In today’s world of interactive web-based marketing, viral campaigns, and high production television commercials, printed ads remain one of the most 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. For one, an idea or message must be communicated simply and swiftly. Plus, it must also be eye-catching enough to grab the viewer’s attention and convey important information in an instant. When a print designer employs humor to carry this information, the result can become a visual ‘one-liner’, a joke that speaks the message the ad intends to deliver. This post brings together 30 hilarious print ads that combine great imagery with cracking comedy.
Make sure you check out the second post where we showcase 30 more hilarious print ads! → ;)
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. SPIT Extra Strong Fixings: Gorilla
13. Utopolis Group of Cinemas: Titanic
14. Agroleaf Power: Stronger Leaf
15. Kiss FM: iPod Father
16. Listerine Mouthwash: Sermon
17. Pringles Hot and Spicy: Balloon
18. Guinness: Einstein
19. McDonald’s: Skip the Dishes
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. Tele2: Cat
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 your 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 :)
Great collection Tom. Couldn’t even choose a favourite as all so good.
These are beautiful — stunning examples of ads that almost don’t need any copy. Love this collection.
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..
Wow
What a creativity. It’s more than hilarious.
Thanks for sharing
SS
http://www.astagramstudios.com
Nice collection Tom.. My favorite is kayaking jumbo. It’s funny and clear.
Awesome Collection….
Nice collections Tom !
I like them all. Thanks for sharing with us :)
The Kiss FM and the Pepsi one are hilarious! Totally made my day.
Thx for this great article, Tom! :D
Eva
@friendsofdesign
i like them all …. its al diffrent ohoooooooo
Hats off to these creative designers!!!
Fantastic collection ! You made my day, some are really hilarious and so creative, lots of good ideas.Thanks for sharing !
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.
lol. They are all awesome and i think they are great ad. Thank you for this post. I just can’t stop laughing.
I don’t know. The image of peeing into my Pepsi doesn’t sound too appetizing.
Thanks for this post! “iPod I’m your father.”… I’m still laughing :-]
Great fun. Great collection.
Thank you!
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing, love the 5th one!
I also recommand these amazing ads: http://dyvantity.com/inspiration/unpublished-december-2009/
Regards from France!
Nice creativity……looks good.
Awesome!!
Really fascinating post :)
Amazing! The best collection i’ve ever seen.
A wonderful collection of adverts :D
Its very creative…I
Great post! I loved the “iPod I’m your father” ad! Great inspiration!
Stunning collection. Very creative ads, good job.
A nice list of some works by some pretty clever art directors.
wow!! your collection is awesome!
Great collection. I couldn’t find any that I didn’t like. :-)
Haha! Thanks for this, makes my weekend work super fun :-)
great collection. my favorite is the tape. thanks
Some really creative stuff
cool works and nice design
great collection, although some of the prints are rather old.
#14: Classic. Great post!
It’s always great to have a good laugh! Life shouldn’t be too serious right..or shall I say “why so serious?”
…. now these are funny…. thanks for sharing !!
Great post !!! Thank you.
Very nice collection, Tom. I liked the last one, fishy slippers :)
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!
great collection, never seen !
Awesome!!
Titanic is excellent !!
Excellent adverts.
Awesome photography with marketing really nice trick for promote our product
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/blog/advertising/creative-advertising/
That will teach her to feed her dog bad food. Great post & collection!
Great collection ! Sometimes only Print Ads can work such charm.
I’ve come across many of these collections, but this is by far the best yet. Great set!
Lol! This ad collection made my day =)
I love the creativity in these advertisements!
Absolutely love these kind of things.. It really makes you inspired to work with commercial ads.
Haha! That was fun!
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.
The Nutri Balance ‘Husband’ one is too good. Also ipod ‘I’m your father’. Mind boggling.
I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard that I had tears streaming down my face! Thanks, I needed that!
I like the creativity of ads! Really cool!
Belle collection!
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.
haha these are hilarious I love the chickens crossing the road and the lion with the great hairdo, great post!
Funny, clever and effective. That’s all you need!
Thank you Tom. My favourites are:
-heimlich performing elephant
-cassette…ipod
-jacuzzi chicken
-obese David
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?
Sweet list; the Pepsi ad is slightly disturbing though. o.0..:P
Great post. I certainly enjoyed going through the images… they were beautiful & definitely hilarious.
Creative Period
Awesome ads, thanks for sharing with us. :)
great post, i loved the ipod one
Es increible, esta creatividad y diseño.
Excellent post :D
Linked in :http://infinitodecimal.blogspot.com/2010/03/la-resaca-es-peligrosa.html
Great collection ! and corner advertising mmmmh!
Cool stuff!!! Thanks for the collect!
I teach 7th grade Language Arts and one of our standards is interpreting non print mediums. These pictures were perfect for several different classroom activities. Thanks.
I really like the fish flip-flops, they’re hilarious. Anyone know where I could find and purchase them?
I had a great laugh. It shows that a great deal of imagination, wit and humor were put in to make those epic ads. The mouthwash and ipod … genius .. chuckles.
All the ads go so well with your topic ‘hilarious print ads’, none of them fail to make a mark here.
Great…errr ..Hilarious collection Tom :-D
Thanks for this post. all of the adpics are hilarious. I can’t hep but laugh out loud. I like most especially Tolnaftate Cream: Fish.
please keep them coming.
hilarious wahahaha
Amazing ads, very funny
#6) “Pepsi with a touch of lemon.” … isn’t that a lime? Or am I just crazy?
Makes me wish I were doing more commercial work and a little fewer actor headshots.
Stumbled! Thanks.
awsome!!!! i love it :D
Thanks! This is a nice time spending)
Genius work, rich execution and appealing concepts – direct from mind to your heart.
very good work. keep it please :D
great concepts ,i enjoyed them all
wow, very inspiring
Great works, amazing ideas. I like it.
Thanks for sharing.
Brilliant collection. Thanks for sharing!
Each one better than the rest.
Loved “27. Nissan: Chickens” the most! :D
These were all really creative. I wish all ads were like this.
hilarious!!!
ha ha ha, fantastic, i love the wetsuit on”stay down longer” all the skin is really wrinkly!
Also really liked the listerine one in the church. well done, and thanks for posting.
Nice collections.
hey………. very cool creativity.it is nice
hilarious wahahaha
Number 3 could easily be for Viagra, too.
Damn! Kirby is my evil twin…
I love the chicken Nissan ad! And the Timotei Lion. Pepsi is not very appetizing, but funny :)
Very creative and innovative ideas, Funny take on advertisements, Thank you! LT
A really nice collection of funny ads, this is when print design proves its worth over web design.
Nice collection. I like TImotei´s lion, so funny
these are great too…
Great ads! Thank you for the inspiration!
Hilarious! Thanks for posting.
My personal favorite is KissFM.
Btw, was KayaKing Peanut ad printed in Indonesia? Coz I think the product is from there but I never saw the ad you showed here.
OMG, I laughed so hard I think I poppped a string. U notice that the most clever ads aren’t 4 American products. Although I made a remark just the other day about how U S T.V. commercials have improved lately.
Excellent, Thanks for sharing :-)
Amazing collection, so funny :-)
Great! The lion is my favorite ;)
Wow! Some amazingly hilarious print advertisements, you have cheered up my day, Cheers!
Oh this is truly hilarious! haven’t laugh this much for a long while .. thanks for the great compilation!!
Sweeeet!
I have to say every time I see the Glassex one I think of the Viagra parody of it – not necessarily a bad thing… anyway I think the Nissan one is my favorite
Brilliant! Stumbled across this post and gave it the mighty thumbs up!
Awesome compilation, the Timotei Lion one had me laughing hard.
Very Funny! Also Stumbled upon your site and laughed my butt off! Thanks for that!
Thanks for the laughs. Very funny place. Congratuations on a great web site.
I just stumbled upon you. Fantastic set of ads. I remember some of them.
Wonderful ads. Print is not dead!
Very creativ and fun, good work.
Brilliant. My personal fav. was the statue of David…old idea turned new, hilarious and eye-catching.
Really good ads! Brilliant work! They’re all so varied and innovative. Great work. Thanks.
hi i love your collection..hehe awsome :D
lol. these are freakin great. the spoof on Titanic, hilarious!!
very nice collection thanks
Amazing collection. Really loved it!
These are fabulous! Thanks for a good laugh in the middle of a rainy North Carolina afternoon.
These are awesome. :)
Amazing Collection!
Thanks a lot for sharing.
Awesome. Old School Creative lives on!
This are hilarious. As a printing company owner I have seen a lot of designs but these are top 5. Nice job.
This is classic design
brilliant. clever stuff.
Creative! I like them! :)
sswweerr
I love it! iPod I am your father my fav :)
Good ads collection..
I love the one with the guy in plaster. Great advertisement for wearing helmuts. Funny but it makes you think…so it’s effective.
i like these all they’re really funny
Those are great, I love creative ads like these, so much better than the thoughtless norm, ie skinny scantily clad woman holding product x.
these are absolutely hilarious! Awesome thanks for sharing!
Awesome print ads, I like the most “Pedigree Light: Flower” with badass kitty! :D
haha, these are awesome!
i really found these print ads hilaroius and very interesting i hope you can post more soon
I love everything here. All graphics are very cool and eye-catching. My favorite is 24. I love its humor. Thank you for sharing. I am now more inspired to continue graphic designing.
How do they madeTimotei: lion and German Olympic Sport Federation: David full photopshop or what …how?
Cool. Very good work. Thank you!
These are very funny!
Print advertising is still extremely effective and these are fantastic examples of hilarious ads. Great compilation of ads.
Brilliant collection!
What a great collection of creativity. I’ll be glad to share these with my clients for their enjoyment!
This is often a amazing blog, could you be interested in going through an interview concerning just how you created it? If so e-mail me personally!
Great work….very creative..
Hey, good to see you up and running officially. These look fantastic too. You’ve been doing a ton of work for yourself, and it’s all great.
fav: Alka Seltzer: Hangover
these ads are so funny! that’s what advertising should be all about, if you would show me these commercials on TV i would definitely buy whatever you;re trying to sell… so cool! thanks
Oh my goodness, these are amazing!! It was really hard to pick a favorite, and I was laughing literally the entire time I scrolled down the page… I think the lion hair care and the pug dog food ads were my faves, but again it was SO hard to choose!
Laurie :)