GOAT Ads
The greatest ads of all time — ranked by you. Upvote what deserves the crown.
About the greatest ads of all time
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.
What makes an ad great?
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.
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Virgin Cola · 1994
Richard Branson drove a Sherman tank through Times Square and crushed a wall of Coca-Cola cans to launch Virgin Cola in the US. The product didn't survive the soda wars, but the stunt did — a textbook example of using earned media instead of paid impressions.
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Apple · 1997
When Jobs came back to a near-dead Apple, the first thing he shipped wasn't a product — it was a worldview. Einstein, Gandhi, Ali, Dylan, narrated like a prayer. The company spent a decade earning the right to that voice.