Five ideas I could punch myself for not thinking of (updated).

While I’ve done my share of marketing that has pushed the limit, a bunch of it sits in files and on foam core.   Let’s call it the “Keep bringing us work like that, perhaps down the road” folder. Every marketing creative since the beginning of time has one of those folders.

I did, however, win the award for the best campaign of the year that never saw the light of day from The One Club. The first Night of the Living Dead award. It was a great campaign I did with Tracy Wong, Chairman and Executive Creative Director of Wong Doody when we were at Ogilvy & Mather, New York. Ex-Lax was the client.

Thanks to Susan Morris for tracking this sample down!

Anyway, here are 5 of my favorites I wish I had done:

1) Apotek Swedish Pharmacy interactive billboard.

Interactive product dramatization that’s a “sticky idea.”

2) Burger King Subservient Chicken.

Talk about delivering on the overall brand promise of “Have It Your Way.”  You would type in what you wanted the chicken to do and it did it.  Things like:

Turn off the stereo

Jump on the couch

Turn the lights out

The subservient chicken was the one that started it all on the interactive side. I wish the site was still live.

3) The greatest marriage proposal ever.

Even if you’ve seen this before, it’s so wonderful it’s worth another look. This proposal makes Kanye West’s proposal seem tame even though Kanye rented out an entire ball park for 200 grand. And he bought a 15 carat ring for 1.25 mill. But I bet he wished he did this:

No one may raise the proposal bar like this again, but I sure hope someone does.

4) Dove Beauty Sketches.

Studies showed that only 4 percent of women considered themselves beautiful. Dove performed this social experiment using a forensic sketch artist. And the results certainly are beautiful.

5) Say something nice.

This will restore your faith in humanity. The famous songwriter Hal David said it in this 1965 lyric, “What the world needs now is love.”

So what’s a great idea you wish you thought of?

~Mike