OUTDOOR ADVERTISING IN VIETNAM: 40 Dangerously Creative Billboard Ads

Billboard advertisements are designed to catch a person’s attention and create a memorable impression very quickly, leaving the reader thinking about the advertisement after they have driven past it.^[1]

That’s why there are no place for boring ads alongside highways. Of course, too creative billboard ads may create another problem, like traffic accidents, but we hope you are viewing this post at home, and not while driving with your laptop on your lap. So, without further ado, here are 40 of the most creative billboard advertisements – enjoy and milk some inspiration!

1. Formula Toothcare: Bite

“Builds strong teeth” (Advertising Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Jakarta, Indonesia)

2. Avera Health: Smoking Billboard

For two days, drivers who passed a smoking billboard in Sioux Falls, honked and cranked their necks to get a better look at the board everyone was talking about. It showed a woman sitting on a gurney in front of a terrible car crash, with one of the cars actually smoking behind her, that at least for two days, the smoke billowed off the photo into the sky, thanks to a hidden smoke machine behind the board. (Advertising Agency: BVK, USA)

3. Jobsintown.de: The Ass-Kisser Project

“There are better ways to make career.” (Advertising Agency: Scholz & Friends, Hamburg, Germany)

4. Oltimer Restaurants: Tunnel

Special Poster for “Oldtimer”, a big Austrian chain for motorway rest stops. (Advertising Agency: Demner, Merlicek & Bergmann, Vienna, Austria)

5. Calvin Klein Underwear

Advertising School: Chosun University, Gwangju, South Korea

6. The Economist

Advertising Agency: Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, UK

7. Panasonic Nose Hair Trimmer

Billboards built around actual electric wires and poles to amusingly yet convincingly dramatize the need for the Panasonic nose hair trimmer’s safety cutting system. (Advertising Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi Indonesia)

8. Belt Up

Advertising Agency: unknown

9. Berger: Natural Finish Colors

Advertising Agency: JWT Mumbai, India

10. BIC Razor

Advertising Agency: unknown

11. Playboy: Guys, Pray For Rain

“Guys, pray for rain.” (Advertising Agency: unknown)

12. Mars Chilled: Tongue

Agency: Colenso BBDO, Auckland, New Zealand

13. Cingular

Agency: BBDO, New York.

14. Calgary International Film Festival

Only the best films make it. (Advertising Agency: WAX, Calgary AB, Canada)

15. Eskom: Use Electricity Wisely

“Use electricity wisely.” (Advertising Agency: unknown)

16. Anando Milk – Superhuman Powers

Advertising Agency: McCANN ERICKSON, Mumbai, India

17. Coop’s Paints (Insurance Ad)

Advertising Agency: TM Advertising , USA, Dallas

18. Koleston Naturals: Change

Koleston Naturals is a hair colorant from natural ingredients. (Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett, Beirut, Libanon)

19. CNN: Stories With the Full Background

Advertising Agency: DDB&CO., Istanbul, Turkey

20. Coca-Cola

Refresh on Coca-Cola side of life. (Advertising Agency: MacLaren McCann, Toronto, Canada)

21. XBox, Alan Wake: Coffin Light

Microsoft Canada is looking to scare gamers with a unique campaign created to support the launch of Alan Wake, the highly anticipated psychological action thriller game. (Advertising Agency: MacLaren McCann, Toronto, Canada)

22. The Day After Tommorow

Advertising Agency: Contract, Mumbai, India

23. Road Safety: Bleeding Billboard

“Rain changes everything. Please drive to the conditions.” (Advertising Agency: Colenso BBDO, Auckland, New Zealand)

24. Science World

Vancouver’s Rethink glued 9,000 dazzling glass “diamonds” to a billboard to promote Science World’s Treasure! exhibit, and to dramatize this fact: compared to most other gems, diamonds aren’t all that rare. (Advertising Agency: Rethink, Canada)