World’s best ads ever #70: BBH puts a new twist on the Lynx Effect
We asked our readers to vote for their favorite commercials of all time. Top creatives from the World Creative Rankings and The Drum’s Judges’ Club then ranked the ads. Now, we bring you the definitive 100 best TV and video ads of all time.
In its heyday, Unilever-owned male deodorant brand Lynx was famed for making cheeky and irreverent ads. ‘Getting Dressed’ was one of its more romantic offerings.
In 2014, Lynx tapped Bartle Bogle Hegarty to put a twist on its long-term Lynx Effect brand platform, which typically showed beautiful women falling from heaven for Lynx users.
BBH broke that mold with a spot that unfolds in reverse, starting with a couple naked in bed and following them as they recover their scattered clothes, through the streets and back to the supermarket where they met.
There is no dialogue in its 90-seconds, with Israel Kamakawiwòole’s cover of Somewhere Over The Rainbow the dominant sound. The track was made popular by films Finding Forrester, 50 First Dates and Fred Claus, while it also featured on US shows Charmed, ER, Scrubs and Glee.
The ad was directed by the late Ringan Ledwidge, who passed away last year. The respected director also shot Sainsbury’s 2014 ‘Christmas is for Sharing’ campaign.
Lynx and BBH’s work won four Silver Pencils at D&AD and a Gold Lion at Cannes.
Lynx’s marketing has often been accused of being too sexualized and unrepresentative, so since 2015 the brand has been on a journey to shake off its 90s laddish reputation and replace it with more mature messaging.
Last year, in a bid to win over Gen Z, Lynx invested £12m to reformulate its product range and update its brand platform to The New Lynx Effect. Its first ads from the repositioning swapped male models for Anthony Joshua and rapper Aitch, and shows men, women and animals turning head over the fragrance. Lynx said its new branding was to stay relevant to its audience while helping them smell and feel their best.