We’ve all been there. Sitting on our sofas scrolling. Another skincare ad. Another car ad. Another insurance ad. All blending into a forgettable blur. Then,,,
A gorilla. Playing drums. To Phil Collins. For a chocolate brand.
Years later, we all remember that Cadbury ad.
In a world where the average person sees between 6,000 and 10,000 ads per day, being memorable isn’t just nice to have. It’s everything.
Research shows that people remember only 2.5% of the ads they see. The brands that break through? They’re the ones brave enough to be weird.
Surrealism in advertising works because our brains are wired to notice the unexpected. When something defies logic or reality, we pay attention. We remember. And most importantly, we feel something.
Let’s explore seven campaigns that proved dreamlike, bizarre, and unforgettable beats safe and forgettable every single time.
1. Cadbury’s Gorilla: The Drumming Ape That Changed Everything
In 2007, Cadbury released an ad that made absolutely no sense. A gorilla. In a studio. Playing drums to Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight.” No chocolate. No product shots. Just pure, absurdist joy.
The campaign was phenomenal. Sales increased by 9% in the first month, and the ad generated over 10 million YouTube views at a time when viral marketing was barely understood.
Why it worked: The ad created an emotional experience rather than a sales pitch. By breaking every rule of traditional advertising, it forced people to pay attention. The surrealism made it shareable, memorable, and most crucially, it made people associate Cadbury with joy and unexpected pleasure.
Business lesson: Sometimes the best way to sell your product is to not mention your product at all. Create an emotional experience that aligns with your brand values.
Our agency, Phantom Digital, has worked with multiple brands to successfully develop this emotional connection with their audience. If you’re interested in what we can do for your brand, then book a free discussion call here.
2. Absolut Vodka: Seeing Bottles Everywhere
For over 25 years, Absolut Vodka ran campaigns showing their distinctive bottle shape hidden in clouds, swimming pools, Christmas lights, and city skylines. Each ad was a surreal treasure hunt, training consumers to see Absolut bottles in everyday life.
This campaign became one of the longest running and most successful in advertising history.
The brand grew from 10,000 cases in 1980 to over 4.5 million cases by the late 1990s, making it the top imported vodka in the United States.
Why it worked: The surreal imagery made each ad a puzzle to solve. People actively engaged with the advertising rather than passively consuming it. The consistent bottle shape across hundreds of variations built instant brand recognition.
Business lesson: Consistency within creativity works. Find your distinctive visual element and explore it in unexpected ways. When we develop Creative Design strategies at Phantom Digital, we focus on creating memorable brand elements that can be expressed across multiple creative executions.
3. Skittles: Taste The Rainbow (Literally)
Skittles took their “Taste the Rainbow” tagline and pushed it into gloriously weird territory. A man with a beard made of Skittles. A boy milking a giraffe that produces Skittles. A teenager whose touch turns everything into Skittles, ruining his life.
The absurdist approach resonated particularly with younger audiences. Skittles saw consistent year over year growth, with the brand becoming synonymous with weird, shareable advertising.
Why it worked: By embracing the absurd, Skittles created advertising that people actively sought out and shared. The surrealism matched their target audience’s sense of humour and gave them content they wanted to talk about.
Business lesson: Know your audience and don’t be afraid to polarise. Memorable beats likeable. Not everyone will get it, and that’s perfectly fine.
4. Old Spice: The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
In 2010, Old Spice released an ad that redefined surreal advertising for the internet age. Isaiah Mustafa delivered a monologue while the scene transformed around him in impossible ways. Beach to boat to horse to diamonds, all in one continuous shot.
The campaign was a cultural phenomenon. Old Spice sales increased by 125% in the first year, and the brand successfully repositioned itself from “your grandfather’s aftershave” to something young men actively wanted.
Why it worked: The surreal scene transitions kept viewers watching to see what impossible thing would happen next. The confidence and humour made it infinitely rewatchable and shareable. The campaign understood that modern audiences appreciate creativity and self-awareness.
Business lesson: Repositioning an established brand requires bold creative choices. Safe doesn’t change perceptions. Surreal confidence does.
5. Apple’s 1984: Breaking Through With Dystopia
Directed by Ridley Scott, Apple’s legendary Super Bowl ad showed a dystopian world where grey workers watched Big Brother on screens until a woman in colour smashed through with a hammer.
The ad only aired once nationally, yet it’s still discussed today. Apple’s sales went from $800 million to $1.5 billion in the year following the ad. It positioned Apple not as a computer company but as a revolutionary force against conformity.
Why it worked: The surreal, dystopian imagery created a narrative far bigger than the product. It made buying a Macintosh feel like joining a rebellion. The ad gave consumers identity and purpose, not just a computer.
Business lesson: Great advertising sells meaning, not features. Position your brand as part of a larger story your customers want to be in.
6. Sony Bravia: 250,000 Bouncing Balls
Sony released 250,000 colourful bouncy balls down the streets of San Francisco to demonstrate their Bravia TV’s colour quality. The surreal, beautiful chaos was captured in slow motion with José González’s “Heartbeats” playing.
The ad was phenomenally successful. Sony Bravia sales increased by 230% in the key markets where the ad ran, and the campaign won numerous international awards.
Why it worked: The surreal beauty created an emotional response that facts about screen resolution never could. People didn’t remember the technical specifications. They remembered how the ad made them feel. The real world execution added authenticity to the dreamlike visuals.
Business lesson: Show, don’t tell. Create an experience that demonstrates your product’s benefits through emotion rather than explanation.
7. Guinness Surfer: Horses In The Waves
Guinness’s 1999 “Surfer” ad showed a man waiting for the perfect wave, which eventually arrives with white horses charging through it. The dreamlike sequence, combined with powerful music, created something that felt more like art than advertising.
The campaign was hugely successful. Guinness sales increased, and the ad consistently ranks as one of the greatest commercials ever made. It perfectly captured the brand’s “good things come to those who wait” message through surreal, powerful imagery.
Why it worked: The surreal metaphor made the brand promise tangible and emotionally resonant. By avoiding literal product benefits and instead creating a feeling, Guinness positioned itself as something worth waiting for, worth savouring.
Business lesson: Metaphors and symbolism can communicate brand values more powerfully than direct statements. Trust your audience to understand the connection.
Why Surrealism Works In Modern Advertising
The psychology behind surrealism’s effectiveness is fascinating. Studies show that unusual or unexpected stimuli activate the brain’s hippocampus, which plays a crucial role in memory formation. Surreal ads literally make your brain work harder to process them, which creates stronger memory traces.
In an age of infinite scroll and shrinking attention spans, surrealism does three things brilliantly:
- It stops the scroll – Unexpected imagery forces people to pause
- It creates emotional engagement – Surreal ads make people feel something beyond “I should buy this”
- It demands sharing – People share things that surprised or delighted them
Research from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising found that emotionally engaging campaigns are nearly twice as profitable as rational campaigns. Surrealism creates emotional engagement through surprise, delight, and the pleasure of experiencing something genuinely unexpected.
Should Your Brand Embrace Surrealism?
Here’s the truth: surrealism isn’t right for every brand or every campaign.
But if you’re struggling to differentiate in a crowded market, if your advertising feels forgettable, or if you’re trying to reposition your brand, surreal creative approaches deserve serious consideration.
The brands that successfully use surrealism share common characteristics:
- They understand their audience deeply
- They’re willing to take creative risks
- They focus on emotional engagement over rational benefits
- They give creative teams permission to push boundaries
At Phantom Digital, we’ve seen firsthand how bold creative choices transform brand perception. When we developed the brand strategy for Viking Quest Adventure Golf, we embraced their Viking theme fully, creating vibrant, engaging visuals that captured attention. The result was substantial traffic increases and boosted visitor engagement.
Our Creative Design team understands that memorable brands take creative risks. Whether it’s through Website Design that breaks conventional layouts or Social Media content that makes people stop scrolling, we help businesses stand out in crowded markets.
The Cost Of Being Forgettable
Here’s what keeps business owners awake at night: investing in marketing that nobody remembers. Creating ads that blend into the endless scroll. Spending budget on campaigns that generate zero conversation.
Being safe is expensive. When your advertising looks like everyone else’s, you’re competing purely on price and distribution. When your advertising is memorable, you create brand equity that compounds over time.
Think about the campaigns in this article. Decades later, people still remember the drumming gorilla, the bouncing balls, the surfer with horses in the waves. That’s not luck. That’s the power of creative bravery.
Your Next Steps
You don’t need a Super Bowl budget to create memorable advertising. You need creative thinking, audience understanding, and the courage to be different.
Start by asking: what would our advertising look like if we stopped playing it safe? What surreal metaphor could represent our brand promise? What unexpected imagery would make our audience stop and pay attention?
If you’re ready to create advertising that people actually remember, book a free call with our team at Phantom Digital. We’ll explore your brand, your audience, and the creative opportunities you might be missing.
We’ve helped businesses across the North West develop distinctive brand identities and creative strategies. From Andrew Molloy’s compelling personal brand to The UTS’s engaging social campaigns, we understand that memorable beats forgettable every single time.
Your competitors are probably playing it safe right now. That’s your opportunity.
Let’s create something people actually remember. Because in a world of 10,000 daily ads, being unforgettable isn’t optional. It’s survival.
Written by Martin Williams — Martin has worked in SEO for 8+ years, building and selling multiple websites that attracted millions of visitors. Now the SEO Lead at Phantom Digital, he shares proven strategies for growing traffic and creating long-term online value. You can check out his author page here.
