The Top 5 Marketing Campaigns of the Last 50 Years

Advertising is more than selling a product at its best; it captures a cultural moment, shifts consumer behaviour, and lodges itself permanently in the public consciousness. In the past 50 years, specifically, we’ve entered what some could argue to be a golden age of advertising. Not only is this due in part because of the technology and additional tools that are now at our disposal, but the players in the game have evolved with it. Join us at K Cradley & Co. as we look back at five campaigns over the last 50 years that captured and stood strong in the minds of us all.

1. Apple — "1984" (1984)

Few commercials have earned the right to be called legendary, but Apple's "1984" is one of them. Directed with cinematic flair and aired during the Super Bowl, the ad positioned the Macintosh computer as a weapon against conformity, a bold, almost reckless creative swing that paid off enormously.

The man behind the concept was Steve Hayden (May 21, 1947 – August 27, 2025), an American advertising executive who served as Vice Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy Worldwide. Hayden is widely regarded as one of the most influential creative forces in late twentieth-century advertising, having led teams at both Chiat/Day and BBDO on Apple's account. His work helped define what Apple stood for long before the brand became the global phenomenon it is today.

2. Nike — "Just Do It" (1988)

Three words. That's all it took for Nike to transform from a running-shoe brand into a global symbol of athletic ambition and personal resolve. Launched in 1988, the "Just Do It" campaign struck a chord because it spoke to everyone, elite athletes and everyday people alike. As Nike themselves described it, the idea was both universal and intensely personal.

The tagline was coined by Dan Wieden, founder of the independent agency Wieden+Kennedy, who has spoken openly about drawing unexpected inspiration from the final words of death-row inmate Gary Gilmore: "Let's do it." From that dark source came one of the most energising slogans in commercial history.

3. Coca-Cola — "Share a Coke" (2011–2014)

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most powerful. Coca-Cola's "Share a Coke" campaign replaced the iconic logo on bottles and cans with people's names and the public went wild for it. In Australia alone, over 250 million personalised bottles and cans were sold in a country of fewer than 23 million people. The campaign eventually rolled out across more than 70 countries, with local teams in Great Britain, Turkey, China, the United States and beyond putting their own spin on the concept while preserving its warm, personal invitation.

The mastermind behind this phenomenon was Lucie Austin, an Australian marketing executive whose instinct to make a mass-market product feel personal was nothing short of inspired. Austin's campaign is a standout example of how a single, human idea can travel across cultures and borders and her achievement deserves particular recognition as a triumph of both creative thinking and strategic vision.

4. Old Spice — "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" (2010)

Old Spice had an image problem. Long associated with an older generation, the brand needed a dramatic reinvention to win over younger consumers. The solution was humour absurdist, fast-paced, and completely self-aware. Isaiah Mustafa's deadpan delivery and the ad's relentless visual gags made it an instant internet sensation, spawning countless parodies and a hugely successful follow-up campaign featuring celebrity spokespeople including Neil Patrick Harris, Will Ferrell, and LL Cool J.

This campaign was the work of Dan Wieden and David Kennedy, the co-founders of Wieden+Kennedy and those of you who are staying attentive may notice this is the second time this duo appears on our list. Their agency's fingerprints are all over the advertising of this era, and Old Spice is as good an example as any of their ability to completely reinvent a brand's identity through wit and originality.

5. Snickers — "You're Not You When You're Hungry" (2010)

By the late 2000s, Snickers was in a paradoxical position: growing, but losing market share. Between 2007 and 2009, the brand was falling behind other global chocolate competitors both relatively and in absolute terms. Without a change of course, projections suggested Snickers risked losing its standing as the world's leading chocolate bar.

The response, developed under the creative direction of James Miller, was a campaign built on a universal human truth: hunger makes us irritable, irrational, and frankly unlike ourselves. Celebrity cameos including Betty White memorably fumbling a football made the ads both funny and memorable. Crucially, the "You're Not You When You're Hungry" platform also solved a strategic problem: it gave Snickers a unified global identity, helping align marketing teams across dozens of markets around a single, compelling idea. The campaign reversed the brand's slide and reinvigorated its position as the world's top-selling chocolate bar.

What to Learn from Great Marketing Campaigns

What unites these five campaigns? Each one found a truth about ambition, identity, connection, reinvention, or human nature and expressed it in a way that felt fresh and memorable. They also remind us that great advertising is made by great people. It really is worth noting that two entries on this list, Nike's "Just Do It" and Old Spice's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like," both came from the same minds of Dan Wieden and David Kennedy. Their back-to-back appearances here speak to a creative culture that consistently produces work capable of shifting culture itself.

And in a list of global heavyweights, don't overlook the contribution of Australian Lucie Austin  whose "Share a Coke" idea out of Sydney became one of the most replicated and beloved marketing campaigns the world has ever seen. It just goes to show how creative we can be when such a diverse set of minds is always competing to be the best. We at K Cradley & Co. can only hope that the marketers of the future continue to carry the torch of more iconic ads to come.