Wonderbra Tops Ad Poll

TBWA’s sexy Wonderbra poster campaign has taken top spot in the first annual results of the Ads That Make News survey. The campaign featuring supermodel Eva Herzigova was the most written about ad in the national press in 1995 generating 50 stories, according to the survey carried out by Propeller Marketing Communications.

The Ads That Make News report recorded a total of 900 advertising campaigns which generated 1,785 stories in the national press over the year. The top ten campaigns accounted for 12% of all stories. The now defunct Today was top for running stories about ads in 1995 – 214 in total. It was followed by The Guardian with 189 and the Daily Mirror with 151.

Martin Loat, Managing Director of Propeller, said that creating ad campaigns which will hit headlines is a technique “being used strategically as a planned method of getting more impact. Besides celebrities and sex, advertisers are increasingly using controversy to hit the headlines. Whilst this is an area for debate in adland I’m sure we’ll see more of this type of advertising in 1996.”

The last quarter of 1995 (October to December) saw the first Internet adverts hit the headlines. Virgin Atlantic Airways was fined by the US authorities for its misleading Internet ad. Another was the so-called Pimps R Us ad, selling prostitutes. Friends of the Earth also hit the headlines when it refused to remove its ad – criticising the Brazilian government – from the Internet and came into conflict with the ASA.

Top 10 Ads That Make News Stories in National Newspapers