Gorilla

Why it works

Ninety seconds of a gorilla waiting, then drumming the fill of Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" — no chocolate on screen until the end card. Briefed to make Cadbury loved again rather than to communicate any product message, Fallon's Juan Cabral wrote and directed a film whose only argument is the feeling of joy itself, trusting the audience to transfer it to the brand. Cadbury's own research said don't run it; the client ran it anyway on August 31, 2007, and it became a cultural event that put Phil Collins back in the charts. It is studied as the defining case for emotional priming over message-based advertising — the campaign most cited in debates about how advertising actually works — and for client bravery as a creative ingredient. It won the Cannes Lions Film Grand Prix in 2008, the first time in the festival's history that the top film prize was shared.