Ad Nut's favourite campaigns of 2023

Wooo, is it really 2024 already? Ad Nut feels like Ad Nut only just finished gathering those plumpy little acorns for the festive winter and suddenly, a new year is beckoning upon us.

What a ride it's been. Ad Nut's had quite the fun this year, especially with 2023 seeing a jolted pick up in creativity both on and offline—bringing with it some of Ad Nut's favourite work to date. And whilst there were certainly a couple of head scratching moments of angst amongst all the celebratory pops of creative champagne too, Ad Nut is choosing peace this festive season and focusing on the good.

So scroll on below for a round-up of Ad Nut's favourite picks of 2023 (in no particular order), and here's wishing you all a cheery Christmas toast for all the best work that's yet to come. 

Ad Nut's favourite campaigns of 2023

1. Popeye's spiced up Singapore's dating scene

The fried chicken brand laid on the cute and fun factor with a spicy dating show in place of a traditional ad to promote its new menu items and even Ad Nut was left smitten.

Popeyes Singapore gets Ad Nut's seal of approval for trying something different, something entertaining that isn't just a standard ad promoting new menu items. Sure, it's as cheesy as you can imagine in places, but cute nevertheless. 'Spice Up That Love’ succeeds not only in presenting the product in a fun and engaging way, but also building brand love for Popeyes as an entertaining brand.   

2. Durex gave us a ducking great time

Durex’s campaign with MRM NY poked fun at the annoying iOS glitch after Apple announced it would stop autocorrecting “Ducking” from its obvious intended meaning after its Worldwide Developers Conference in May. The result? A quacking glorious marketing ploy.

Stupid, but funny, Ad Nut appreciated the clever dirty word play Durex was able to create with simple phrases. Ad Nut’s name should be enough to make Ad Nut the next Durex creator. The campaign was also an effective move by Durex to seize on a real-time cultural moment. For a sex brand, the approach was light-hearted, relatable and relevant. 

3. Mandarin Oriental introduced a suite new symphony 

The visual eloquence of this heart-catching film made Ad Nut want to drop everything and check-in right away.

Ad Nut is no musical expert, but it is impressed with the visual eloquence of the film, and it suddenly has a hankering for the slow pace, simple subtlety, and life’s melodies. Wish Ad Nut could drop everything and check-in right away!

4. Ogilvy Shanghai bridged the digital gap for seniors

Ogilvy teamed up with the Shanghai Municipal Government to create 'Morning Shanghai', a campaign to further modernise eldercare and enrich their social lifestyles by combining digital interaction and real-life experiences. Suffice to say, it aged beautifully.

Ad Nut admires these efforts tremendously, as more and more seniors struggle to reach out for help. Ad Nut would like to remind everyone: Just because you aged, doesn't mean you can't engage. 

5. Smile Makers touchy-feely quest to save lives

As Breast Cancer Awareness Month drew to a close in October, this erotic audio campaign by Smile Makers and MullenLowe Singapore ensured listeners remained abreast of the disease.

You can bet your bushy tail Ad Nut is applauding this effort. Not only is the title hilarious and approachable, Ad Nut loves how Smile Makers and MullenLowe Singapore have managed to take an otherwise very shadowed and somewhat taboo-ed topic, and turned it into not just education, but entertainment. Stigma is the most silent killer of all, and by lifting the veils on normalising self-examination, Smile Makers is making taking the first step towards survival through early detection that much easier. Not an easy feat, but a truly necessary one.

6. Prism+ TV ads brought viewers a bit too close for comfort

The Singaporean consumer electronics brand pushed all the boundaries with this confronting campaign by MullenLowe, bringing viewers as close to the action as a TV screen could offer, and then some.

Imagine Ad Nut's surprise to see Prism+, a growing Singaporean consumer electronics brand, pull the trigger on a new campaign with MullenLowe Singapore that pushes the boundaries of humour in good taste to its limit. Not only has the campaign shocked Ad Nut's fur into standing on end, but every human Ad Nut has shared the film with has raised at least one eyebrow, if not two.

7. We fell head over wheels with Mazda

The Monkeys Aotearoa channeled relatability in spades with their cheeky campaign for Mazda New Zealand, and the result had Ad Nut squirreling with delight.

For Ad Nut, the real winner of this campaign is the inherent lack of overhyping of the cars’ technical features. It's also admirably audacious for a non luxury-specific automotive brand to wittily tap into longing as a selling point, proving it really is all about confidence when it comes to the dances of seduction and desire. It might be tempting to spin the wheels all day when championing vehicular engineering and all its machine marvels, but Ad Nut reckons steering away from this tactic is exactly what’s allowed Mazda to accelerate this horse-powered campaign without a clutch.

8. Samsung's grouchy little kitty left Ad Nut anything but

BBH Singapore’s global campaign featured a sassy feline, unimpressed by everything it encounters except for Samsung’s superior display technology in its latest flagship television. Ad Nut found it absolutely relatable.

Ad Nut knows viewers will delight at the furry Bebo's grumpy cattitude. But using the same cute, domesticated animals and preying on their stereotypes to sell products is getting a tad unimaginative. By sticking to dogs and cats, it seems brands are missing out on a whole gamut of animal actors. Next time cast Ad Nut’s ilk, for example. Imagine an ad for rock climbing gear with a squirrel effortlessly scaling heights. Or one for a gourmet nut company with Ad Nut as the star taste tester?