Most Memorable Ads of 2006

In the world of advertising and marketing, 2006 was all hanging it out there and accepting the consequences, both positive and not

Phew! Communications in 2006 was not a total disaster. Far from it. If I had to sum it all up in one simple statement, I would say this was The Year of at Least Trying.

Trying to get away from the clichés, the dogma, the focus groups, the bad precedents, and the bad addy-ads; of trying to experiment with format, with media, and with brand "elasticity." Finally, there were signs of consumers being credited with intelligence. Of course there were still lots of bad campaigns; misfired attempts to be "viral," or bad ads linked to bad multimedia campaigns (in my opinion, a boring cereal ad that directs me to a equally boring Web site droning on about the joys of recapturing childhood is just double-annoying, but there you go).

We're clearly at an inflection point. I'm not even a traditional ad-guy and I've been asked to write this, so what does that say? We're all firmly in this together—marketers, designers, clients, agencies, researchers, ethnographers, art directors and writers, all being sniped at, out-thought, and remixed by consumers younger than our own kids. Hard as it is to say, in most cases, they're as good, if not better, at this stuff than we are. Now, together, we must figure out where to go from here. But before we get in to a whole spiral of circle drumming, chest-beating and problem-solving, let's take a quick tour of some of the highlights of the last year.

Most Memorable ads of 2006..

Most Memorable ads of 2006 , Part 2..