Most Read of 2024: The USA’s Biggest Stories

This festive cavalcade of roundups, reflections, and ambitious predictions can only mean one thing: 2024 is coming to a close. Across wider culture, it was a loud, bombastic, and bratty year - Kendrick and Drake brought public feuding to entertaining new heights, the Eras tour took over the world (and, indirectly, the Super Bowl), Team USA topped the Olympic table, Mike Tyson got punched by a YouTuber, and someone taped a banana to a wall. That’s all before American politicians set a stoic and statesmanlike example for the rest of the world in a well-mannered and non-toxic electoral event. Well done everyone. 

As for advertising, we’ve had quite a year of our own. Whilst it feels as though the industry has been dominated by discussions around artificial intelligence, the technology (perhaps revealingly) has no presence whatsoever in our list of most-read articles. Hey, don’t blame me - you guys clicked and shared the links. 

What is present, however, is humorous takes on creativity, punchy opinions, brand reinventions, celebrity revelations, and a non-zero amount of poop (like, literally - that’s not a comment on the quality of the ads). To get your heads around all of that, please do read on… 

Who Gives a Crap Turns Ex's Letters into Toilet Paper This Valentine's Day

We’re not quite sure what it says about the wellbeing of our readers’ love lives that this story proved quite as popular as it did. But in the runup to Valentine’s Day in February, TBWA\Chiat\Day LA pioneered a campaign for the toilet paper brand ‘Who Gives a Crap’ which saw Americans inscribe the names of their exes on custom-made TP. The campaign formed part of the brand’s wider ‘Flush Your Ex’ initiative, which invited the public to send in old love letters and cards which could then be turned into the brand’s sustainable, 100% recycled toilet paper. However the rest of your 2024 might have turned out, we hope you’re all doing OK. 

KFC Launches One of a Kind 'Chizzeria' in New York

You may recall your mouth watering at the prospect of KFC’s groundbreaking ‘Double Down’ innovation/abomination [delete as appropriate to your culinary standards or snobbery]. Well, earlier this year the brand, er, doubled down on the concept with another outlandish fast food collab - chicken pizza, or ‘Chizza’. Parking its tanks firmly on pizza’s lawn with a pop-up store in the heart of New York City, LBB readers lapped up this exotic experiment from MullenLowe U.S.

Barilla Amplifies Pasta Eating Experience with Al Bronzo Soundtrack

Cynics might argue that pasta is already perfect, and thus cannot be improved. But these philistines plainly had not reckoned with the sensational sonic superpower of music, and specifically this custom-made playlist from composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer designed to elevate the experience of consuming Barilla’s Al Bronzo pasta. Underpinned by the philosophy of ‘Sonic Seasoning’, this project from Edelman US undoubtedly inspired LBB readers to take their midweek pasta bakes to new sensorial heights. 

Do Clients Lose as Holding Companies Push In-House Production?

In-housing has been top of the industry’s agenda throughout 2024, and this punchy op-ed from the AICP's Matt Miller came out swinging on the subject. The piece provided a powerful argument as to the value of independence and innovation in the production space - one that clearly struck many chords across LBB’s readership. 

Sergio Lopez: Omnicom Production Will Be a New Type of Production for a New Type of World

And now, the case for the defence. During the summer, my colleague Ben Conway caught up with Sergio Lopez to reflect on Omnicom’s place in a rapidly changing industry landscape in a conversation that certainly caught the attention of LBB’s readers. 

PNC Bank Is 'Brilliantly Boring' in Spot Starring Chris Diamantopoulos

Isn’t it about time you were bored again? That’s the paradoxically thrilling provocation at the heart of this ad for PNC Bank featuring the iconic Canadian actor. It’s a campaign which redefines boring as brilliant - at least in the context of banking, anyway. Created by AOR Arnold Worldwide, a Havas company, the centrepiece of the multimillion-dollar effort is a 60-second anthem TV spot, 'Boring is Essential' that brings the bank’s philosophy to life: To be brilliantly boring with your money, so that you can be happily fulfilled with your life.  

Introducing Cadillac's Electric Escalade with Outkast’s Big Boi and DJ Jazzy Jeff

A collaboration between Spike Lee’s agency and Will Smith’s production company, this campaign drew on over 30 years of lyrical references to Cadillac from across the history of music, not least including Big Boi from the legendary rap duo, Outkast - the star of this ad. Judging by the viewcount, this feature going behind the scenes of the project got LBB readers’ motors running - all electric, of course. 

Coca-Cola Embraces Reimagined Versions of Its Iconic Logo By Local Businesses

When you’re as iconic as Coca-Cola, you might be forgiven for zealously guarding your brand identity. But this outstanding effort from VML New York took the opposite approach, re-imagining the brand’s logo as signs, paintings, and murals from across the world. The resulting campaign underlines the popularity, ubiquity, and legacy of the planet’s best-selling soft drink. This campaign also made it through to the final, global round of The Immortal Awards 2024. You’ll have to wait until January to find out if it managed to win.

Voice of Arby's Ving Rhames Finally Shows His Face

Who killed JFK? How were the pyramids built? And who is the voice of Arby’s? Since what feels like the dawn of time, these questions have lingered unanswered at the back of mankind’s hivemind - that is, until this ad from Fallon finally put the latter to rest. Fresh off the back of the brand’s ‘Free Sandwich Month’, Ving Rhames was revealed as the voice behind Arby’s for over a decade. The ad proved a hit across socials, as well as with LBB’s readers upon its release in April. 

Etsy's First Super Bowl Commercial Sees the USA Thank France for the Statue of Liberty

For many of us, gift-giving is an activity fraught with pressure, stress, and concern. What’s the budget? Do they already own what you’ve just bought them? Is your gift even good enough?! Well spare a thought for the French, who in the 1880s gifted the freakin’ Statue of Liberty to the US. Imagine the wrapping paper bills. This rib-tickling ad for Etsy from creative agency Orchard takes us back to that time, with production values worthy of the Super Bowl. Which is just as well, because it was indeed a Super Bowl ad. 

2024’s Most Useful Creative Life Hacks

At the outset of the year, that man again Ben Conway sagely predicted that we might all benefit from a dose of working smarter rather than harder. He reached out to creatives from a global spread of agencies to figure out how the industry’s best and brightest are balancing inspiration, motivation, and satisfaction in their roles. And the best part is that this list is evergreen - so take a look and get ready to put your best foot forward in 2025. 

DUDE Wipes Drops Its Pants in Super Bowl Focused Campaign

Life is circular. We all end as we began - a celestial cluster of atoms scattered across the stars. Not this list, though. We’re starting and ending quite literally in the shit. Another Super Bowl campaign, this ad from Curiosity for DUDE Wipes promoted the brand “as the only choice for a clean wipe after the inevitable bathroom runs during and after the game-- for the best clean, pants down”. Fair enough.