Issue #150

Reader

McDonald's showed up with a billboard that had no logo, no slogan, and cowboys wearing French fry fringe.

One image. Three seconds of looking.

Instantly, my popular "12 Best Billboard Ads of All Time" article was suddenly one fry short of a Happy Meal. ;-(

Western jackets stitched in McDonald's red and yellow. Belt buckles hiding Big Macs. Leather strips that, when you look twice, are golden fries.

No headline explaining the benefit.
No copy telling you what to feel.
​The ad became the Stampede.

These days, the speed at which people scan and skim what's in front of them is like someone speeding down the highway. And that demands a new skill. The skill of saying a lot with a little.

Now, I could have shoehorned this amazing billboard into the original article. Or demoted one of the 12. Or add it and pretend it was always 13.

But that single image deserved more than a footnote.

It deserved company. So I built a whole new collection. It's premiering this morning.

​9 More Best Billboard Ads of All Time​

Every campaign in this new list follows the same rule.

Not one of them explains the benefit. They all demonstrate it. The medium becomes the message. The environment becomes part of the ad. The concept isn't something you read. It's something you experience.

And, if you manage a brand, here is the part that matters.

Today's highway is not on the road. It is on our phones, our inboxes, our feeds, our attention spans so shredded they would challenge the greatest math student.

The skill that works at 70 mph is the same skill that works in a subject line, on your homepage, in your pitch deck, or in a 30-second elevator conversation.

You do not need a bigger budget.
You need a bigger idea.

Check out these 9 campaigns that prove it.

Have an incredible weekend.
David

P.S. If you need help to be this kind of message and not be wallpaper, schedule a one-on-one call: https://DavidBrierCalendar.as.me/IntroductorySession​