Work of the Week: 28/11/25
McDonald’s Taiwan – Goodnight, See You For Breakfast
Chosen by Sunna, Asia reporter
A breakfast campaign that focuses on the night before, Ogilvy Taiwan and McDonald's Taiwan target consumers who stay up too late and sleep in – crucially missing the McDonald's breakfast window.
Encouraging people to go to bed early, the campaign uses a reinterpretation of locally familiar 'Goodnight Song' in the range of 60–80 BPM to help facilitate sleep. The music complements a surreal film featuring popular McDonald's breakfast items in a dream-like world: fields of hash browns, swimming fillets of fish, actual pancake mountains and more.
Placed around nightlife venues, with surprise live performances of 'Goodnight Song' in bars, the message is clear: get a good night's sleep, wake up fresh and start your day right with an enjoyable breakfast.
SKF – The Patent Bay
Chosen by Laura Swinton Gupta, editor-in-chief
On the face of it, SKF doesn’t seem like the most exciting brand to work on. The initials SKF stand for Svenska Kullagerfabriken, which in English translates to "Swedish Ball Bearing Factory". It’s a technology and engineering company that makes, other than aforementioned bearings, things like sealants and lubricants, maintenance products and more for heavy industry. But its collaboration with Nord DDB has borne some chunky, muscular projects. ‘The Patent Bay’ is a new project that seeks to fight creeping protectionism by encouraging businesses to share the patents to technologies that could improve the world. To launch, SKF shared the formula for its new steel alloy that will allow next gen aircrafts to cut emissions by 25%, and at launch, medtech company Mölnlycke Health Care came onboard to share a new treatment model.
The second initiative from SKF’s ‘Fighting Friction’ initiatives, ‘The Patent Bay’ is a nod to the world of torrenting and the infamous Pirate Bay, lending the design and creative around it an unexpected edge. And as a brand idea, it seems, to my non-expert eyes, to be a big (expensive) statement to give away one's IP in such a way and from a PR perspective, it allows SKF to get involved in different kinds of stories. Stories of sustainability, how businesses can collaborate to create an alternative vision of the future. And then there’s the bold, retro ‘90s digital design with a hint of dark web-y piracy of the ads and platform experience, which is witty and a touch provocative for what is, essentially, a B2B campaign for an industrial hardware and tech company.
Facebook – Secret Santa
Chosen by Alex Reeves, managing editor, EMEA
Who’d have thought, there is a kind of Facebook stalking that’s not creepy! Some clever creative thinker at Droga5 New York has found a use case for the oldest surviving social media platform that perfectly captures the festive spirit many of us are looking for at this time of year – finding a thoughtful Secret Santa gift for a colleague who you don’t know much about. Considering it’s a product demonstration, both of profiles and Facebook Marketplace, there’s a lot of heart in this film. And maybe that’s no surprise with Miles Jay at the helm, stewarding the tech giant’s advertising story into a human, warm and fuzzy place. It goes into my 2025 holiday ad chart pretty high.
Uber – Close
Chosen by Abi Lightfoot, Americas reporter
I’m not ashamed to admit that this Uber ad made me shed a few tears this week – pretty impressive for the brand’s first-ever Holiday film. Titled ‘Close’ and directed by Michael Spiccia through MJZ with creative from Mother, the campaign follows a heartfelt father-daughter reunion, capturing the emotional highs and lows of returning home for Christmas.
Instead of glossing over the less perfect realities of family life, Uber takes the opportunity to frame daughter Gracie’s journey home as a time for reflection, as she reminisces on the evolution of her relationship with her father. With seamless editing from WORK USA and a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Landslide’ underscoring the film, it delivers an emotional punch, reminding us to hug those we love a little tighter this year.
Sandisk – More, More, More
Chosen by Tara McKerr, Americas reporter
Meow! I can’t speak highly enough about these ads. Let’s face it, a brand known best for memory storage isn’t exactly the sexiest sell. That’s why I take my hat off to the brand for being brave enough to step into silly. Creative agency CALLEN have done it again – the three new films mark the next phase of a new strategy that started with brand mascot ‘Memory Man’ and got the internet talking.
The trio of ads take aim at cat lovers, stunt obsessives, and business folk. Each is backed with a certified head-bopper, features some good old-fashioned Word Art, and mega Y2K editing. Since separating from parent company Western Digital earlier this year, the brand has been working hard to carve out its own bespoke identity. And for a company selling memory storage, it makes sense that its advertising would become pretty memorable.
McDonald’s – McDonald’s Christmas Grinched
Chosen by Paul Monan, head of creative excellence
The devil works hard but, this Christmas, The Grinch is working harder. You can't move for the green fella this year, who pops up in another McDonald's campaign this week. It's the UK's turn to encounter the festive icon (he was Down Under last week) thanks to Leo UK, who have launched the fully integrated 'McDonald's Christmas Grinched' campaign. It's a mischief-packed promo which captures the essence of the character perfectly: some family friendly slapstick-sabotage highlighting the new Grinch themed menu. Plenty of nice executions here, with the OOH teaser a real highlight.
Apple – A Critter Carol
Chosen by Laura Swinton Gupta, editor-in-chief
A slightly rumpled cast of woodland critters perform a spin on Flight of the Conchords’ earworm ‘Friends’ in this puppet-powered festive spot from SMUGGLER’s Mark Molloy and TBWA\Media Arts Lab. And as lovely as the ad itself is, it’s the making-of film that’s captured my heart, along with all of the handmade extras, like woodblock typography.
Apple’s festive campaigns often have an emphasis on in-camera craft; for example, the Emmy-winning stop-motion animated ‘Fuzzy Feelings’. However, this year’s outing follows hot on the heels of Apple TV and Apple Movies’ glorious visual identities, created using a carousel of glass apple icons. As AI-generated content starts to fill our feeds, Apple’s in-camera craft is taking on a premium shine. Nine adorable creatures may take centre stage in the ad, but human creativity and craft are, purposely it seems, the real stars of the show.
Oxford University Press (OUP) – Aura Farming, Biohack, Rage Bait
Chosen by Zara Naseer, EMEA reporter
Oxford University Press is really leaning into the cultural status that Word of the Year has held in recent years, partnering with Uncommon to launch its three-piece shortlist… as fully fledged ‘candidates’.
The personified ’Rage Bait’, ‘Biohack’, and ‘Aura Farming’ all campaign for the public vote ahead of the winner announcement on December 1st (thank god ‘6-7’ didn’t make it – still no clue what that means.) The manifesto films are extremely silly, and not at all what I’d expect from a serious publisher – which is why I love them. And the comic sans subtitles on the ‘Rage Bait’? Chef’s kiss.
’Aura Farming’ has my vote, mostly out of respect to the actor for holding that pained pout for so long. Here’s hoping OUP and Uncommon follow up with an equally ridiculous acceptance speech for the winner.
LIAKH – Vegetables Have Sugar
Chosen by Olivia Atkins, EMEA Editor
LIAKH’s heavy-metal-laced micro-films, produced by Spindle, are an unexpected and brilliantly digestible way to debunk common myths around diabetes. Each bite-size moment turns real, often frustrating questions into darkly comic set-pieces, elevated by sharp casting, well-timed humour, and a smart juxtaposition of music and performance. Serving as both an awareness tool and a teaser for the upcoming short 'Vegetables Have Sugar', the triptych wraps clear, accurate information with suspenseful craft. The result is a well-made, memorable and genuinely useful campaign that entertains as effectively as it educates, it's an inventive way to redirect curiosity and challenge misconceptions.
IAMS – Healthy Weight Cat
Chosen by Addison Capper, managing editor, Americas
Pet food brand IAMS has enlisted the most famous tubby tabby on the planet, Garfield, to tackle a growing issue - overweight kitties in the US. The campaign, by adam&eveDDB's London office interestingly, promotes IAMS Healthy Weight Dry Cat Food with an unmissable stunt at the Mall of America in Minnesota, one of the states with the highest percentages of overweight cats. A billboard appears to have buckled under Garfield's weight, crushing an unlucky car below.
Behind the spectacle is a serious stat: 60% of US cats are overweight, and only 28% of owners recognise it. Internet culture hasn’t helped, say IAMS, with chunky felines often treated as comic relief rather than a health concern. New data from the brand shows that 58% of Americans are more likely to engage with overweight cat content because it’s seen as cuter or funnier.
Apple – Peak Performance
Chosen by April Summers, North America features lead
The strategy meeting about how best to advertise "the functionality of the vapor chamber which manages heat and enables the iPhone 17 Pro’s functionality" doesn't sound like the easiest or sexiest marketing pow-wow. Yet, remarkably, the resulting advertisement is actually brilliant.
It's high-octane, memorable, and the technicality at the heart of the brief is communicated so plainly that even the most technologically-challenged consumer can get the gist. Directed by Andreas Nilsson, of Biscuit Filmworks, the surrealist setting serves as the ideal illustration of how thermal management allows the device to uphold 'Peak Performance' under demanding conditions.
