The world is full of advertising these days. Everywhere you go, advertisements appear. They appear in print, on TV, in magazines, on Facebook and other social media, on exterior house walls, on cars, on the radio, in website banners and even in our video games! But there are a small minority of clever advertisements that make you think twice. The creators of these creative advertisements really thought outside the box.
If you live in a built-up area such as a major city or town, you’re probably used to seeing printed banner ads on an almost daily basis.
Most of us see these huge printed billboards during our morning commute, or whilst shopping in the City Centre; in fact, most of us see them so often that 99% of the time, we take very little notice of them (at least not consciously).
But, why don’t we take notice? Well, one possible reason is that many of these printed banners are far from interesting. Sure, they’re all advertising a product or service, but does that mean that they have to be dull to look at?
We think that ad banners should be interesting, beautiful, and well designed. So, we’ve hunted down some of the best ones ever created to give you a bit of inspiration.
These extremely creative ads surely have the WOW factor! These awesome ads are eye-catching and will also teach you a thing or two about how you can use beautiful graphics, photography and typography in order to create stunning effects in your print designs.
The creative ads below were created for various types of niches, from food, drink and health, to fashion and even entertainment.
Don’t forget to let us know in the comment section below, which ones of these creative ads you like most and why!
Here they are!
Dental Floss Paper

This dental floss paper company thought outside the box and created this amazing eye-catching ad for their product! We love the concept!
Would You Care If I Was More Panda? (WWF)
WWF is an organization dedicated to conservation, climate change and sustainability, according to their website. However, they’re perhaps better known for their numerous campaigns to “save the pandas”.
WWF has recently realized that more people seem to care about the conservation of pandas than any other animal. This is something that is an issue around the world, as often people will be happy to help fund campaigns involving pandas, but not other issues.
So, WWF created this banner ad, which simply depicts a panda head on the body of a fish, along with the slogan “Would you care if I was more Panda?”
The idea here is to draw people’s attention to the “panda love” problem, and to let them know about other issues affecting the world such as the conservation of various other species (i.e. certain types of fish).
Frog Extinction
This ad focuses on raising awareness on frog extinction and how it would change our daily life.
Health advertising
This is yet another ad that focuses on raising awareness, this time on a healthy living.
True Colours (Faber-Castell)
Faber-Castell is a company that produces fine art supplies such as pens, pencils, and a variety of other products.
While there is a small niche market for such a product, it’s also an extremely competitive market. So, Faber-Castell decided to embark upon this creative campaign to help inform their potential customers of their main unique selling point: the life-like nature of their pencils’ colours.
The banner ad shows a fire engine created out of a pencil, along with the slogan “True Colours – Faber Castell”.
Faber-Castell created a range of these ads that were all very similar; one other ad depicted a shark in the same format.
Fabric conditioner
If you weren’t happy about your old fabric conditioner then this creative ad might convince you to change it.
Creative ads Gandhi
Swimming makes you feel good and that is the message this creative ad is trying to send to everyone who sees it.
Get In Shape (Volvic)
Volvic is one of many bottled water brands currently retailing their product(s) in the UK, making it an exceptionally competitive market.
To help differentiate the brand from the competition, Volvic opted to embark upon a marketing campaign highlighting the potential health benefits of the product.
This rather minimalistic ad depicts a beautiful, well-formed apple on the right, with a rather lifeless-looking, out-of-shape piece of apple on the right.
The crux of the banner ad is the slogan: “Get in shape with Volvic”.
Comforta

If you want to remember the last time you slept like a baby, then you might want to have a look at this creative ad. It might also convince you to buy a new mattress.
Faber-Castell

Faber-Castell focuses on creating good quality drawing pencils and materials and their quality is presented throughout this creative ad campaign.
All Sports Now On Your iPhone (Canal+)
Canal+ is a French company that specialists in video-streaming services, particularly within the realm of sport.
Not so long back, Canal+ released an application for the iPhone, which essentially allowed their customers to watch sports events on their iPhones. This was quite revolutionary at the time, and it was something that they knew their customers would love.
So, they created the ad you see above. It depicts what appears to be a football game, with a giant finger coming from the sky and crushing one of the players.
Along with the strap-line “All sports now on your iPhone”, this ad gets the message about the product across in seconds.
Colgate

This unconventional creative ad for Colgate can be a great source of inspiration;
Nikon

This ad campaign from Nikon focuses on presenting their product’s new features in a creative way.
Noise Reduction (Bose)
Bose is one of the most well-known manufacturers of premium headphones in the world and these days, they’re also well known for their noise-cancelling feature that is present on most of their headphone range.
However, this wasn’t always the case and in the early days, Bose created a range of ads to illustrate just how powerful their noise-canceling feature was.
One of their iconic ads is pictured above. It depicts a rower – seemingly having the time of his life – about to unknowingly row directly into a deadly waterfall. It seems as though he couldn’t hear the almighty roar of the waterfall, due to the fact that he was wearing his Bose noise-canceling headphones.
Heinz Ketchup

Heinz Ketchup’s ad campaign presents their product in a convincing way – a ketchup made out of good looking tomato slices.
Sugar-Free Low Calories Sweetener
This is an unconventional yet very creative way to present a sugar-free and low on calories sweetener.
The Ultimate Stain Repellent (Scotch Guard)
While there are many products on the market that aim to remove stains from surfaces such as clothing and carpets, there are very few products that claim to be able to repel the stain in the first place.
This, however, is exactly what Scotch Guards stain repellent does.
In an attempt to illustrate the usefulness the product, Scotch Guard created the banner ad above. It depicts an ice cream on the seat of a car but instead of dripping everywhere and creating a huge stain, it’s being repelled thanks to Scotch Guard’s product.
Eurostar
Eurostar’s London for Lovers ad campaign is funny and creative! They promote themselves through an unconventional yet eye-catching ad.
Sprite Ice Blue
This ad can be a great source of inspiration if you are trying to make an ad that sends a hidden message or is trying to make the audience feel something particular about the product.
Zoom (Olympus)
Olympus is a company that creates a wide-range of products: cameras, lenses, and even binoculars.
To illustrate the unique selling point of their new binoculars – their optical zoom feature – Olympus created this rather amusing banner depicting a woman looking through her new binoculars to see an extreme close-up of a bird.
In this case, the reason for this is clear: the bird is sitting right on her binoculars. However, it perfectly illustrates the powerfulness of the zoom feature without the need for dull copy.
Dental Care

This advertisement is a good way to make people stop being afraid of the dentist and to put more care and thought in their dental care.
Pepsi Creative Ad

Pepsi ads always surprise through the work and creativity which is put in designing their ads. Check out this one and see if it inspires you for future projects.
South Park – Imagine (Lego)
South Park is one of the most iconic shows in the world; in fact, anyone who has ever watched the show will know the four main characters inside out.
Lego played on this fact in their recent “Imagine” campaign, which aims to show that if you can imagine it, you can create it using Lego.
The result is the (quite minimalistic) ad shown above. It’s instantly obvious what the four Lego creations are supposed to be, despite the lack of any South Park mention whatsoever.
This perfectly illustrates the selling point that Lego was trying to get across to customers.
Starbucks Coffee

Starbucks Coffee ad campaign focuses proving to their audience and clients that staying awake has become easier with their coffee.
Vier Fuer Ad Campain

This ad is perfect for a company that develops and designs ideas. Their ad has a donkey following a carrot that is tied to itself and wears a piece of wood on which clients can place their ad.
Hot & Spicy (Pringles)
Pringles are one of the most popular snacks in the world, but this wasn’t always the case. Pringles has built up their brand over the years thanks to smart, adventurous, and creative advertising campaigns such as the one above.
This banner ad was actually created to coincide with the launch of a new Pringles flavor: Hot & Spicy.
The ad shows a man powering a hot air balloon with his breath alone, while holding a can of Hot & Spicy Pringles.
The idea behind this ad was to demonstrate the hot and spicy quality of the flavor, which it does very well, and in a somewhat humorous way too.
Unilever

This is yet another unconventional yet highly creative way to present and promote a product. “Unleash the chaos” is this product’s motto and the designer has done a great job in presenting it through the ad’s visual.
Building Company Creative Ad

This building company chose a representative picture of a mother walking her baby in a construction machine. Using a representative photo along with a small horizontal band on which you can place a logo or a motto can be a great and effective way to present a product you are trying to promote.
Wrestling (Softlan Ultra)
Fabric softener isn’t the most exciting of products, nor is it the easiest product to create a “non-boring” ad for, yet the market for fabric softener is still worth millions of pounds a year.
Softlan Ultra is one of the few brands that have managed to produce a creative ad for such a product, without boring us with pages of marketing copy.
Their ad is simple: it shows two wrestlers in action. However, it seems that the wrestler in red must have been using Softlan Ultra’s fabric softener, as the wrester in blue just couldn’t help but fall asleep on him mid-wrestle.
Ultra Vision Lens

Check out this creative ad and see the differences with their product for yourself.
Solid

This ad campaign also uses a representative picture and a motto to present their company. It has an eye-catching design that definitely reaches the target audience.
All Day, Everyday (ESPN)
ESPN is one of the largest TV networks in the world and these days, they broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
This hasn’t always been the case though, so when ESPN launched all-day programming a few years back, they utilized creative printed banner ads to get the word out.
This ad shows a guy, watching ESPN, and blending into the sofa. When depicted alongside the tagline: “All Day, Everyday”, it’s clear that the guy has been watching ESPN for so long, completely uninterrupted, that he’s actually started to become part of the sofa itself!
Waterproof Band-Aid

This example is a Waterproof band-aid campaign that chose to present the effectiveness of this product.
Animal Protection Ad

This creative ad is for an animal protection campaign that presents a new possibility to their audiences, such as planning holidays for both themselves and their animals.
Fall Asleep Easily (Good Night Mattress)
Let’s face is, mattresses aren’t the most interesting and exciting of products to most of us, which presents a bit of a problem when it comes to advertising them.
However, Good Night Mattress solved this problem with their ingenious banner ad depicting a burglar who, after breaking in through the window, has somehow fallen asleep on the bare mattress on the floor.
The ad features the strap-line: “Fall asleep easily”, and aims to portray the USP of the company’s mattresses: the exceptional level of comfort that they offer.
SBP – Insect Repellant

This insect repellent product campaign has a funny design with a frog that will work for food, thanks to the effectiveness of the product.
Wildlife on DStv

If you are up for some funnier and very effective ad campaigns about the wildlife, then you might want to have a look at this example. It presents the wildlife on a tv channel, through a series where only animals are stars.
Domestos Advertising
Domestos ad campaigns always surprise their audience through creativity. This ad presents the effectiveness of their product in a funny way. Feel free to have a look and see if it can be a great source of inspiration.
Travel Light (Delsey Design)
Delsey Design is a company that retails a unique product: a suitcase that is much lighter than most.
Weight is always an issue when traveling as often, you’ll be charged a hefty fee if you go over your weight allowance when traveling by air, which can be a hassle.
However, the answer isn’t simply to pack less; the answer is to buy one of Delsey Designs light suitcases, depicted cleverly in this banner ad.
As Delsey Design points out, a heavy bag doesn’t necessarily make it any stronger, so why bare the extra weight? Pick up a Delsey.
After all, that baggage handler seems to be making light work (forgive the pun!) of carrying all those Delsey cases.
Spa advertising ideas
This ad campaign is for promoting spa services and focuses on telling their audience that they can now relax, and put their fatigue to sleep.
Energil

The product that this ad is presenting is one that can make you feel young again and the ad surely expresses that.
Energil
This is yet another creative ad for Energil, a product that can give you the energy you need to make you feel young again.
Human rights creative advertising
This creative ad’s aim is to raise awareness on human rights in a creative and effective way. Have a look and see if you think the same.
thanks for the nice creative Ads 🙂
These are some very creative print advertisements. The Heineken ad is a fun ad. I should try to recreate this Roman Colosseum at home. The WMF Knives ad is also a smart advertisement and gets straight to the point. The Pepsi Twist Ad is creative, but I don’t think anybody wants to think of urine in their drink, even if it is a cute lemon doing it. The Kill Bill 2 is a very unique advertisement and is a perfect fit for the actual movie.
Awesome creativity ,Cigar City is really cool.
Great post !
Thanks for sharing !
omg! the Finding Nemo one is so funny!
nice round-up *giggles*
Awesome , intuitive arts bringing light to moody weekend
Guys its good stuff, keep it up.
very nice
Really cool these grafism and creative ambient relative advertising!
Nice post, thanks for sharing!
Love these adverts, the plastic surgery one is fantastic!
wonderful designs,they reflect amazing ideas
Thanks for those. Such great designs!
Talk about creative inspiration… Nice post.
I can’t wait until I get good at graphic design . lol.
Anyone know of some good tuts that would help take a Photoshop / Illustrator novice to pro? Drop me a line. 😉
Haha, these are funny!
Wow!!
How did you find all these ads?
Nice Post ,, i Like all the amazing ideas
Love the strong art direction and visual as headline in most of these…
Great post and some really good adverts. I think my favourites are finding nemo and the kill bill one. All of these are great examples of graphic design. Thanks for sharing.
Its really amazing beeing able see how some people see life and that we can all see from their point of view but hey these are some funny @$$ pictures especially the one having to do with picking the wrong job =D
Excellent : I love Finding Nemo 2 and also this boyscoot who makes me thinks about this little boy in the last Pixar Movie : Up! except that the hero is cool contrary to this jerk !
Thanks for make me laught during my working hours 🙂
Really interesting post, some real funny one, but bin all case real good graphic job
Nice Post ,,,,, Like all the picture and ideas …. so grate ….
There are some really great ones.
My favourite are Finding Nemo, Heineken and the apple one.
Macbook ad has my vote…
Wrigley’s 5 Pulse en Finding Nemo.
Really love those two. But all are excellent. Didn’t know any of them. I’m from The Netherlands.
One day, I’ll make stuff like Wrigley’s 5 Pulse.
I’m not very good at building mass and keeping movement/flow.
nice post.. love all the photos.. i’ll repost this..