How to Be Immortal in a Disposable Age

If you ask anyone for examples of ‘Immortal’ advertising (and we have), you’ll be near-guaranteed to hear a few old certainties intermingled with their personal favourites. The Cadbury Gorilla, Guinness Surfer, or Apple’s 1984 - released two, three, and four decades ago respectively. 

These classic ads achieved immortality through a creative spark, out-of-the-box thinking, or the bravery to reward audiences’ intelligence to fuel brand storytelling. All of these techniques are still available to brands and agencies in 2024. But the game itself has changed. Big-ticket advertising no longer has a right to our attention across just a handful of terrestrial TV channels. It’s become one small part of a content cacophony, a symphony of distraction played out on an ever-inflating variety of channels. When audiences are struggling even to get through an episode of multi-million dollar prestige TV without checking their phone for a notification, what chance does an ad have? If a gorilla played drums in 2024, would anyone stick around longer than six seconds to hear it? 

In that context, it’s easy to wonder whether advertising immortality is still achievable in the modern era. But with so much great work undoubtedly still being made, why should it not be celebrated and recognised as part of its own times and on its own terms, rather than compared to decades-old classics who were ultimately playing a different game? There may be more noise than ever, but creativity remains a clear signal. To chew through all of this and reflect on immortality in a disposable era, I spoke with Emma Wilkie, director of the Immortal Awards. 

“When we ask our judges to think about what qualifies as ‘immortal’, we talk about stuff that they think will be remembered in ten or fifteen years’ time”, she says. “One of the CCOs on the jury had a great interpretation of it - she asked whether, if she became a professor of advertising, she’d use that ad as an example. That is a clear definition of immortality - something that people choose to look back on and learn from”. 

Looking back at 2023’s Immortal Winners, it’s hard to discern a clear template. Heinz’s ‘Ketchup Fraud’ is a great insight in consumer behaviour, elevated by some particularly classy print work. Apple’s ‘The Greatest’ is a big, ambitious piece of brand storytelling seamlessly interwoven with product demonstration, and ‘Papa’ for Canal+ is a gloriously dry and understated piece of wit that symbolises all you need to know about the network’s support for short films. At first glance there’s no common pattern or blueprint for Immortality across those ideas, and perhaps that’s no coincidence. 

Above: Apple's 'The Greatest'.

“Juxtaposing the Apple and Canal+ work for a second, I think that tells you everything you need to know about how important creativity is”, notes Emma. “‘The Greatest’ is a quintessentially bold piece of branded content that was supported by a big budget, whereas ‘Papa’ was put together for a relatively much smaller amount. It’s not the dollars that made these ideas sink or swim; it was the creative quality. They both ooze confidence and they stand out as a result. They’re effective, because they tell us something about the brand that sticks with us”. 

Above: 'Papa' for Canal+.

Creativity isn’t a guarantor of advertising immortality, but it is a necessary first step. “These ads have a personality which feeds into how people understand the brand. That’s another part of what makes them immortal - they leave a lasting impression on the brand itself and how we think about it”, she continues. “Orlando Wood of System1 has spoken recently about a horrific statistic - that only 6% of last year’s $750bn ad spend was considered ‘truly effective’. That’s horrendous, and all of System1’s research, and Peter Field’s, will tell you that it’s creative brand-building which drives effectiveness in the long-term. Again, that’s immortal advertising”. 

Creativity combines with personality in order to build a brand’s identity and make it relevant within culture. And, as Emma explains, there’s more than one way to achieve that. “It’s become a buzzword now, but the idea of ‘purpose’ has often been used to insert a brand into culture”, she says. “To be clear, not every purpose-driven campaign has been a hit. But in 2018 our jury gave Blood Normal an Immortal Award and, more than half a decade later, that ad’s immortality is something we would absolutely stand by”. 

Above: Libresse's Blood Normal from 2018.

Following that 2018 triumph, Viva La Vulva went on to win immortality in 2019, with #Wombstories getting the nod in 2020. In other words, connecting your identity to a purpose is something that has clearly worked for Libresse. “If you’re going to go down the purpose route, it has to be very much ingrained in your brand identity”, says Emma, “in the same way Dove is still the torch bearer for ‘Real Beauty’ nearly 20 years after the original Evolution ad”. 

Above: Dove's 'Real Beauty Sketches' was a continuation of a long-running campaign. 

In many ways, brands have never been more closely entwined with culture than they are today - opening up plenty of opportunities for creativity. “A couple of weeks ago, Pelle Sjoenell told us that The Barbie Movie was his Most Immortal Ad”, says Emma. “He did so half-playfully, but he’s right, isn’t he? That movie is an ad, and it both became part of and moved culture. It’s genius. And it’s not the first - The LEGO Movie is ten years old this year, and it performed a similar trick”. 

But Emma is keen to stress the diversity behind great creative ideas which leave a mark. “This is not to say that every brand should make itself into a movie!”, she adds. “It simply shows how brands can earn the right to capture our attention, entertain us, and stay with us. There’s an appetite from audiences for that in 2024, and brands who find a way to take advantage of it will become immortal”. 

It’s easy to bemoan the distance between the era of Guinness Surfer and the cultural moment we’re in today. But nostalgia is a tinted lens. There’s little more tiresome than the pub bore who bemoans how “they don’t make anything like this anymore” when Bohemian Rhapsody gets played on the jukebox. So advertising shouldn’t fall into that trap. Somewhere, in some agency, on some film set, in some recording studio or some post house, Immortality is being made today.