The Creative Uprising — George Lois and his Advertising Revolution
There are a lot of ads today that are considered “visual pollution”. They lack in essence and there are some that are just too direct, that in the faintest engagement it’ll detonate like an atomic bomb causing an explosive chaos of color and scheme. The days of modernist- influenced ads have passed, where “direct”, “straightforward”, and “simple” meant differently from today’s definition.
Advertising before the digital age was very different. There was a lot of experimentation, addition, and subtraction of design elements. Though ads during the 1960s up to the 1990s were not as graphically explosive as the ads today, they had the essence of the ideal ad – simple and intelligible. A well-known adman who was present throughout that timeline was George Lois
George Lois is the man behind different successful ads – from MTV, VH1, and American Airlines to the ever iconic series of Esquire magazine covers. Aside from creating corporate identities and marketing ads, Lois also created different ads for politicians, which helped boost their campaigns.
These campaigns have been instrumental to Lois’ clients. When the branding campaign he created for MTV in 1982 was aired, it became an instant hit and through the years many artists have been featured promoting the campaign. This prompted three decades of successful broadcasting and influence in the music industry. Here are some of George Lois works, ranging from advertising for Reebok and branding for MTV, to multiple projects with the Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) Ad Company.
If you like this article, you might be interested in some of our other articles on Print Advertisements, Advertisements Examples, Billboard Designs, and Funny Ads.
Doyle Dane Bernbach
We are pushing Leotards
This ad smells fishy
Maypo
Maypo
Olivetti Girl
Pirelli
ESPN
Air Maroc
An Ad that shook the ad world in 1960
An Ad that shook the ad world in 1960
Ron Rico Rum
Advertising Campaign
Time Magazine
Time Magazine
Advertising Campaign
Nauga
Nauga Advertising
Esquire April 1968
Esquire December 1963
Esquire July 1967
Esquire March 1965
A clear influence on Lois’ works is the presence of modernism, i.e., minimalism, and the use of copy/write-ups and typography. References to pop culture and pop art are later , as evidenced by his Esquire covers featuring Muhammad Ali posing as St. Sebastian to MTV’s corporate identity featuring The Rolling Stone’s iconic 40 Licks album cover
Known for his controversial works in different fields, George Lois has provided multiple iconic and high-impact advertising and branding campaigns that, until today, inspire advertisers and artists alike. If you’re an aspiring marketer or ad man, check out his works and the impact it made on his client’s business. It will certainly help you, a lot.





















Those are some great examples you have there. Good for getting creative ideas flowing! Thanks!!
Excellent weblog here! Additionally your website quite a bit up very fast! What host are you the usage of? Can I am getting your associate link to your host? I want my site loaded up as fast as yours lol
@Segway Am ain’t the admin here but am a very big fan of media temple – should try them.
Yes i seen it also..that this site is really fast and i also want to know what hosting is it using…
Seems like everyone is happy with the speeds. Why then shouldn’t the admin drop a word on that on that. But I believe there’s a probability that a CDN is applied.
Seems like am extending this too much but I feel someone here might have highlighted something concerning the speeds…. to get me back to the topic letmi add that this showcase did include the best
And another thing to mention here is that all the images are from other
hosts here and they gave credit to the sites from where they take the
Images and other so that’s how they do it and that make the site load fast
and also those images are loading from their other hosts …nice condition
overall…
@Sinbad You’ve got a nice clue over there.
I also think that it is using CDN but there’s no way we can know without from admin..
I found a cool article over here. It should explain well over speeds. Back to the topic now of how advertising before the digital age was very different…. these images illustrates that
The Ad that shook the ad world in 1960 listed about is my favourite. Simple but inspiring and catchy
Sometimes it’s better to just look around and not to say but if i really need to say then i will say those were outstanding…
The cow on the Nauga Advertising seems to worry whether its Halloween
As on Esquire April 1968, was the passion of Muhammad Ali always to get hurt…? Huh! That’s funny
The art of advertising never gets old, there is always something new and different to be seen.
These are funny advertising Images. Advertisers should show some ads like these ones. Hahah
Very creative advertising images indeed. People post more of these kind. Thanks.
Indeed very impressive work of arts shown here. I love the Time Magazine ad. But they all look cool. Thanks!