line: "Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything." The ad sparked controversy and immediate calls for boycotts — and drove Nike's stock to an all-time high within weeks.
Why it works: Nike did not try to appeal to everyone. They chose a side, aligned with a deeply held value among their core audience, and trusted the emotional truth of the story to carry the campaign. According to Nielsen data, purchase intent among consumers under 35 increased sharply after the campaign launched.
Key element: Values-based positioning that accepts polarization as a feature, not a bug.
3. Dove "Real Beauty Sketches" (2013)
Dove's "Real Beauty Sketches" became the most viral advertisement example of 2013 — more than 163 million views in its first month. An FBI-trained forensic artist drew women first based on their own descriptions, then based on descriptions from strangers. The stranger's sketch was always more attractive.
Why it works: the ad created an emotional gut punch through contrast, not through claims. It showed, rather than told, that women see themselves more harshly than others do. It connected directly to a universal insecurity — and positioned Dove as a brand that understood women rather than objectified them.
Key element: Insight-driven storytelling that reveals a hidden truth about the audience.
4. John Lewis Christmas Ads (Annual, UK)
UK retailer John Lewis has built an annual tradition of Christmas ads that generate national conversation. The 2015 "Man on the Moon" ad, featuring an elderly man living alone on the moon who receives a gift from a young girl on Earth, won multiple awards and generated tens of millions of organic views.
Why it works: the ads are not about products. They are about human connection, loneliness, and generosity — feelings that are universally felt during the holiday season. The brand appears only at the very end, trusted to earn its place through emotional investment.
Key element: Emotional restraint — letting the audience fill in meaning rather than stating it.
5. Google "Parisian Love" (2010)
One of the most celebrated advertisement examples from Google, "Parisian Love" told the entire story of a relationship — meeting someone in Paris, falling in love, moving in together, having a baby — entirely through Google search queries and results. No voiceover. No actors. Just a search bar and the human instinct to look things up when life changes.
Why it works: it demonstrated product utility through lived experience. Every search query felt familiar because every viewer had done something similar. The ad made Google feel human rather than technological.
Key element: Showing product value through authentic user behavior, not feature lists.
Category 2: Product Demonstration
The best product demo ads make the viewer feel the product working before they have ever touched it. They compress the experience of ownership into 30 to 90 seconds and make the value proposition viscerally obvious.
6. Dollar Shave Club "Our Blades Are Fing Great" (2012)*
Dollar Shave Club's launch video is arguably the most effective startup advertisement example in history. CEO Michael Dubin walked through a warehouse, delivered deadpan jokes, and made the case for cheap-but-good razors in 90 seconds. The video cost approximately $4,500 to produce and drove 12,000 orders in the first 48 hours.
Why it works: it was honest about what the product was (cheap, good-enough razors delivered to your door) and honest about what the alternatives were (overpriced blades with too many features). The humor disarmed skepticism and made the value proposition feel obvious rather than salesy.
Key element: Radical transparency about product positioning delivered with personality.
7. Blendtec "Will It Blend?" (2006 — ongoing)
Blendtec's founder Tom Dickson blending an iPhone, golf balls, and crowbars in a lab coat is one of the longest-running product demonstration advertisement examples in history. The series has accumulated hundreds of millions of views.
Why it works: it demonstrates product performance in a way that is impossible to argue with. You watch a Blendtec blend a rake handle and you have no doubt the machine is powerful. The absurdity creates shareability; the demonstration creates conviction.
Key element: Proof-of-performance through extreme demonstration.
8. Apple iPhone Camera Ads ("Shot on iPhone")
Apple's ongoing "Shot on iPhone" campaign is a masterclass in product demonstration through user content. The ads show real photos and videos taken by real users — and in doing so, demonstrate camera capability more credibly than any spec sheet could.
Why it works: it turns customers into proof. Instead of Apple claiming the camera is great, real people's real results make the case. The campaign generates a feedback loop — users want to see their content featured, so they create better content with the camera, which generates better content for the ads.
Key element: Social proof through user-generated demonstration.
9. Old Spice "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" (2010)
Isaiah Mustafa moved between increasingly absurd scenes — showers, boats, horses — while delivering rapid-fire, confident claims about Old Spice in one unbroken take. The ad became the most-watched online ad of its time and revived a declining brand.
Why it works: the production craft matched the brand personality perfectly. The impossible transitions, the direct address to the camera, the escalating absurdity — it all communicated "confidence" in a way that a straightforward product demo never could. Old Spice was selling masculine identity, not deodorant.
Key element: Brand personality expressed through production style.
10. Slack "So Yeah, We Tried Slack" (2015)
Slack's early video advertisement example followed a fictional company as they adopted the platform — showing real workflow scenarios and real team dynamics with wry humor. It felt like a documentary rather than an ad.
Why it works: it showed the product solving real problems in real contexts. B2B buyers are notoriously skeptical of marketing claims, but showing a product working in a recognizable office environment bypasses that skepticism. The humor made it shareable; the realism made it persuasive.
Key element: Scenario-based demonstration for B2B audiences who distrust marketing.
Category 3: Humor and Unexpected Angles
Humor is the most powerful tool for disarming skepticism and driving sharing — but it is also the easiest to get wrong. The advertisement examples below show how humor works when it is rooted in genuine insight rather than random jokes.
11. Volvo Trucks "The Epic Split" ft. Jean-Claude Van Damme (2013)
Jean-Claude Van Damme doing a full split between two moving Volvo trucks at sunrise, accompanied by Enya's "Only Time." The video was made for a trade audience to demonstrate Volvo's dynamic steering — and became the most shared automotive advertisement example of 2013 with 100 million views.
Why it works: the concept is so specific and so extreme that it creates an immediate talking point. Nobody shares an ad that says "our steering is good." Everybody shares an ad that shows Van Damme doing a split between trucks. The demonstration was legitimate — the dynamic steering made the stunt possible — but the presentation was unforgettable.
Key element: Finding the most extreme expression of a product claim.
12. Geico "Hump Day" (2013)
A talking camel walking through an office asking employees what day it is became one of the most-shared advertisement examples of its year. The connection to Geico was almost irrelevant — and that was the point.
Why it works: it understood that people share things that make them laugh with their friends, not things that make them want to buy insurance. The brand was secondary to the moment. The moment drove the awareness.
Key element: Prioritizing shareability over message clarity for brand awareness campaigns.
13. Skittles "Taste the Rainbow" Campaign (Various)
Skittles' ongoing absurdist campaign — a man who turns everything he touches into Skittles, a living beard of Skittles, a boy who shares Skittles with a walrus — is one of the most consistent humor-based advertisement examples in recent history.
Why it works: the humor is so weird and specific that it creates a brand signature. You know immediately that an ad is a Skittles ad before you see the logo. The absurdism signals youth, playfulness, and an irreverence that matches the product's candy-colored personality.
Key element: Consistent, distinctive absurdism that creates brand recognition through style.
Category 4: Storytelling and Brand Purpose
14. Airbnb "We Accept" (2017)
Launched during a period of intense political debate about immigration and belonging, Airbnb's "We Accept" showed a rapid montage of diverse faces with the tagline: "We believe no matter who you are, where you're from, who you love, or who you worship, we all belong." The ad aired during the Super Bowl.
Why it works: it articulated a brand value with urgency and cultural relevance. Airbnb's business depends on strangers accepting strangers into their homes — the connection between the brand purpose and the cultural moment was genuine and earned, not opportunistic.
Key element: Brand purpose that connects directly to the product's core mechanic.
15. Always "#LikeAGirl" (2014)
Always asked adults and children to demonstrate what it means to run, throw, or fight "like a girl." Adults performed weakly, self-consciously. Young girls — who had not yet absorbed the cultural insult — performed with full effort and confidence. The contrast became one of the most powerful advertisement examples of the decade.
Why it works: it created a cultural reframe. "Like a girl" shifted from an insult to a compliment through the ad's emotional logic. The brand became associated with female confidence — a powerful positioning for a feminine hygiene brand.
Key element: Cultural insight that reframes a negative into a positive.
16. Nike "Find Your Greatness" (2012)
During the London Olympics, Nike — not an official sponsor — ran a global campaign featuring non-elite athletes: a 12-year-old boy jogging down an empty road, a teenage swimmer, an ordinary person at a gym. The tagline: "Greatness is not some rare DNA strand."
Why it works: while competitors talked about elite athletes and gold medals, Nike talked about everyone. The ad made the Olympics emotionally relevant to people who were watching from their couches — and connected Nike to the aspiration of personal achievement, not just professional athletics.
Key element: Strategic counter-programming against competitor messaging.
Category 5: Social Proof and Community
17. GoPro "Fireman Saves Kitten" (2013)
GoPro's most-viewed video advertisement example at the time of release was not a staged production — it was a firefighter using a GoPro to document a real rescue of a kitten from a burning building. GoPro licensed the footage and used it as an ad.
Why it works: real moments carry more emotional weight than staged ones. The camera's point of view placed the viewer inside the experience. The ad said everything about what GoPro cameras are for without saying a word about specs or features.
Key element: Authentic footage that demonstrates product use in a high-stakes real situation.
18. Coca-Cola "Share a Coke" Campaign (2011 — ongoing)
Coca-Cola replaced its logo on bottles with common names, creating personalized products at mass scale. The video ads showed people finding their name on a Coke, sharing one with a friend, or mailing one to someone far away.
Why it works: personalization at scale creates the feeling of individual recognition. The campaign turned passive consumers into active participants — people searched for their names, shared photos, and told stories. The video ads amplified behavior that was already happening organically.
Key element: Campaigns that generate organic behavior, then amplify it through paid advertising.
19. REI "#OptOutside" (2015)
REI announced it would close on Black Friday — the biggest retail day of the year — and encouraged its customers to spend the day outdoors. The campaign video made the announcement and invited people to join the movement.
Why it works: it was a statement of values so bold that it was inherently newsworthy. REI generated more media coverage from closing on Black Friday than most brands generate from opening. The campaign positioned REI as a brand that lived its values, not just marketed them.
Key element: Brand actions that are more powerful than brand claims.
20. Spotify "Wrapped" Campaigns (Annual)
Spotify's year-end "Wrapped" campaign creates personalized data stories for each user — their most-played songs, artists, genres — and wraps them in shareable social content. The video ads show people reacting to their own data with recognition and delight.
Why it works: it turns user data into user identity. "I listened to 40,000 minutes of Taylor Swift" becomes a statement about who you are, not just what you streamed. The campaign generates millions of organic social shares and positions Spotify as a platform that understands its users as individuals.
Key element: Data as an emotional storytelling tool.
The 6 Elements Every High-Performing Video Ad Shares
Across all 20 of these advertisement examples, six structural elements appear consistently. These are not creative opinions — they are patterns that HubSpot's video marketing research and platform data from Google and Meta confirm drive measurable performance.
1. An opening hook in the first 3 seconds. Every one of these ads opens with something that demands attention — a surprising visual, an unexpected statement, a recognizable situation with a twist. The algorithm does not distinguish between good and bad creative; it only measures whether people keep watching. The hook determines that.
2. A single, clear emotional register. Great video ads do not try to be funny, sad, and inspiring at once. They pick one emotional direction and commit to it completely. The Dollar Shave Club ad is funny throughout. Dove "Real Beauty Sketches" is emotionally vulnerable throughout. Consistency builds emotional momentum.
3. Specificity over generality. The most effective advertisement examples are specific. Not "we make great products" but "our blades are f***ing great." Not "we believe in diversity" but showing 30 real faces in rapid succession without commentary. Specificity is credible; generality is forgettable.
4. Brand integration that earns its place. The worst video ads feel like the brand forced its way into a story that did not need it. The best ones — Apple's "1984," Airbnb's "We Accept," Nike's "Find Your Greatness" — feel like the brand's presence is essential to the story's logic. The brand is not decoration; it is the point.
5. A visual style that matches the brand's personality. Old Spice's impossible transitions communicate confidence. Skittles' absurdism communicates playfulness. GoPro's point-of-view footage communicates immersion. The production choices are not aesthetic decisions — they are brand communication decisions.
6. A clear and motivated call to action. Even emotional ads need to tell the viewer what to do next. The best advertisement examples make the next step feel like a natural extension of the emotion the ad just created. You feel inspired by Nike — so you shop for running shoes. You feel understood by Dove — so you consider switching products.
Video Ad Formats by Platform
Understanding which format to use on each platform is as important as the creative itself. The same ad that performs brilliantly on YouTube can fail completely on TikTok — not because the creative is bad, but because the format does not match the platform's native experience.
YouTube: Pre-roll and mid-roll ads, skippable after 5 seconds. YouTube rewards ads that hook in the first 5 seconds and have something worth watching through. Long-form storytelling (60 to 120 seconds) can work on YouTube in a way it cannot on other platforms. YouTube is also the best platform for product demonstrations and tutorials that require time to develop. Non-skippable 15-second ads work best for awareness plays.
Meta (Facebook and Instagram): Square (1:1) and vertical (9:16) formats dominate. Facebook and Instagram video ads have high competition and a thumb-stopping challenge — users are in a passive scrolling mindset, not an active viewing one. The first 3 seconds must create an immediate visual reason to stop. Captions are critical because most videos are watched without sound. Carousel ads allow multiple products or multiple story beats within a single unit.
TikTok: Native vertical video, 9:16, 15 to 60 seconds. TikTok's algorithm rewards ads that look and feel like organic content — high production value can actually hurt performance if it signals "ad." The best TikTok advertisement examples borrow the visual language of TikTok creators: direct address to camera, trending audio, jump cuts, text overlays, and hooks that reference platform-native humor or trends. UGC-style content consistently outperforms polished brand production on this platform.
LinkedIn: Horizontal (16:9) or square (1:1). LinkedIn video ads perform best when they deliver genuine professional value — insight, data, or a framework — rather than entertainment. The audience is in a professional mindset and will engage with content that makes them look smarter to their peers. Thought leadership content, case studies, and product demonstrations for B2B audiences work well. Keep videos under 30 seconds for awareness; under 90 seconds for consideration.
Connected TV (CTV) and Streaming: Full-screen, non-skippable, 15 to 30 seconds. CTV advertising is growing rapidly because it reaches audiences that have cut the cord on traditional television but still watch long-form content. The format demands television-quality creative — high production values, cinematic storytelling, and sound-on viewing. CTV ads are unskippable, which creates both an obligation and an opportunity: the creative must earn attention rather than demand it.
How Long Should a Video Advertisement Be?
Length is one of the most debated questions in video advertising — and the honest answer is that it depends entirely on the goal, the platform, and the creative concept.
For awareness campaigns, shorter is almost always better. A 6-second bumper ad on YouTube or a 15-second pre-roll forces creative discipline that longer formats rarely achieve. Think with Google data shows that 6-second bumper ads drive 20% higher ad recall lift than 30-second ads in many categories.
For consideration campaigns, 30 to 60 seconds gives enough time to develop a product story, establish a problem, demonstrate a solution, and deliver a call to action. This is the sweet spot for most product demonstration advertisement examples.
For storytelling and brand-building, 60 to 120 seconds can work — but only if the story genuinely requires that length. Every second that does not add emotional value or advance the narrative is a second the viewer can choose to scroll away. The John Lewis Christmas ads are long because the emotional journey they take requires time. The Dollar Shave Club ad is 90 seconds because the humor requires buildup and payoff.
As a rule: cut every second you can while keeping every second you need. Most brand video ads are 20 to 30 seconds too long because no one was willing to kill a line they loved in the editing room.
Platform benchmarks for optimal length: - YouTube pre-roll (skippable): 15 to 60 seconds - YouTube non-skippable: 15 seconds - YouTube bumper: 6 seconds - Facebook/Instagram feed: 15 to 30 seconds - Instagram Reels/TikTok: 15 to 60 seconds - LinkedIn: 15 to 30 seconds (awareness), 30 to 90 seconds (consideration) - CTV: 15 to 30 seconds
How AI Video Production Is Changing Ad Creation
The advertisement examples above represent some of the most expensive and resource-intensive creative work in marketing history. Apple's "1984" required a Hollywood director and a full film crew. Dove's "Real Beauty Sketches" required weeks of research, casting, filming, and post-production. Dollar Shave Club's video was cheap by Hollywood standards but still required a full production day, a location, a director, and an editor.
That is changing — and changing fast.
AI video production is not replacing the creative thinking behind great advertisement examples. It is removing the production barriers that have historically limited which brands could afford to execute great ideas. For a detailed breakdown of the technology, see our complete AI video production guide.
The practical implications for brand marketers are significant:
Faster iteration. Traditional video production operates on weeks-long timelines: concept, pre-production, shoot, edit, review, revise. AI-assisted production compresses that timeline dramatically. Brands can now test 10 creative variations in the time it previously took to produce one. The best advertisement examples of the coming decade will come from brands that iterate faster and learn from real audience data rather than from focus groups.
Lower cost per creative. The cost of entry for high-quality video production has dropped substantially. AI tools can generate B-roll, create voiceovers, animate product shots, and assist with editing at a fraction of the cost of traditional production. This does not mean all video production can be automated — creative direction, strategic thinking, and human performance still require human skill — but the production overhead that inflated video budgets is rapidly shrinking.
Personalization at scale. One of the most powerful trends in video advertising is dynamic creative optimization — producing dozens or hundreds of creative variants tailored to different audience segments, geographies, or moments. AI video production makes this feasible for brands that could never previously afford it. Spotify's "Wrapped" campaign — which creates millions of personalized video stories — is an early example of what becomes possible when production scales with data.
Consistent brand output. Many brands struggle to maintain consistent creative output across channels. AI-assisted production allows brand teams to maintain a higher cadence of content without proportionally increasing production costs — which is increasingly important as algorithms reward publishing frequency as well as creative quality.
For brands looking to build a content strategy that leverages these capabilities, our video content strategy guide covers the full planning and execution framework.
How to Brief a Video Ad Production Team
Even the best production team in the world cannot make a great video ad from a weak brief. The brief is where strategic thinking translates into creative direction — and most brand managers underinvest in this step.
A great video ad brief covers six things:
1. The single objective. Is this ad designed to drive awareness, consideration, or conversion? Pick one. Ads that try to accomplish all three accomplish none. Your objective determines everything: the platform, the length, the call to action, the measurement framework.
2. The audience. Not demographics. The specific person you are talking to — what they believe, what they are afraid of, what they aspire to, and what makes them skeptical of brands like yours. The best advertisement examples are always talking to someone specific, not to "25-54 adults."
3. The single message. If the viewer remembers one thing after watching your ad, what should it be? This is not the tagline. It is the underlying belief you want to shift or reinforce. "Blendtec blenders are unbreakably powerful." "Dove understands real women." "Nike is about your greatness, not athletes' greatness." One message per ad.
4. The emotional journey. What do you want the viewer to feel at the beginning, the middle, and the end? Emotion is not decoration — it is the primary mechanism through which advertising works. If you cannot describe the emotional arc of your ad, the production team cannot execute it.
5. The proof point. What evidence, demonstration, or story makes your message credible? Ads that make claims without proof are ignored or disbelieved. The proof point is what separates persuasive advertisement examples from forgettable ones.
6. The platform and format. Where will this run? On what device? In what context? The brief should specify the exact format, length, and aspect ratio — and the production team should understand the specific audience behavior on that platform.
Finally: be clear about what you will not compromise on, and be open about everything else. The best creative work happens when the strategic constraints are tight and the creative execution is given genuine latitude. Micromanaging the creative decisions while being vague about the strategic objectives is the most reliable way to produce mediocre advertising.
Conclusion
The 20 advertisement examples in this guide span six decades, five continents, and budgets ranging from $4,500 to tens of millions of dollars. What unites them is not production value or media spend — it is creative precision. Each one knew exactly who it was talking to, exactly what it wanted that person to feel, and exactly how to make that happen in the available time.
The good news for brands operating in 2024 and beyond is that the barriers to executing great video advertising have never been lower. AI-assisted production is compressing timelines and reducing costs. Platform data is making it possible to test creative with real audiences rather than guess. And the frameworks and lessons from the world's best advertisement examples are freely available to any brand willing to study them seriously.
What has not changed — and will not change — is the requirement for genuine strategic thinking. The best video ads start with a real insight about a real person and work backward to execution. No technology, AI or otherwise, produces that insight automatically.
If your brand is ready to build video advertisements that perform at the level of the examples in this guide, the Neverframe team specializes in AI-powered video production for brands that want the quality of premium production without the timeline or cost of traditional agencies. Learn more about our approach at neverframe.com/services.