1. Nescafe – Z’s

1. Description of the Ad: This advertisement is for NesCafe, which is a subsidiary brand for Nestle, for instant coffee. What this ad does is provide a simple, yet clever visual for what the product does, where the N is sideways as a Z, until it turns sideways into a N again, representing it rising from sleep.
2. Objectives of the Campaign: Nestle has a distinguishable font used in its ads, which is used in its NesCafe products as well. This ad relies on that awareness or helps build upon it to differentiate it from its candy products.
3. Target Market: Fans of coffee and newspaper readers are the target market for this particular product. One can imagine someone reading the paper in the morning with their coffee.
4. Call to Action: As an ad for instant coffee, it’s building brand awareness.
5. Value Proposition: Through the use of a visual metaphor, NesCafe communicates the efficacy of their product in waking up their potential new customers through their instant coffee. It includes the tagline “Nothing wakes you up as Nescafe”, which I personally find confusing.

Source: https://www.creativebloq.com/indispiration/print-ads-1233780

2. Fedex – International Shipping

1. Description of the Ad: FedEx has a number of really interesting advertisements, but I found this one to stand out amongst the crowd. This uses a creative backdrop of a mural of both North and South America, where two people are passing a Fedex package from one window to another, painting an interesting visual metaphor for Fedex’s International Shipping capabilities.
2. Objectives of the Campaign: The objective of this campaign is to paint a picture of its services through clever imagery. BBDO, the advertising agency that represented FedEx for over 18 years (at the time of this ads publishing back in 2007), and one of the most recognized brands in advertising, created an international ad campaign to grow FedEx’s international presence. Sidenote, BBDO was recognized as the ad agency that had the most ads in the 2026 Super Bowl.
3. Target Market: According to a press release by FedEx with BBDO, These concepts are the creative force behind a new advertising campaign launched by FedEx that focused key markets around the world, including: Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Singapore, Taiwan and the UK.
4. Call to Action: Fedex is advertising its international shipping capabilities in order to elicit immediate sales through direct-response marketing and increase brand awareness in international markets.
5. Value Proposition: As one of the premier logistics companies in the world, FedEx is showing its ability to ship internationally, but doesn’t do much in the way of feeding anything beyond that to their customers in this ad. The customer service experience handles the rest of that.

3. Game of Thrones – New York Times “Dragon” Ad

1. Description of the Ad: This ad was a full-page ad in the New York Times of a “pseudo” article within the newspaper, which discussed a storyline in Game of Thrones, but also cast a shadow of a dragon over the entire page.

2. Objectives of the Campaign: The objective of this campaign was clearly to draw attention to the new season of Game of Thrones, which achieved virality across the internet for its clever use of a dragon across the entire type font in a newspaper. The simple juxtaposition was effective, and the message was undeniable. HBO would go along and also project this same silhouette of the dragon across their own building as well.

3. Target Market: The target market was clear; draw in fans of the show and interested parties, such as adults who were interested in the fantasy genre. This ad also spilled out onto the internet as well, causing a stir with websites like Buzzfeed.

4. Call to Action: The call to action was to remind fans of the show and curious individuals that a new season was beginning on March 31st, and inspired folks to tune in. This was just one of many ads that Game of Thrones would publish, including another NYT interview with Pedro Pascal for his role as the Red Viper (RIP).

5. Value Proposition: The value proposition didn’t really exist for this ad, it was namely just a thoughtful advertisement that compelled folks to watch their show, which was clearly successful, as it was extremely popular at the time, ranking as the 6th most popular HBO show of all time and 28th of all dramas.

4. Kaepernick Nike Ad – “Dream Crazy”

1. Description of the Ad: At first glance, the ad is simple. It’s a quote: “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” This quote is overlayed on Colin Kaepernick’s face, the former starting Quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, who had at the time came under scrutiny for first sitting, then kneeling during the National Anthem as a protest against police brutality in America. This was a highly contentious topic in the media. There was some muddiness behind this, as Kaepernick was cut from the 49ers and wasn’t picked up by another team, leading some to believe he was blackballed from the NFL for leading a peaceful protest against police brutality against black Americans; predating the Black Lives Matter campaign.

Some believed he was being disrespectful to the troops, although going from sitting during the National Anthem to kneeling, was a compromise he made with a veteran with respect towards him and other vets (author’s note: as a Veteran, I’m going to take my personal stand and say that him kneeling was not disrespectful to the troops, and people who made this argument are idiots). A more interesting argument had to do with Kaepernick declining as a player in the NFL, and that he had been benched and not named the starter due to poor performance from the prior season, and some believed the timing of his protest was questionable. Nike, who sponsored Kaepernick, doubled down in their support in 2018, leading a divisive campaign, but establishing their values and chose Kaepernick as the face of this new campaign, “Dream Crazy”.

2. Objectives of the Campaign: The objective of the campaign was to reinforce that Nike believed Kaepernick made a difficult, but righteous decision by continuing to stand against racial injustice, and they were willing to make a bold bet on that. This bet paid off big, as Nike saw a 31% increase in spend over the next day.

3. Target Market: The target market was also clear; Nike was advertising to folks who respected Kaepernick’s sacrifices in the name of racial injustice, across all ages and backgrounds.

4. Call to Action: Nike dug a figurative line in the sand: we support people who stand for something, even to their own personal detriment. This resonated with much of its consumer base and rang as a bold and respectable statement, and people responded in kind by purchasing more Nike apparel in a voice of support.

5. Value Proposition: The value proposition was to let Nike customers know that they align with the struggles of black Americans. Conversely, Nike once had an illustrious history of exporting American manufacturing jobs to Asia for lower labor costs, moving those jobs from South Korea and Taiwan for demanding a wage in line with their economic growth, to factories that employ, or “subcontract”, children to work in sweatshops across Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Indonesia and India. Nike has done a lot to change its reputation over this period of time by improving factory conditions through audits, removing child labor, and by running advertising campaigns that resonate with Americans who fail to see the irony in all of this.

5. Sears Catalog – “The Barrington”

1. Description of the Ad: Sears Catalogs are iconic, even after we’ve seen the department store go by the wayside. According to the Smithsonian, during the early 1900’s, Sears became a household name from their mail-order home kits, which were entire homes that arrived in parts through the railroad. Sears provided instructions, materials and financing, which transformed the American housing market, and made Sears one of the most influential American companies for the remainder of the century. Some of these housing prices are the things of envy, with the 1918 ten room “Magnolia” mansion selling for an inflation adjusted $101,000.
2. Objectives of the Campaign: The objective of the campaign was to advertise Sears’ new innovation in housing to the masses. This ad is one of many in the campaign of “Modern Homes”, showing the floor plans for their home kits, including financing, room descriptions and additional options. This set the stage for Sears to sell other products through their catalog, from tombstones, to underwear, to guns, to heroin.
3. Target Market: The target market was anyone who wanted a simplified and less expensive method of building their own home back in the 1900’s. With Sears taking something of a proto-assembly method in building these homes, they were able sell over 100,000 “Modern” homes between 1906 – 1940 from their catalog, and many more beyond that.
4. Call to Action: The call to action is clearer here than any previous ad. There wasn’t much in the weight of nuance. Sears provided a comprehensive and complete option for homeownership.
5. Value Proposition: The value proposition is that Sears could provide cheaper homes than anyone else, could provide altercations for customization and provide financing all in one go. Their ads were clear and direct, and benefit focused, rather than subtle or intending to distinguish itself as a brand that people related to. It gave you information to make informed choices.