Advertising has always appealed to many of the five senses, primarily sight and sound when it comes to electronics and sports. Yet how are advertisers able to appeal to our sense of taste? This has been an aspect of advertising that’s often difficult to gauge but, at right.video, we wanted to step into the kitchen and find out what were the best food-focused adverts. These are the ads that make our mouths water, tricking us into thinking we can smell the delicious food through our television screens or recreate the sensation we feel when a great meal is right in front of us. Whether they come from the largest fast food chain or the smallest Michelin-starred restaurant, food is in abundance but these adverts are the ones that make us hungrier the more we think about them.
Director: Jimmy T. Murakami
Production Company: Murakami-Wolf Productions
Agency: Doner
We’ll start off our list with more of a snack than a meal, but It’s perhaps a testament to the quality of the advert that this is still running in some form or another over fifty years after its initial debut. Its animation is crude but in the same way that The Peanuts specials are crude, yet have a timeless feel about them that you can’t help but adore. It possesses a storybook-esque quality with its use of animals a la Aesop’s Fables, albeit not nearly as giving of wisdom as those stories.
Director: Joel Sedelmaier
Production Company: N/A (Completed by agency itself)
Agency: Dancer Fitzgerald Sample
Before there was “I’m Lovin’ It,” there was “Where’s the Beef?” Even though we’ve talked about this ad before in our classic ads article, it’s still a bit stunning that this advert made such a pop culture impact. Numerous imitators, parodies, and even a reference during the 1984 presidential debates ensured that the slogan would outlive the initial ad. Ad Age would ultimately name “Where’s the Beef?” as one of the top ten slogans of the 20th century in a 1999 article. Not bad for a little old lady, I’d say.
Director: N/A
Production Company: N/A
Agency: Leo Burnett
We’ve had adverts from fast food, beverage giants, and soup companies, but it’s still a bit of a shock to have found an advert funded by an entire food sub-industry. Overseen by the Beef industry to combat a fear of red meat in the 1990s, this advert campaign was created to show off the numerous ways in which beef could be served. With the “Rodeo” theme in the background, you can’t help but have your mouth water with the dishes on display, especially when they take barely any time to prepare. It began a long-running campaign that ultimately wrapped up in 2007, appealing to our inner carnivore despite ourselves.
Director: N/A
Production Company: N/A
Agency: BBDO New York
With the holiday season and cold weather approaching, we thought it’d be an opportune moment to highlight not just a warm meal, but also a Christmas classic. Though the Campbell’s ‘Snowman’ ad has only been around since 1993, we can’t help but think that it comes from a much older time, with its nostalgic warmth and sense of home. This may not have been thought up as a Christmas advert, but it’s jazz version of “Let it Snow” has seen the commercial appear heavily around the holidays. It’s always a reassuring sight to see on those cold winter nights.
Director: Michael Bay
Production Company: Propaganda Films
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
The very first in the influential, long-running “Got Milk?” campaign, we find a hapless history buff unable to use his knowledge due to his mouth being full and lacking the milk to wash it all down. In addition to launching “Got Milk?”, this advert also has the distinction of being one of action director Michael Bay’s first projects after completing his film studies with his feature film debut only a year later. For better or worse, two staples of the ‘90s and 2000s started here and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Director: Martin Granger
Production Company: Moxie Pictures
Agency: Crispin Porter + Bogusky
Well, hello you handsome devil. Yes, the design of the King is disturbing, you know it, I know it, we all know it. Debuting in 2004, this ‘creepy’ iteration of the Burger King mascot was designed as part of the joke, supposedly using a mask bought on eBay at the CP+B offices. The King has thrived intermittently since, having a brief retirement in 2011 before being brought back in 2015, where he’s stayed with us since. This debut advert perfectly captures our fixation on the character: creepy but impossible to look away.
Director: Spike Lee
Production Company: Gin & Burger/40 Acres and a Mule
Agency: MullenLowe
While it may not be an advert by a food company per say, this is a delicious slice into a certain type of food that couldn’t be ignored. Just a much a food travelogue as it is an advert, film director and proud New Yorker Spike Lee showcases the proper etiquette when it comes to eating a New York-style pizza. Conceived as part of JetBlue’s Pie in the Sky campaign to deliver true New York pizzas to the LA area, it was a fun, witty advert showing off a staple of the New York pizza scene with one of the city’s greatest sons.
Director: Sam Pilling
Production Company: Pulse Films
Agency: Mother-London
KFC has been a long-time player in the fast food chicken business going back to its founding in 1952. The US-based chain has seen massive global expansion since then and is a significant fixture in numerous countries. Take this UK-exclusive advert, with homages to both The Godfather and Taxi Driver. It reflects
the influence the chain has had, inspiring numerous imitators over the decades with a growling narration commending the competition’s attempts. Yet the advert makes it very clear: there is only one Colonel and only one KFC.
Director: Mads Broni
Production Company: Passion Pictures
Agency: MullenLowes
UK-based Japanese restaurant chain Wagamama had already launched the “Bowl to Soul” campaign two years ago with adverts splicing anime-style scenes cut together with live-action restaurant scenes. For the 2020 iteration, the company decided to go exclusively with animation, depicting the life of a young woman in a beautiful rendition of London. Conjuring images of Avatar: The Last Airbender and numerous Studio Ghibli films, “Bowl to Soul” is a loving homage to Japanese animation that’s fit for the soul.
Director: Maisy Choi
Production Company: Milk n Honey Films
Agency: Leo Burnett Taiwan
We recently highlighted this advert in our “Best Advertiser Ads” article, but the company and subject matter is still staying with us. An advert about a single father struggling to raise his child isn’t something you’d expect, especially for a fast food giant like McDonald’s. We expect an advert that’s bright and quirky, not something that’s easily confused for a drama. Yet it’s this attempt to show off something different that certainly earns points from us. It’s an angle that we see few advertisers, let alone fast food companies, go into, but McDonald’s did so in a very tasteful way.
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We hope that this list hasn’t made you want to eat your own arm off just thinking about the abundance of food on display. We find that these were the best ads that helped give in to our hunger the most, showing off a mix of classic favorites with a new breed of adverts that gives us a satisfying taste in our mouths. You can find many of these ads here on the right.video search engine, whether its from fast food mainstays or just the ingredients that you use every day.
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