Ad Nut's favourite campaigns of 2024

As we wrap up the year, Ad Nut would like to remind humans that good campaigns—while not always common—can be moving and humorous and visually beautiful and sometimes even transformative. Here are some of Ad Nut’s favourite picks from the year, served in no particular order.

Death by rock and roll

Campaign: ‘The Casette’
Client: Palliative Care Queensland
Agency: Cocogun

Ad Nut is of the opinion that beautiful animation is underused in campaign films as it can often make a film more affecting and impactful. Such is the effect of ‘The Cassette’, a gorgeously produced stop-motion animation piece centred around an ill man who wants to face death on his own terms. That is, to the tune of Pixies’ classic hit Here Comes Your Man.

Had the format been live-action, the film’s sentiment would likely have not been translated similarly—it’s the specific combination of visuals, excellent song choice, and deadpan nature of the characters that make it both hopeful and tear-inducing. The film, produced by Cocogun for Palliative Care Queensland, was created to shift perspectives around death. Count Ad Nut a convert.

(Don’t) smile like you mean it

Campaign: ‘No Smiles’
Client: McDonald’s
Agency: TBWA Hakuhodo

McDonald’s Japan had long practised the concept of ‘zero yen smiles’, a symbol of hospitality to impart warmth to its customers. As Gen Zs advocate to authentically live life on their terms (read: less smiling), the company set out with a Gen Z recruitment campaign to assure this age group that smiling isn’t always necessary in the service industry.

Ad Nut is fully supportive of this idea as Ad Nut has occasionally been accused by Ad Nut’s peers to have a phenomenon known as ‘resting squirrel face’. Ad Nut cannot seem to help Ad Nut’s natural face and it doesn’t mean that Ad Nut is any less genuine in the task at hand! Okay, back to the campaign. Partner agency TBWA Hakuhodo enlisted Japanese musician Ano to front a catchy song and music video asserting that smiling shouldn’t be mandatory. This resulted in the most successful recruitment drive in McDonald’s history (105k new hires), and rightfully, three Cannes gongs.

Beauty or beast?

Campaign: ‘Adoptable’
Client: Pedigree
Agency: Colenso BBDO

It took a whole lot of willpower for Ad Nut to include an ad in this prestigious list featuring the creature Ad Nut vehemently detests: murderous beasts. But here we are. In an attempt to ramp up adoption of shelter dogs, pet-food brand Pedigree leverages AI to transform a photo of a shelter dog into a studio-quality photos.

Let’s be real, these beasts will never be truly beautiful no matter how hard humans try but Ad Nut appreciates the clever AI solution for what Ad Nut begrudgingly admits is a good cause. Within just the first two weeks of the campaign, about half of shelter dogs featured found homes. Now let’s quickly move on to the next item in this list, shall we?

When it doesn’t pan out

Campaign: ‘Frying Pan Challenge’
Client: Ajinomoto
Agency: Honda Agency

The story goes like this: Japanese food brand Ajinomoto claimed that its frozen gyozas could be prepared at home without any oil. Then, a user on X posted a complaint about their gyozas getting stuck on their pan, which led to a zany PR campaign like no other. Instead of issuing a defense or apology, the brand encouraged users to send in their frying pans to be evaluated for research so that their gyoza product could be optimised.

Ajinomoto received some 3,500 pans for inspection, went through each one with striking detail, and posted the results on its project website. Tetsuya Honda, CEO of partner agency Honda Office, emphasised the transition from “conventional corporate discourse” to “relatable narratives that unearth the human side” of its client. Ad Nut would encourage brands to pick a leaf from Ajinomoto’s book: Less PR speak, more fun R&D projects that invite users to get involved.

A sly swerve of the law

Campaign: ‘Heidden in Plain Sight’
Client: Heineken
Agency: Leo Burnett

Ad Nut loves a little wink at the law. Bend, don’t break, Ad Nut says. In Malaysia, alcohol ads and logos of alcohol brands are outlawed on television, radio, public digital platforms, and outdoor areas. During Chinese New Year, a peak period for alcohol sales in the country, Heineken cleverly circumvented local regulations by integrating parts of its logo with common seasonal greetings such as Gong Hei Fatt Choy.

Ad Nut particularly likes the use of delivery trucks to showcase the greetings, a nice spin to more common OOH mediums. The results don’t lie either. The brand recorded an increase of 14% in sales compared to the same period in 2023 and the campaign was claimed to be 163% more effective than a regular paid out-of-home activation. It also picked up Malaysia’s sole Cannes Lions this year—a Bronze in the Outdoor category.

Clawing back at the haters

Campaign: ‘The Outcats’
Client: Ponos
Agency: RGA

Great. Another campaign featuring a clawed, threatening creature. But this gaming campaign for Japanese title The Battle Cats is just that good. Gaming company Ponos needed a way to re-engage 1.2 million lapsed players who had found the game's depth too “complex and daunting”.

But instead of ‘dumbing down’ the game, Ponos and partner agency RGA doubled down on the game’s complexities and depth by launching a community-driven campaign where players could vote for their favourite game characters and elements. This, in turn, unlocked in-game rewards and allowed players to feel a sense of ownership. The result? In Korea and Taiwan, DAU, revenue and new users surged by three-digit percentages. Meow.

The sound of metal

Campaign: ‘The Steel of India’
Client: Jindal Steel
Agency: Early Man Film and Kondurkar Studio

A YouTube comment beneath this film reads: “This has better cinematography than most modern Indian films.” Ad Nut concurs. In fact, its stunning production value is the sole reason Ad Nut inducted Jindal Steel’s Cannes-winning campaign in this list. In a sweeping slice-of-life montage, the Indian company averts sentiment by using steel to score everyday people and moments. To add, the expert photography and editing and make each frame mesmerising.

It’s worth noting that this campaign is not without its controversy. Following the film’s Cannes wins, Wieden+Kennedy resurfaced an IP dispute that the idea for the film had been conceived by them. Kondurkar Studio has refuted this claim. While Ad Nut is unclear of where the issue stands now, Ad Nut of course strongly commends plagiarism and any form of it.

The perfect day is a loop

Campaign: ‘Days of Hirayama’
Client: Mastermind
Agency: Dentsu Tokyo

The art of the film website seems to be lost in this era of TikTok and celebrity puppy interviews. So you can understand why Ad Nut was smitten with the thoughtfully produced official film site for 2024 film Perfect Days. The Wim Wenders film centres around the routine life of Hirayama, a toilet cleaner, played by Japanese veteran Kōji Yakusho.

The accompanying website is designed like a scroll book with sound to illustrate the character’s habits across 353 days outside the film. Just like Hirayama’s daily toils, the website is a display of simplicity and craftmanship. The site went on to scoop multiple design awards at the likes of D&AD and Cannes. Never mind that Perfect Days happens to be one Ad Nut’s favourite films of the year. Ah the cyclical loop of routine—a habit lost on so many humans.