Companies trying to sell you a product will do anything to cram their ads down your throat, but it’s always nice when they show a bit of creativity and taste when trying to get your attention. Ambient ads are one such specific form of advertisement, which seeks at once to become a part of its environment and to draw your attention to it. Whether it’s a spoof product, a well-placed and designed billboard, or something else, the point is to get your attention and make you think.

It all began when the power of traditional media started declining, giving way to innovative off-the-shelf advertising ideas. Ambient ads started appearing in British media jargon around 1999 and have been actively evolving ever since. Here’s a compilation of ambient ads that may shock you, entertain you or even make you laugh. What do you think about the ones we’ve collected here?

NRDC.org: Air Pollution Kills 60,000 People a Year

National Geographic: 3D Crocodile Escalator

Pepto-Bismol: Laundromat

Motor City Nightmares: Horror Buckets

Sparring Partner Gym: Hanging

IBM: Smart Ideas for Smarter Cities

Doom Fogger: Roachville

Carnival Cruiselines: Waterslide Escape

Bigelow Organic Tea

Visa: Go Back to Pompeii

Baltica Beer: Subway

Dental Care

The Hairdressers: Need a Top Chop?

Windex Glass Cleaner

Hopping Pátio Dom Luís: Breast Cancer Bra

Dressing for Pleasure: Ketchup bottle

There are two worlds of bottom snacking, the world of BDSM and thw world of ketchup bottles. The company, Dressing for Pleasure, a specialist in fetishwear and all things S&M releated, married these two worlds by putting stickers of enticing rear ends on the bottoms of ketchup bottles. Thus inviting bar patrons to explore a completely different appetite while addressing their hunger.  (Advertising Agency: JWT, New York, USA)

Frontline: Get Them Off Your Dog

Fight Smoking

Mercedes-Benz 2012 C-350 Coupe

Juice Salon: Escalator

Korean Subway Ad

Quebec Automobile Insurance Society : Seatbelts

Don’t Drink And Drive

Nivea: Good-bye Cellulite Couch

The Redbirds Are In Town

To promote a home stand for the Memphis Redbirds, a minor league baseball affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, we covered a car in fake bird droppings and parked it near a busy intersection with a sign that read, “The Redbirds are in town.” (Advertising Agency: Archer Malmo, Memphis, USA)

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