Tagline

This week on our Season 2 finale, we speak with one of the living legends of the advertising business, art director Amil Gargano. Now 90 years old, Amil was a co-founder of Ally & Gargano, one of the most revered agencies of the '60s and '70s, famous for its take-no-prisoners style and pioneering use of comparative advertising. I spent an afternoon with Amil recently, and this episode has excerpts from that conversation—as we touch on his career, his celebrated work, and his close yet com...

This week on Tagline, we look back at the most startling brand statement on race from the emotional months after George Floyd's death: Beats by Dre's powerful two-minute film "You Love Me." We speak with the team who created the spot at the agency Translation—how they pivoted from a product campaign, partnered with A-listers led by Melina Matsoukas, went down a very different path than they expected to at first, and in the end achieved a remarkable double triumph: celebrating the beauty and r...

The metaverse may well be our future, but it's a metaverse parody that's gotten more attention this ad-award season. For this episode of Tagline, we sat down at Cannes Lions with folks from the agency SS+K and Visit Iceland to talk about "Welcome to the Icelandverse," the video from late last year that expertly spoofed Mark Zuckerberg's vision of our utopian virtual future—and offered a nonvirtual Iceland travel experience as a welcome alternative.

It was one of the great comic triumphs from the golden age of viral commercials: "The Bear," created by Paris agency BETC for the French TV network Canal+. This week on Tagline, we look at the making of the hilarious and wonderfully crafted 2011 spot, which won almost every ad award under the sun—and remains a high point of comedy advertising more than a decade later.

After the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, two parents who lost their children that day—Nicole Hockley and Mark Barden—founded Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit devoted to protecting kids from guns by teaching people to recognize the warning signs of potential violence before it occurs. This week on Tagline, we look at the the group's remarkable PSAs over the past decade—created with BBDO New York and the Smuggler director Henry-Alex Rubin—and how the bravery, boldness and craf...

Nine years ago this week, Dove and Ogilvy Brazil rolled out one of the great megaviral ads of all time, "Real Beauty Sketches." Today on Tagline, we revisit the 2013 social experiment with the folks who made it—to learn how a film shot for less than $200,000 made a powerful statement about self-esteem, rejuvenated a legendary brand platform, drove $54 million worth of earned media, and rocketed around the world to become the most-watched online ad ever.

We kick off Season 2 with a look at Apple's "Get a Mac," the episodic comedy series that ran from 2006 to 2009, with Justin Long as a personified Macintosh and John Hodgman as a PC. We revisit its entire history, from the brutal eight-month search for the idea to the campaign's demise 93 spots later—just as it was named Adweek's campaign of the decade. Presented by GSTV.

On Valentine's Day 2018, Joaquin Oliver, 17 years old, was killed along with 16 others in a mass shooting at his high school in Parkland, Florida. Two weeks later, his parents Manuel and Patricia created the organization Change the Ref, becoming remarkable advocates for curbing gun violence in America. On this episode, we chat with Manny and Patricia about their celebrated work, the recent escalation of their tactics, how they work with agencies, and why they see art and creativity as the ult...

On this bonus episode, we chat with David Kolbusz, chief creative officer of Droga5 London, who’s brought a consistency and level of creative excellence to the agency’s U.K. operation that was missing before. We dig into some of David’s celebrated work across his career—with stops at Mother, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, BBH and Wieden + Kennedy—and how his time at W+K and Droga, in particular, has increasingly been defined by making ads that don’t look like ads at all.

This week we look at Procter & Gamble’s powerful trilogy of spots about racial bias: “The Talk” from 2017, “The Look” from 2019, and “The Choice” from 2020. We dig into the craft of each piece and explore P&G’s evolving approach to fighting racism, from the early days of the Trump presidency to the murder of George Floyd and beyond. Presented by GSTV.

This week we time-travel to 2009 to revisit BBH London’s five-minute brand-history film for Johnnie Walker, starring Robert Carlyle in a virtuosic performance, shot in a single take. It’s a story of great copywriting, top-notch camerawork and theatrical visual storytelling—as well as soaking rain, insects, and last-minute problems with legal. Presented by GSTV.

On this bonus episode, we catch up with Fernando Machado, who made waves this week by announcing his exit from Burger King and RBI after seven years to join Activision as CMO. We take a stroll down memory lane, as Fer walks us through his many of his greatest BK hits (he even picks his favorite) and also reveals why he’s making the move to gaming. Presented by GSTV.

We close out Women's History Month with a look back at one of the great female-empowerment anthems ever made by an advertiser, "Like a Girl" from P&G's Always. Hear the whole story of the social experiment turned viral film turned Super Bowl showstopper from the folks who made it. Presented by GSTV.