Awareness Test ("Moonwalking Bear")

Why it works

A minute-long film that asks viewers to count how many passes a team in white makes in a game of basketball, gives the answer, then asks whether they saw the moonwalking bear. Most did not, although a man in a bear suit moonwalks straight across the screen. Shown the clip again, the bear is obvious, and the film signs off: "It's easy to miss something you're not looking for. Look out for cyclists." Rather than tell drivers that they fail to notice cyclists, WCRS let them experience it, building the ad directly on a selective-attention test created by the psychologist Daniel Simons, which caused a row over copying when it launched. With only limited TV and cinema airtime, it was viewed more than ten million times online within a year and was a big part of why Campaign named TfL its Advertiser of the Year. It won a Gold Lion at Cannes, and TfL's marketing chief later wrote that it had also helped reduce cycling accidents.