Psychology
Isolation effect
The thing that stands out from everything around it is the one we notice and remember, which is why the odd one out wins attention.
2020s
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2025Expedition Impossible
Has a chief executive offer his whole company to anyone who can photograph the edge of the Earth, an outlandish dare that stood out as no product ad could.
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2024All the Ads
Turned every rival commercial into a possible prize, so a single DoorDash spot stood out across a whole night of ads that each cost millions.
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2023The First Edible Mascot
Fed a giant grinning pastry mascot to the winning team, a sight so unlike any other bowl game that it drew 15 times the mentions of ten rivals combined.
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2022Less Talk, More Bitcoin
Put a bare black screen and one bouncing code into a Super Bowl packed with stars and spectacle, and its emptiness made it impossible to miss.
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2021Superb Owl
Opens like a glossy car ad, then seems to glitch into a test card, a jolt that stood out among the polished spots of the Super Bowl.
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Duo the Owl on TikTokDuolingo2021
Duo the Owl on TikTok
An unhinged owl in a giant costume jumping on memes behaved like no other brand account, so it stood out in feeds where advertisers usually play it safe.
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2021The Breakaway
A sports retailer turning up inside a maximum-security prison, a setting most brands avoid, stood out sharply from everything else in sports marketing.
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2020The Uncensored Library
Builds a vast neoclassical library inside Minecraft, so unexpected a home for journalism that it drew more than 790 news articles about it.
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2020Moldy Whopper
In a category where burgers always glisten, a rotting Whopper on a poster was the one food image nobody could walk past.
2010s
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2018FCK ("We're Sorry")
A bucket spelling FCK across a full newspaper page was the last thing anyone expected from a big brand in crisis, so people photographed it and shared it.
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2018Save Our Species
For the first time in 85 years the crocodile left the shirt, and a familiar logo gone missing made the polos news in themselves.
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2017The Most Eligible Bachelor in the World
Slips a rhino's profile in among the human ones on a dating app, an oddity that stopped swipers and sent two million of them right to the donation page.
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20166 Pack Band
Presented as India's first transgender pop group, the band was unlike anything else on music television or radio, which made people stop and listen.
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2016Kenzo World (My Mutant Brain)
Swaps the poised, seductive perfume heroine for a guest flailing and firing lasers from her fingertips, which stood out sharply in a category of composed beauty.
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2016Sheep View 360
Five sheep carrying 360-degree cameras around the hills made an absurd but true image, and a little-known archipelago suddenly stood out.
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2016Meet Graham
Swapped another crash ad for a lifelike sculpture people could walk around, a figure so strange that tens of millions saw him within a fortnight.
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2016The Field Trip to Mars
Lets schoolchildren board what looks like an ordinary bus, then swaps the city outside for Mars, a surprise that stands apart from any school trip they have known.
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2015Emoji Ordering
Ordering pizza with one emoji was odd enough to become news on its own, landing whole segments on late-night and breakfast television.
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2015Shoplifters
Grainy security tape of thieves with crude cartoon heads, from a luxury Knightsbridge store, stood a long way apart from polished fashion advertising.
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2015Unskippable
After the message ends the family freezes while the dog eats the spaghetti, an oddity that stands out among pre-rolls people usually skip without a glance.
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2015Brewtroleum
A beer selling its own petrol at 62 service stations was a stunt nobody saw coming, which made the pumps themselves impossible to ignore.
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2015Holograms for Freedom
Staged the first protest made of holograms outside parliament at night, a sight so unlike any march before it that it was impossible to overlook.
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On Black Friday, we're closing. Opt outside.REI2015
#OptOutside
Closed all 143 stores and blacked out its homepage on Black Friday, a startling silence on the one day retailers shout loudest.
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2014GAYTMs
The most mundane object in banking, suddenly covered in rhinestones, studs and fur on Sydney's busiest streets, begged to be photographed by people who never noticed a cash machine.
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2013The Epic Split
Gives a dry B2B feature, truck steering, the most unlikely showcase imaginable, and that surprise made a trade ad the video everyone was passing on.
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Power out? No problem. You can still dunk in the dark.Oreo (Mondelēz)2013
Dunk in the Dark
Answered the Superdome blackout within minutes, so a quick, free tweet stood out from a night of $4 million spots and earned more than they did.
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2013People for Smarter Cities
A poster peeling off the wall to become a bench stands out from every flat panel on the street, so passers-by noticed it and the name on it.
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2013Roti Reminder
At a festival billed as the largest gathering on the planet, a message branded into fresh bread was the one ad among the banners that nobody could skip.
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2012Meet the Superhumans
Shows Paralympians with swagger instead of pity, a sharp break from how disability had been shown on screen that made the film impossible to overlook.
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2012Dumb Ways to Die
Swaps the blood-on-the-tracks shock tactics of safety ads for adorable cartoon beans, and a cheerful exception catches eyes that grim warnings slide past.
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Coke HandsCoca-Cola2012
Coke Hands
Put a single red-and-white drawing with no logo into a market where clutter is the norm, and its calm simplicity caught the eye in bus shelters and lifts.
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2012A Dramatic Surprise on a Quiet Square ("Push to Add Drama")
Unleashes an ambulance, a brawl and a police shoot-out on the sleepy market square of Aarschot, mayhem so out of place it was impossible to ignore.
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2012The Invisible Drive
Sends a car through Hamburg that appears to vanish into the street behind it, an uncanny sight that caught passers-by and then two million viewers online.
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2011Last Dictator Standing
Fills a festive-season ad with a Mugabe lookalike fondly recalling Gaddafi and Saddam, a provocation so unlike holiday ads that it passed a million YouTube views in six days.
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Don't buy this jacket.Patagonia2011
Don't Buy This Jacket
Told readers not to buy on Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, one quiet refusal among countless calls to spend.
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2011Unhate
Obama kissing Chávez and Abbas kissing Netanyahu were images nobody expected to see, and that sheer incongruity earned more than 3,000 articles in 60 countries.
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2011Subway Virtual Store
Lines a Seoul subway station with lifelike supermarket aisles, a sight so out of place on a platform that waiting commuters stopped, scanned and shopped.
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2010Game ("Betty White")
Drops an 88-year-old Betty White into a muddy pickup football game, a casting so unexpected that it stood out from everything else in the Super Bowl breaks.
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2010Embrace Life
Arrived wordless and tender in a category known for harrowing shock tactics, and that gentleness made it stand out and travel far online.
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Be stupid.Diesel2010
Be Stupid
A fashion label urging its own customers to stop being sensible was such an unexpected order that the blunt posters stood out and got people talking.
2000s
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2009Compare the Meerkat ("Simples")
Sends a pompous meerkat in a smoking jacket into a category full of shouty price claims, and a character grumbling to camera stood out from every rival.
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2009The Trillion Dollar Campaign
Prints billboards on real banknotes, a sight that stands apart on any street and is impossible to pass without looking twice.
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2009Dance (Life's for Sharing)
Breaks out a dance in the middle of a rush-hour station, the last place anyone expects one, so the morning commute itself becomes the surprise.
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2008Baby
A baby trading stock in a grown man's voice, then spitting up, was so unexpected that it became the most-watched ad of the game among TiVo users.
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2007Believe ("Diorama")
A slow drift over a hand-built diorama, set to Chopin with no gameplay or graphics, stood apart from game advertising that sells features.
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2006The Most Interesting Man in the World
Cast a man in his sixties when beer ads were all youth, parties and bikinis, so he stood out from everything else in the category.
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2006Sundial
Turns an ordinary board near Wrigley Field into a working sundial with no screens or sensors, a poster so unlike its neighbours that passers-by noticed and kept checking it.
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2005Balls (and "Paint")
Ran alone in an entire ad break that Sony bought for the UK launch, so the film had no other commercials around it to compete with.
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2003iPod Silhouettes
Only the white iPod and its cord are picked out against black figures and flat colour, so the eye goes straight to them, even from across the street.
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Vertical Footballadidas2003
Vertical Football
Hangs two real players on ropes some 12 storeys above a Tokyo street, and a live match on a billboard was impossible to miss among the static posters around it.
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2002Odyssey
Set to Handel's Sarabande with no voiceover, when youth marketing expected beats, the film stood well apart from the ads it ran between.
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Let's Motor.MINI USA (BMW Group)2002
Let's Motor (MINI USA launch)
Mounts real MINIs on top of SUVs and skips the usual TV ads, so the car turns up where nobody expects an ad and is impossible to miss.
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PiercingOslo Piercing Studio2001
Piercing
Lets real nails and fixtures on the wall poke through a pictured tongue, eyebrow or belly button, a jolt that stops passers-by used to flat paper posters.
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2000Cat Herders
An enterprise IT company appearing as a deadpan Western with real cowboys stood out at the Super Bowl, rare enough to earn an Emmy nomination.
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2000Bear
Ambushes a nature documentary with a man kung-fu fighting a grizzly, a twist so unexpected that people passed it from inbox to inbox.
1990s
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1999Bugger
Ends a car ad on a mildly rude word, a cheek that made it impossible to miss and drew more complaints than any other New Zealand TV ad.
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1999When I Grow Up
Runs a quiet black-and-white spot of children talking to camera amid the Super Bowl's bombast, and the one subdued ad in a loud break is the one people notice.
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1999Flat Eric (Sta-Prest)
A scruffy yellow puppet nodding to techno in a beat-up car was so strange that pre-testing said it would fail, yet that oddness is exactly what people noticed.
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Hello Boys.Wonderbra (Playtex)1994
Hello Boys
A model eyeing her own cleavage above two cheeky words, on a huge poster, was so hard to ignore that it spawned stories of distracted drivers.
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1993Tested for the Unexpected
A surreal black-and-white art film about tyres broke with the literal demonstrations of car advertising, so it stood apart from everything around it.
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1992Orange Man ("You Know When You've Been Tango'd")
Puts a slap in the face where every other soft drink showed aspirational lifestyles, so the spot jumped out of any break it ran in.
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United Colors of Benetton.United Colors of Benetton1991
New Born Baby ("Giusy")
A raw birth photograph carrying nothing but a fashion logo looked like no other clothing ad, so it stood out far enough to become a public argument.
1980s
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Still going. Nothing outlasts the Energizer.Energizer (Eveready)1989
The Energizer Bunny
Interrupts what look like ordinary commercials for coffee or nasal spray, so the drumming intruder stands out from the very advertising it gatecrashes.
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1987Monkey (Walk Man '87)
Swapped the usual list of improvements for one still image held for thirty seconds, which stood out sharply for a model with nothing new to shout about.
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1985Launderette
A man undressing to his boxers while a room gawps put a then-rare female gaze on a male body, a scene that stood out from everything else in the breaks.
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It also sticks handles to teapots.Araldite1983
It Also Sticks Handles to Teapots
A real yellow Ford Cortina stuck to a poster on Cromwell Road was the last thing passers-by expected, so it stood out from every flat billboard around it.
1970s
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Surreal Gold Pack PostersBenson & Hedges (Gallaher)1977
Surreal Gold Pack Posters
With no people, no slogan and barely a word, each poster looked like nothing else on the street, so it caught eyes that skipped ordinary ads.
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1974Tough Under Fire
Shows nothing but a rifle shot through a padlock that stays shut, a stark proof that stood apart when shoppers saw every lock as much the same.
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Chi mi ama mi segua.Jesus Jeans (Maglificio Calzificio Torinese)1973
Chi mi ama mi segua ("He who loves me, follows me")
Laying a Gospel line across a model's behind in tiny shorts was so far outside Italian advertising of 1973 that it became impossible to ignore.
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Would you be more careful if it was you that got pregnant?Health Education Council (UK)1970
Pregnant Man ("Would you be more careful if it was you that got pregnant?")
A pregnant man was so out of place, at a time when contraception was rarely discussed in public, that even men who found it offensive stopped and looked.
1960s
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1969Spicy Meatball
A commercial that openly mocked how commercials are made stood apart from the earnest ads around it, and viewers enjoyed being let in on the trick.
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Tokyo 1964Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games Organising Committee1962
The Start of the Sprinters' Dash (Tokyo 1964)
As one of the first Olympic posters built on a photograph rather than an illustration, six real sprinters bursting out of pure black stood apart from what came before.
1950s
1940s
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I dreamed I went shopping in my Maidenform braMaidenform1949
I Dreamed I Went Shopping in My Maidenform Bra
Shows an impeccably dressed woman in a shop wearing only her bra above the waist, a sight so unexpected in a magazine that readers stopped to look twice.
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Monsavon au laitMonsavon1949
Monsavon au lait
Puts a cheerful pink-and-white cow emptying her udders into a giant bar of soap, an image odd enough to be called a visual scandal, so it leapt off the wall.
1930s
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1936The Wienermobile
A 13-foot metal hot dog rolling up to stores made the brand impossible to miss among dozens of competitors and drew crowds wherever it went.
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All Roads Lead to SwitzerlandSwiss National Tourist Office1935
All Roads Lead to Switzerland
Built from photographs when almost no travel poster was, and its sweeping road and dramatic shifts of scale made it leap out from the wall.
1920s
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1925Citroën on the Eiffel Tower
Spelled the carmaker's name down the Eiffel Tower in letters some 30 metres tall, a sight so unlike anything else in Paris that nobody could miss it.
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1925The Goodyear Blimp
A huge airship bearing the name, lit with neon after dark, stood out against an empty sky so completely that people could not help looking up.
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1923Somewhere West of Laramie
In a year when car ads meant specifications and prices, a full page with neither, only breathless prose, stood out in the Saturday Evening Post.
1910s
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Soaring to Success! Daily Herald – the Early BirdDaily Herald1919
Soaring to Success! Daily Herald – the Early Bird
Angular, half-mechanical birds wheeling across bright yellow looked like nothing else on the hoardings, what Kauffer called England's first and only Cubist poster.
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1911A Skin You Love to Touch
Arrived when soap ads mostly showed soap, so a scene of romance stood out so sharply that it caused an uproar.
1900s
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Hermann Scherrer. Breechesmaker. Sporting-Tailor.Hermann Scherrer (tailor, Munich)1907
Hermann Scherrer: Breechesmaker, Sporting-Tailor
Makes a rider's loud checked breeches the boldest thing on the wall, so the product itself is what stops the eye among the posters around it.
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PriesterPriester (match manufacturer)1906
Priester
Stood bare and stark among the wordy, ornate posters of its day, so it caught the eye simply by leaving everything else out.
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1903Chocolat Klaus
Sets one scarlet horse and green rider against a black void, a bold, faintly absurd figure that leapt out from the detailed, painterly posters of the day.
1890s
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1896Rowntree's Elect Cocoa
Stripped to essential shapes at a time when Paris posters overflowed with Art Nouveau colour, its plainness set it apart from everything around it.
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1891Moulin Rouge – La Goulue
Leaves La Goulue's swirling petticoats as bare, unprinted paper on a sheet so big it came in three pieces, so it leapt out from Paris walls as a street sensation.
Isolation effect: where it comes from
Hedwig von Restorff found that when one item in a list differs from all the others, people remember it far better (von Restorff, 1933). Psychologists call it the isolation effect, or the von Restorff effect.
In ads it shows up as the stunt nobody expected, the quiet ad in a loud category and the image that looks like nothing else around it.