Technique
Purpose and cause
Ads that tie a brand to a social, environmental or civic cause, or do something genuinely useful for people.
2020s
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2025Three Words
Extends the emergency rehousing already promised after fires and floods to victims of domestic violence, so the product change itself carries the message.
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2024Recycle Me
Placed beside the Recycle Me line already printed on every can, the crumpled logos promote the habit of squashing cans before recycling them.
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2022Backup Ukraine
Rather than a message, the campaign is a working tool that preserves Ukraine's threatened statues, churches and monuments as 3D models for possible reconstruction.
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2022The First Digital Nation
A government uses a film, a digital twin and a website to argue about climate and sovereignty, aiming at policy rather than sales.
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2022Runner 321
Reserves bib 321, a nod to trisomy 21, for a neurodivergent athlete every year, turning a race number into a standing place at the start line.
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2021Long Live the Prince
Made for a knife-crime charity, it uses squad lists, trading cards and in-game rewards to steer young players towards the foundation's services.
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2021Not Just a Cadbury Ad ("Shah Rukh Khan-My-Ad")
With small shops hit hard by the pandemic, the brand turns its festive ad into promotion for neighbourhood retailers rather than itself.
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2021Reverse Selfie
The film comes with a confidence kit that helps parents and teachers talk to teenagers about selfies, pairing awareness with a practical tool.
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2021The Breakaway
Applies a retailer's promise to make sport accessible to all inside a maximum-security prison, giving inmates bikes and a bridge back to society.
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2021The Lost Class
Serves a gun-violence campaign founded by parents who lost their son in a school shooting, forcing the debate into worldwide attention.
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2020You Can't Stop Us
Launched in a deeply divided summer, its manifesto positions sport, and the brand with it, as a force that brings people together.
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2020The Uncensored Library
A press-freedom charity hides banned journalism inside Minecraft, which stays reachable where news sites are blocked, so young people under censorship can read it.
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2020Courage Is Beautiful
The campaign honours frontline healthcare workers and launches a commitment to donate care products and money to them.
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2020Shutter Ads
Instead of paying billboard owners, the brand rents the shutters of bars shut by Covid, so the ad budget goes straight to struggling bar owners.
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2020The Bread Exam
Teaches breast self-examination to women held back by tradition, hiding the three movements inside a bread recipe so breasts are never shown.
2010s
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2019We All Win
It puts a controller built for gamers with physical disabilities on the year's biggest stage, making inclusion the message.
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2019The Tampon Book
Campaigns against taxing tampons at the standard rate, packaging the product as a feminist book that promotes a petition to parliament.
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2019ThisAbles
Designs free add-ons that adapt existing furniture for disabled people, making inclusion a product change rather than a slogan.
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2019True Name
Lets transgender and non-binary cardholders show their chosen name on cards, fixing a source of harassment inside the payment system rather than just talking about inclusion.
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2018Dream Crazy
Takes a public stance by making a quarterback left unsigned after kneeling during the anthem the face of its anniversary campaign, accepting the backlash.
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2018adDRESS the Future (Neo-Ex)
A retailer turns its online store into an argument about waste, selling clothes with no physical garment and giving the money to WaterAid.
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2018Paving for Pizza
Gives towns grants to fill potholes, casting bad roads as a threat to carryout pizza and doing a public job in the process.
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2018Save Our Species
Swaps the famous crocodile for endangered animals on limited-edition polos, with profits going to conservation work.
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2017Daughter
A closing card commits Audi of America to equal pay for equal work, tying the car brand to a gender-equality cause.
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2017The Talk
With no product on screen, ties the My Black Is Beautiful platform to confronting racial bias and invites the conversation through its hashtag.
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2017The Most Eligible Bachelor in the World
A conservancy puts the last male of a rhino species on a dating app, where swiping right leads to donations for rhino IVF.
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2017Black Supermarket (Le Marché Interdit)
Backs farmers' seed varieties missing from the official catalogue with supply contracts and a petition to change the rules.
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2017The Palau Pledge
Protects a pristine environment at risk from mass tourism by rewriting the arrival process, so the message is written into law.
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2017Trash Isles
Asks the United Nations to recognise an ocean plastic patch as a nation, arguing that recognition would oblige other countries to help clean it up.
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Know the power of women in leadership. SHE makes a difference.State Street Global Advisors2017
Fearless Girl
Promotes a gender-diversity index fund by turning women in leadership into a public symbol, timed for International Women's Day.
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20166 Pack Band
A tea brand sponsors a pop group of six singers from India's hijra community, presented as the country's first transgender band.
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2016Dads #ShareTheLoad
A detergent brand challenges the idea that laundry is only a mother's job, arguing that household inequality is learned and passed on.
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2016Like My Addiction ("Louise Delage")
Made pro bono for a public addiction portal, it shows how easily a friend's drinking problem goes unnoticed.
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2016Marriage Market Takeover
A premium skincare brand takes a side in China's argument over so-called leftover women, urging them not to let pressure dictate their future.
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2016The DNA Journey
A travel search site argues against national prejudice, showing people who dislike certain nations that their own ancestry runs through them.
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2016The Field Trip to Mars
Serves the company's STEM-education push, giving schoolchildren an unforgettable trip to Mars rather than a sales message.
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2015Love Has No Labels
A public-service campaign makes implicit bias visible, revealing the people behind dancing skeletons as interracial, same-sex, elderly and disabled couples.
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2015McWhopper (an open letter to McDonald's)
The proposed hybrid burger would raise money for the nonprofit Peace One Day, tying the challenge to Peace Day.
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2015Brewtroleum
Turns leftover brewing yeast into a biofuel sold at service stations, claiming lower carbon emissions than regular petrol.
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2015Holograms for Freedom
Protests a law allowing heavy fines for unauthorised demonstrations by staging a march no one can be fined for.
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2015LifePaint
Launches a spray that turns whatever cyclists coat into a reflector after dark, a car maker looking after people outside its cars.
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2015The Safety Truck
Tackles dangerous overtaking on two-lane roads by letting drivers stuck behind a lorry see the road ahead before they pass.
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On Black Friday, we're closing. Opt outside.REI2015
#OptOutside
Ties the brand to time spent outdoors rather than consumption, paying its staff to go outside on Black Friday.
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2014It's Beautiful
Showing cowboy hats, hijabs and a family with two dads, it takes a public stance on who counts as American.
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2014Most Shocking Second a Day
A children's charity relocates the crisis of Syria's war to London to make audiences care about children caught up in it.
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2014#LikeAGirl
A brand with a stake in the subject sets out to rewrite an everyday insult, tackling the collapse in girls' confidence at puberty.
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2014GAYTMs
Rainbow receipts and operator fees donated to a gay and lesbian charity tie the bank visibly to Mardi Gras and its community.
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2014Inglorious Fruits & Vegetables
Tackles food waste by buying the misshapen produce growers usually throw away and selling it in stores.
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2014Nazis Against Nazis ("Rechts gegen Rechts")
Every metre walked raises money for a programme helping people leave the far right, turning opponents' momentum against them.
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2013Farmer
Each online view of the film triggered a donation to the National FFA Organization, tying the spot to support for future farmers.
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2013The Scarecrow
Film and game cast the brand on the side of wholesome food against corporate control, with players rewarded through Chipotle food offers.
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2013Only for Children
A lenticular poster lets a child, looking from lower down, see a helpline number and offer of help that the accompanying adult cannot see.
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2013People for Smarter Cities
Poster panels bend into a seat, a rain shelter and a ramp, doing small useful jobs for passers-by instead of just advertising.
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A billboard that turns air into clean drinking water is ingenuity in action.UTEC (University of Engineering and Technology)2013
The Billboard That Makes Water
Water from the board is piped to a tap for local families in a desert city where rain barely falls.
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2013Immortal Fans
Issues the first organ-donor card from a football club, prompting the family conversation that most often blocks transplants.
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2013Roti Reminder
Reminds diners to wash their hands at the very moment it matters, since roti is eaten by hand.
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2012Meet the Superhumans
Presents Paralympians as elite athletes first, reframing how disability is shown on screen around respect rather than sympathy.
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2012Smoking Kid
A health foundation sidesteps scare tactics smokers ignore and points them straight to a quitline number.
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2012Bridge of Life
Ties an insurer to suicide prevention on a notorious bridge, a cause whose results are later questioned by the city itself.
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2011Back to the Start
Sells a sourcing philosophy that turns away from cramped pens and hormone-pumped livestock, rather than anything on the menu.
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Don't buy this jacket.Patagonia2011
Don't Buy This Jacket
Telling readers not to buy one of its best sellers on Black Friday makes the case against overconsumption, the company's own products included.
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2011Unhate
The kisses announce a foundation and position the fashion brand as a voice for tolerance and reconciliation.
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Shop Small.American Express2010
Small Business Saturday
Invents a shopping day after Black Friday to steer holiday spending towards independent local shops.
2000s
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2009Chalkbot
Built for a cancer campaign, it lets a worldwide audience join the race's tradition of roadside messages to riders.
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2009The Fun Theory ("Piano Stairs")
Keeping its cars in the background, the brand argues that making good behaviour fun, from taking the stairs to using a bin, is how to change it.
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2008eco:Drive
Instead of advertising fuel economy, the brand gives drivers a free tool that teaches them to use less fuel and cut emissions.
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2007Jaago Re (Politician)
Recasts a tea sold on morning freshness as a brand that awakens citizens, showing a young man publicly questioning a haughty politician's record.
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2007Earth Hour
Turns public concern about climate change into a visible act aimed at a government sceptical of the issue.
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2006Evolution
Made to promote the brand's self-esteem fund, it turns on the beauty industry's own machinery for distorting how beauty is perceived.
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2003ecotonoha
For every 100 messages the brand promises an extra real tree in a reforestation project, linking each click to planting.
1990s
1980s
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1988Mile Sur Mera Tumhara
A public-service film for national integration presents the country's diversity as unity, resolving into the closing notes of the national anthem.
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Statue of Liberty RestorationAmerican Express1983
Statue of Liberty Restoration
Promises a donation to restore a national monument every time the card is used, tying everyday spending to a shared cause.
1970s
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1971The Crying Indian ("People Start Pollution. People Can Stop It.")
Ties the message to an anti-litter cause, telling viewers that because people start pollution, people can stop it.
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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 public health body uses role reversal to urge men to share responsibility for contraception.
1950s
1940s
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1944Smokey Bear ("Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires")
A public service message makes preventing forest fires the personal responsibility of every individual who sees it.
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1942Loose Lips Might Sink Ships
A distiller puts its name to the government's careless-talk message, presenting the poster as its contribution to the national war effort.
1920s
1900s
Purpose and cause: how it works
Purpose-driven advertising connects a brand with a cause beyond selling, such as equality, the environment, health, safety or community, or does something practically useful for people. At its best the brand acts rather than just talks: it changes a product, a policy or a behaviour.
How to spot it
- A social or environmental issue at the centre of the idea.
- An action, product or service that helps, not just a message of support.
- Proof of impact, ideally from someone other than the brand.
Why it works, and when it doesn't
People increasingly reward companies that act on their values. Purpose ads are also scrutinised closely, and campaigns that look opportunistic or don't match the company's conduct can be accused of "purpose-washing". The examples below explain what each brand actually did.