Top 10 Best Print Ads of All Time – Advertising Examples
In a world where digital advertising represents a predominant marketing model, it is hard to believe that traditional formats still play a significant role in brand awareness and lead generation.
However, the fact remains that advertising tactics such as creative print ads are not disappearing.
On the contrary, industry reports prove the evergreen potential of print advertising:
70% of Americans prefer to read on paper, and 67% prefer printed materials over digital
Over 55% of all consumers trust print marketing more than any other advertising method
However, it takes great print content to evoke emotions and inspire customer interest.
If you want to exploit this marketing strategy, you better display a fair share of inspiration and creativity.
The quality of a print ad depends mainly on these traits, but we also want to show you a few examples to help you brainstorm different ideas when you work with an advertising agency.
Here are the top ten best print ads of all time!
1 – Keloptic Print Ad: Van Gogh
Keloptic is an online optician selling eyeglasses and sunglasses.
It doesn’t sound too impressive at first, but this print ad campaign might as well change your opinion about the company.
Their advertising agency used Van Gogh’s post-impressionist self-portrait as the perfect means of brand promotion.
Namely, the portrait is well-known for its blurry colour scheme, which makes no clear distinctions between hues and tones.
However, here is the plot twist: Keloptic put eyeglasses in front of the painting to reveal Van Gogh’s face and show the power of their products.
One of the best print ads of all time – So simple, but so clever!
2 – SANCCOB: Save the Penguins
SANCCOB is a non-profit organisation that helps seabirds to avoid extinction.
One of their campaigns aimed to protect the African penguin, so they worked with an advertising agency to produce a series of print advertisement examples to raise awareness about this issue.
However, SANCCOB made it different by adding a small dose of optical illusions to develop a more intriguing solution.
This ad takes the inverted pyramid form to show viewers how the number of African penguins keeps declining.
The technique is complicated, but the message is unambiguous.
3 – French Ministry of Health: Children’s Obesity
Another incredible illustration comes from the French Ministry of Health.
They wanted to spread the word about the growing problem of childhood obesity, warning parents that “obesity starts at a young age.”
The print ad campaign is plain but practical: it shows an ice cream with a fat belly on top of it.
What thrills us the most about this piece of content is that it uses bright and cheerful colours but still manages to send a not-so-shiny message to the kids and their parents.
4 – Ecovia: Stop the Violence
Many organisations are fighting against car accidents, but not too many have achieved such massive social media awareness as Ecovia with its “Stop the Violence” advertising campaign.
“They used body art illustrations to send powerful messages, trying to convince people not to drink and drive, write SMS messages while on the road, or practice reckless driving.”
5 – Kentucky Fried Chicken: FCK
KFC, one of the most popular fast-food chains worldwide, ran out of chicken earlier this year.
It was a colossal disaster for the brand that built the whole empire on chicken, so they temporarily closed almost a thousand US-based outlets.
However, their advertising agency used the opportunity to play with the famous KFC acronym and create one of the best print ads that say FCK.
It was a terrific way to apologise but also a great marketing trick that made the world talk about KFC from a different point of view.
6 – Chupa Chups: Sugar-Free Lollipops
Chupa Chups is a famous brand, while lollipops remain their most important product.
However, when Chupa Chups decided to follow the growing market trend and create a sugar-free lollipop, they needed an excellent print ad to spread the word about it.
Their advertising agency passed the exam and let the world know about the new product in one of the best print ads of the year.
Ants taking the long path to avoid the lollipop are not something you’d expect to see from Chupa Chups, but they knew it would make an impression on viewers in this case.
7 – Jeep Advertising Agency: See What You Want to See
Jeep is well-known for its terrain vehicles.
The company’s vision is to manufacture cars that can take you anywhere and enable you to see what you want to see.
The Jeep marketing team used this motto to design a two-faced print ad that shows a different animal based on your viewpoint.
While their point might be too clever for the average customer, the copy clarifies things.
8 – Opel: SMS Mistype
Surprisingly, much quality print advertising is coming from road safety campaigns.
This time, Opel launched a campaign to warn about the consequences of texting while driving.
This ad differs from similar illustrations because it uses a black background and a short line of text to display an utterly understandable statement.
When you see this print ad, you know you will never again type an SMS while driving.
9 – PNET: A Better Job Is Waiting
The ninth example on our list comes from the Republic of South Africa.
A recruiting platform PNET made this print ad to tell people they don’t have to stay covered in mould, playing boring desktop computer games forever.
It’s a timely message for everyone who feels stuck at his/her workplace and cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel.
However, this print ad is not only a funny illustration – it inspires people to take the desired action and apply for a new job when they see an excellent opportunity.
10 – Pedigree: A Dog Makes Your Life Happier. Adopt
People say that an image is worth a thousand words.
Nothing proves this statement as much as Pedigree’s print ad, where you can see how people look with and without a dog.
Influenced by the simple comparison between the two images, viewers can quickly decide to adopt a dog.
Conclusion on the best Print Ads of All-time
Digital advertising might be our era’s dominant marketing force, but creative printed adverts remain highly practical and accessible among global audiences.
This happens primarily because a creative ad campaign can be very creative and get stuck in our minds for a long time.
This post presented you with the top 10 best print ads campaigns.
These examples should give you enough materials to start thinking about your own print advertisement, and we hope you will soon come up with new solutions that will be as successful as the ones we described above.
Author Bio: Peter Hill is a professional writer and journalist. He is a socially active person, engaged in photo and video editing. You can find him on Twitter and Facebook.
Is print advertising a decreasing market?
Many marketing and advertising agencies still need to perform a print for their top-paying clients.
Why? Print ads require the most effort, images, and copywriting to succeed.
In this regard, a print advert permits an organisation to reveal its complete range of abilities.
Print commercials are tangible — you could show the CEO of the advertising agency the campaign by bringing them the booklet the advert is in. Print commercials win awards, which bolsters an employer’s reputation.
Print commercials have exceptional durability.
A monthly journal may additionally sit down in a waiting room for that entire month or longer. Those ads have a more lasting effect than a flashing banner or 30 seconds visual.
With there being fewer guides now, people who do have advertisements stand out more as it’s less crowded.
There’s a way lot less ad fraud than virtual.
Human beings like print publications, so the commercials are more reliably relied on. The content material in print is curated — your advert won’t be seen next to debatable content material.
How can you create the best print ads?
Observe the publication you are marketing in and seize its audience.
Have an incredible headline and attractive visual.
Use specific photos/paintings.
Make sure everything is high-res.
Apprehend cutting-edge trends in print design.
Are newspaper commercials useful in 2021?
They aren’t as effective as they have been since the internet — which is why print journalism started its sad decline, after its primary source of sales, employment and advertisements, migrated online.
However, print stays a powerful medium for marketing.
In case you’ve presented a newspaper, you may have observed that some of the advertisements are for supermarkets and local shops. Weekend papers are typically complete of revealed circulars for supermarkets and retail.
Many papers make income with the useful resource of printing the local circulars.
Supermarkets appear to favour print, partly because humans nevertheless want to clip coupons.
And in a few markets, television advertising is price-prohibitive or no longer available.
The rate of print commercials is linked to the newspaper, so advertising and marketing in a small weekly might be an awful lot cheaper and better at achieving a small company’s target market.
Just like books, I don’t think print will ever go away completely. There’s a large portion of the population that’s very textile and would much rather have something in their hands to hold and view vs a computer screen of any kind. Myself being one of them, even though I’m a graphic designer. I find I can’t wait to get away from a computer screen at the end of the day. I don’t like having constant information being shoved in my face on a computer vs taking my time flipping pages, feeling paper and letting my eyes see color the way it should be viewed…not backlit.
Yes, a print ad captures attention longer, and hence lingers longer in the mind.
Niharrchak
Yes, print ad can be more effective,at times. Supposing it is a newspaper ad or a magazine ad. You have control over its use. You can see an ad longer till the message is fully grasped by you.
You can make the ad an instant attention getter through a striking headline. You can make it more impactful through a few clarifying words in a subhead- to reinforce the meaning. You can use logo or the brand name with a striking tagline. You can make an outstanding visual-verbal ad to capture attention of the reader instantly.You have the advantage of using colour,design, and all the rest of communicative elements except sound and motion. You can make the message of the ad precise and yet uncluttered.The plus pont you have in print ad — you can create an ad that captures attention longer. The message of the ad can linger longer in the mind. Can get get better registered more economically on the minds of the target audience.
–NIHARRCHAK
Yes, print ad has an important role in marketing even today.
The problem with print ads is huge, first, they need to be written and rewritten many times, then they need to be inserted in a newspaper or magazine, whose readership and circulation figures may be inaccurate and is often totally fictitious, then you have the much greater problem of finding a product that sells and can be found and purchased with no great effort by buyers, even finding the correct advertising image and headlines can take weeks and the chance of getting it right the first time are almost nil. In the final analysis, you might discover print adverts do not work and it’s distributions and supermarket shelf space that matters. Tv was a death blow to newspaper sales, and the www just about killed all forms of press advertising no matter how clever, well written, or prepared. An unhappy situation that doe not appear to be improving.
The idea of French Ministry of Health is awesome. The ice cream presented this way will маке the people to think about their health.
do you know where the chupa chups ad was published? that would be so helpful. best
I don’t know specifically, but looks like a magazine advert?
Have a look here – http://foolsofrandomness.blogspot.com/2013/02/weekly-advertising-analysis-chupa-chups.html