30 Hilarious Print Advertisements
In today’s world of interactive web-based marketing, viral campaigns and high production television commercials, the print ad remains one very powerful and effective means for advertisers to reach their audience.
The printed format, whether it is for magazines, newspapers or billboards, sets specific challenges for ad designers. An idea or message must be communicated simply and swiftly, it must be eye-catching enough to grab the viewer’s attention and convey the important information in an instant. When a print designer employs humour to carry this information, the result can be become a visual ‘one-liner’, a joke that speaks the message the ad intends. This post brings together 30 hilarious print ads that combine great imagery with cracking comedy.
1. Bose Noise reduction Headphones: Waterfall
2. Belgian Association for Obese Patients: Encourage Your Children to do More Sport
3. Glassex Window Cleaner: Magician
4. Lazer Cycle Helmets: Hospital
5. Senior Self Defence Academy: Deadly Seniors, Biker
6. Pepsi Twist
7. Timotei: Lion
8. German Olympic Sport Federation: David
9. Nikol Baking Tray: Jacuzzi
10. Softlan Ultra: Wrestling
11. Alka Seltzer: Hangover
12. Kodak Rechargeable Batteries: Tiger
13. Utopolis Group of Cinemas: Titanic
14. Pedigree Light: Flower
15. Kiss FM: iPod Father
16. Listerine Mouthwash: Sermon
17. Pringles Hot and Spicy: Balloon
18. Guinness: Einstein
19. DynaKids Vitamins: Making Kids Stronger
20. Loteria de la Provincia de Buenos Aires: Money
21. Chupa Chups Sugar Free: Ants
22. 3M Scotch Magic Tape: Overload
23. Fibermesh Concrete Reinforcement: Karate
24. Kayaking Jumbo Peanuts: Choking
25. WMF: Sharper Than You Think
26. Maglite: Gallery
27. Nissan: Chickens
28. Nutri Balance: Husband
29. Bare Wet Suits: Stay Down Longer
30. Tolnaftate Cream: Fish
Your Turn To Talk
I hope you enjoyed this post! Please take a minute to share you favorite print ads with us. Have you come across any other funny print advertisements you’d like to share? Please feel free to do so in the comments below :)
About the author:
Tom Walker is a writer for a specialist supplier of HP laser cartridges, inks and printing accessories based in Manchester, England. You can read more of his writing at CreativeCloud where he writes mostly about the creative arts and print design. You can also follow him on Twitter.
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January 14th, 2010
Great collection Tom. Couldn’t even choose a favourite as all so good.
January 14th, 2010
These are beautiful — stunning examples of ads that almost don’t need any copy. Love this collection.
January 14th, 2010
Great post, Mr. Tom!
Very creative and innovative idea, I must say… The compilation of these ads is also incredible!
Keep up the good work..
January 14th, 2010
Wow
What a creativity. It’s more than hilarious.
Thanks for sharing
SS
http://www.astagramstudios.com
January 15th, 2010
Nice collection Tom.. My favorite is kayaking jumbo. It’s funny and clear.
January 15th, 2010
Awesome Collection….
January 15th, 2010
Nice collections Tom !
I like them all. Thanks for sharing with us :)
January 15th, 2010
The Kiss FM and the Pepsi one are hilarious! Totally made my day.
Thx for this great article, Tom! :D
Eva
@friendsofdesign
January 15th, 2010
i like them all …. its al diffrent ohoooooooo
January 15th, 2010
Hats off to these creative designers!!!
January 15th, 2010
Fantastic collection ! You made my day, some are really hilarious and so creative, lots of good ideas.Thanks for sharing !
January 15th, 2010
Those adverts were hilarious! I particularly liked #8 from the German Olympic Board. I do wonder if some of these adverts from countries which don’t ’speak’ English as a mother tongue were originally published in English or the native language (German, French, whatever). DubLi has some pretty good adverts, some on a par with those above – if you go to YouTube you’ll find some pretty quickly.
January 15th, 2010
lol. They are all awesome and i think they are great ad. Thank you for this post. I just can’t stop laughing.
January 15th, 2010
I don’t know. The image of peeing into my Pepsi doesn’t sound too appetizing.
January 15th, 2010
Thanks for this post! “iPod I’m your father.”… I’m still laughing :-]
January 15th, 2010
Great fun. Great collection.
Thank you!
January 15th, 2010
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing, love the 5th one!
I also recommand these amazing ads: http://dyvantity.com/inspirati.....mber-2009/
Regards from France!
January 15th, 2010
Nice creativity……looks good.
January 15th, 2010
Awesome!!
January 15th, 2010
Really fascinating post :)
January 15th, 2010
Amazing! The best collection i’ve ever seen.
January 15th, 2010
A wonderful collection of adverts :D
January 15th, 2010
Its very creative…I
January 15th, 2010
Great post! I loved the “iPod I’m your father” ad! Great inspiration!
January 15th, 2010
Stunning collection. Very creative ads, good job.
January 15th, 2010
A nice list of some works by some pretty clever art directors.
January 15th, 2010
wow!! your collection is awesome!
January 15th, 2010
Great collection. I couldn’t find any that I didn’t like. :-)
January 16th, 2010
Haha! Thanks for this, makes my weekend work super fun :-)
January 16th, 2010
great collection. my favorite is the tape. thanks
January 16th, 2010
Some really creative stuff
January 16th, 2010
cool works and nice design
January 16th, 2010
great collection, although some of the prints are rather old.
January 17th, 2010
#14: Classic. Great post!
January 17th, 2010
It’s always great to have a good laugh! Life shouldn’t be too serious right..or shall I say “why so serious?”
January 18th, 2010
…. now these are funny…. thanks for sharing !!
January 18th, 2010
Great post !!! Thank you.
January 19th, 2010
Very nice collection, Tom. I liked the last one, fishy slippers :)
January 19th, 2010
Lovely collection of amusing print ads.
Some I have seen before but it was nice to see some new ones – like the Einstein one for example.
This is a good way to get noticed, but often hard to pull off. These guys have done it well!
January 19th, 2010
great collection, never seen !
January 19th, 2010
Awesome!!
Titanic is excellent !!
January 20th, 2010
Excellent adverts.
January 20th, 2010
Awesome photography with marketing really nice trick for promote our product
January 20th, 2010
Great Collection, you have found some great ones. Really love seeing them. I recently covered the same sort of thing on my blog, http://www.iamkreative.co.uk/b.....vertising/
January 20th, 2010
That will teach her to feed her dog bad food. Great post & collection!
January 21st, 2010
Great collection ! Sometimes only Print Ads can work such charm.
January 21st, 2010
I’ve come across many of these collections, but this is by far the best yet. Great set!
January 22nd, 2010
Lol! This ad collection made my day =)
January 22nd, 2010
I love the creativity in these advertisements!
January 23rd, 2010
Absolutely love these kind of things.. It really makes you inspired to work with commercial ads.
January 23rd, 2010
Haha! That was fun!
January 23rd, 2010
Thanks, Tom, for the laughs. My class will enjoy these examples. Your intro is what I tell my ad students about the power of print. It’s also the reason I co-authored Print Matters: How to Write Great Advertising.
January 25th, 2010
The Nutri Balance ‘Husband’ one is too good. Also ipod ‘I’m your father’. Mind boggling.
January 25th, 2010
I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard that I had tears streaming down my face! Thanks, I needed that!
January 26th, 2010
I like the creativity of ads! Really cool!
January 27th, 2010
Belle collection!
January 29th, 2010
They are great!! My favorits are Nr. 8: German Olympic Sport Federation: David, Nr. 11: Alka Seltzer: Hangover, Nr. 14: Pedigree Light: Flower and Nr. 21: Chupa Chups Sugar Free: Ants.
January 29th, 2010
haha these are hilarious I love the chickens crossing the road and the lion with the great hairdo, great post!
January 29th, 2010
Funny, clever and effective. That’s all you need!
January 30th, 2010
Thank you Tom. My favourites are:
-heimlich performing elephant
-cassette…ipod
-jacuzzi chicken
-obese David
January 31st, 2010
Great Collection, I’ve seen some of these before but all in different places.
One thing though, the Pepsi ad says ‘with a touch of lemon’, ahem isn’t that a lime?
February 2nd, 2010
Sweet list; the Pepsi ad is slightly disturbing though. o.0..:P
February 2nd, 2010
Great post. I certainly enjoyed going through the images… they were beautiful & definitely hilarious.
February 2nd, 2010
Creative Period
February 11th, 2010
Awesome ads, thanks for sharing with us. :)
March 7th, 2010
great post, i loved the ipod one
March 7th, 2010
Es increible, esta creatividad y diseño.
March 7th, 2010
Excellent post :D
Linked in :http://infinitodecimal.blogspot.com/2010/03/la-resaca-es-peligrosa.html
March 8th, 2010
Great collection ! and corner advertising mmmmh!
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