The greatest ads of all time — ranked by you. Upvote what deserves the crown.
This is a living ranking of the greatest ads of all time — the campaigns that stopped culture cold, reshaped an industry, or simply lodged themselves in a generation's memory. From Apple's "1984" to Nike's "Just Do It," from Old Spice to Cadbury's gorilla, every entry here earned its place by doing what almost no advertising does: getting people to actually pay attention, remember, and talk about it.
The list is not curated by an agency, a jury, or a nostalgic creative director. It is voted on by the readers of People Hate Ads* — marketers, creatives, and the merely curious — and the ranking updates in real time. Missed a classic? Submit it. Disagree with the top ten? Downvote it. This is advertising history the way it should be told: contested, opinionated, and open to anyone who cares.
Be authentic. Tell a story worth sitting through. Entertain or teach. Aim for emotion. Be brave enough to look different from everyone else in the category.
Apple · 1984
Directed by Ridley Scott, this Super Bowl spot introduced the Macintosh by casting Apple as the rebel hammer-thrower smashing IBM's dystopian conformity. It aired once and rewired what a TV commercial could be — cinematic, political, and unmistakably a brand manifesto.
The Guardian · 1986
A 60-second spot shows the same incident from three angles — and the meaning flips each time. It's a quiet argument for journalism, and probably the cleanest demo of brand purpose ever filmed.