Tagline
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The show about great ads, and the people who make them. Clio Awards editor in chief and longtime ad critic Tim Nudd digs into classic commercials and campaigns by talking to the people who made them. Ad nerds, this is the show for you. Presented by GSTV.
Available episodes
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Jan 11, 2023
Amil Gargano
This week on our Season 2 finale, we speak with one of the living legends of the advertising business, art director Amil Gargano. Now 90 years old, Amil was a co-founder of Ally & Gargano, one of the most revered agencies of the '60s and '70s, famous for its take-no-prisoners style and pioneering use of comparative advertising. I spent an afternoon with Amil recently, and this episode has excerpts from that conversation—as we touch on his career, his celebrated work, and his close yet combustible relationship with Carl Ally, the tempestuous other half of Ally & Gargano.
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Nov 14, 2022
Ted Lasso's Origin Story
Ted Lasso is one of the most beloved shows on TV. But not many people realize the character originated in an ad campaign, a decade ago, for NBC Sports and its Premier League coverage. This week, we look back at Ted's fascinating origin story: how Jason Sudeikis, the agency Brooklyn Brothers and the London club Tottenham Hotspur collaborated on two hilarious videos that got NBC's soccer coverage off to a flying start—and set Sudeikis and his team on an unlikely path to Emmy-winning glory.
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Oct 25, 2022
Beats by Dre | You Love Me
This week on Tagline, we look back at the most startling brand statement on race from the emotional months after George Floyd's death: Beats by Dre's powerful two-minute film "You Love Me." We speak with the team who created the spot at the agency Translation—how they pivoted from a product campaign, partnered with A-listers led by Melina Matsoukas, went down a very different path than they expected to at first, and in the end achieved a remarkable double triumph: celebrating the beauty and resilience of Black America, while confronting white America for loving Black culture while hating Black people.
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Jul 18, 2022
Volvo Trucks | The Epic Split
This week we revisit the "Live Test Series" of stunts for Volvo Trucks, crafted by the Swedish agency Forsman & Bodenfors, including "The Epic Split," the most famous of them all—yet in some ways also very much an outlier of the campaign. We speak with folks from the agency, as well as director Andreas Nilsson and stunt coordinator Peter Pedrero, about the long road to some of the best product demos ever made in advertising.
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Jun 28, 2022
Visit Iceland | Welcome to the Icelandverse
The metaverse may well be our future, but it's a metaverse parody that's gotten more attention this ad-award season. For this episode of Tagline, we sat down at Cannes Lions with folks from the agency SS+K and Visit Iceland to talk about "Welcome to the Icelandverse," the video from late last year that expertly spoofed Mark Zuckerberg's vision of our utopian virtual future—and offered a nonvirtual Iceland travel experience as a welcome alternative.
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Jun 20, 2022
Omid Farhang, Pum Lefebure, Walter Geer, Gerry Graf
We're doing something a little different on Tagline this week. Instead of speaking with people about the ads they've made, we're asking them about the ads they love. We have stories from four top creatives today—Omid Farhang, Pum Lefebure, Walter Geer and Gerry Graf—about advertising that deeply influenced them. We hear about old ads, new ads, even some ads that made them want to work in advertising in the first place.
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Jun 6, 2022
Canal+ | The Bear
It was one of the great comic triumphs from the golden age of viral commercials: "The Bear," created by Paris agency BETC for the French TV network Canal+. This week on Tagline, we look at the making of the hilarious and wonderfully crafted 2011 spot, which won almost every ad award under the sun—and remains a high point of comedy advertising more than a decade later.
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May 23, 2022
Tide | It's a Tide Ad
How do you hijack all 53 ads in the Super Bowl while buying just 90 seconds of airtime? P&G's Tide and Saatchi & Saatchi managed that remarkable feat in 2018 with "It's a Tide Ad," one of the most clever and entertaining campaigns ever to run on the game. This week, we revisit "Tide Ad" with its creators to learn the backstory, from the idea, to the craft, to the wild experience on game night, to the results—which included one of advertising's best-ever marriage proposals.
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May 9, 2022
Sandy Hook Promise | Know the Signs
After the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, two parents who lost their children that day—Nicole Hockley and Mark Barden—founded Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit devoted to protecting kids from guns by teaching people to recognize the warning signs of potential violence before it occurs. This week on Tagline, we look at the the group's remarkable PSAs over the past decade—created with BBDO New York and the Smuggler director Henry-Alex Rubin—and how the bravery, boldness and craft of their advertising work have changed the thinking, the conversation and the behavior around gun violence in America.
*Warning*: There are sounds of gun violence in this episode that may be triggering, particularly from 15:25 to 15:32 and from 31:12 to 32:11.
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Apr 25, 2022
Bud Light | Real Men of Genius
In 1999, Bud Light and DDB Chicago premiered one of the great radio ad campaigns of all time, "Real Men of Genius." This week on Tagline, we dig into the campaign's greatest hits with folks on the agency, client and production sides—to see how a simple radio idea blossomed into a full-fledged entertainment franchise that spawned 200 spots over a decade, as well as TV ads, compilation CDs and even live events.
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Apr 11, 2022
Dove | Real Beauty Sketches
Nine years ago this week, Dove and Ogilvy Brazil rolled out one of the great megaviral ads of all time, "Real Beauty Sketches." Today on Tagline, we revisit the 2013 social experiment with the folks who made it—to learn how a film shot for less than $200,000 made a powerful statement about self-esteem, rejuvenated a legendary brand platform, drove $54 million worth of earned media, and rocketed around the world to become the most-watched online ad ever.
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Mar 28, 2022
Skittles | Blank the Rainbow
This week we explore one of advertising's strangest and most delightful confections: the "Blank the Rainbow" campaign for Skittles. We look at how a product truth, combined with a cultural insight about millennial teens, led to a string of beloved, absurdist ads in the mid-2000s, and how the brand revived that spirit in two subversive Super Bowl stunts a decade later. Presented by GSTV.
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Mar 14, 2022
Apple | Get a Mac
We kick off Season 2 with a look at Apple's "Get a Mac," the episodic comedy series that ran from 2006 to 2009, with Justin Long as a personified Macintosh and John Hodgman as a PC. We revisit its entire history, from the brutal eight-month search for the idea to the campaign's demise 93 spots later—just as it was named Adweek's campaign of the decade. Presented by GSTV.
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Feb 28, 2022
Season 2 Trailer
We're back and ready for Season 2! Tim gives a sneak peek of the 10 campaigns we're covering this year. We'll have comedies and dramas, campaigns about race and gender, amazing product demos and beautiful brand spots. Season 2 premieres March 14, sponsored by GSTV.
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Aug 2, 2021
Manuel and Patricia Oliver, Change the Ref
On Valentine's Day 2018, Joaquin Oliver, 17 years old, was killed along with 16 others in a mass shooting at his high school in Parkland, Florida. Two weeks later, his parents Manuel and Patricia created the organization Change the Ref, becoming remarkable advocates for curbing gun violence in America. On this episode, we chat with Manny and Patricia about their celebrated work, the recent escalation of their tactics, how they work with agencies, and why they see art and creativity as the ultimate weapon in the battle against guns.
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Jun 28, 2021
Ikea | Dining Room
To close out Pride Month, we look back at the charming 1994 Ikea commercial that was the first mainstream ad ever to feature a gay couple. We chat with many of the folks who worked on the spot at Deutsch—about the bold concept, the unconventional writing and filming, the praise and the backlash, and where we are now, 27 years later, in terms of LGBTQ representation in ads.
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Jun 7, 2021
David Kolbusz, Droga5 London
On this bonus episode, we chat with David Kolbusz, chief creative officer of Droga5 London, who’s brought a consistency and level of creative excellence to the agency’s U.K. operation that was missing before. We dig into some of David’s celebrated work across his career—with stops at Mother, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, BBH and Wieden + Kennedy—and how his time at W+K and Droga, in particular, has increasingly been defined by making ads that don’t look like ads at all.
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May 24, 2021
Motel 6 | We'll Leave the Light On for You
This week's episode is all about The Richards Group's beloved radio campaign for Motel 6, which began in 1986 and continued, practically unchanged, for 34 years, before imploding last fall when a racist comment from Stan Richards got the agency fired. We look at the campaign's creation, its nostalic roots and contemporary twists, the downfall of Richards, and how a new agency plans to refresh the campaign this summer.
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May 3, 2021
Procter & Gamble | The Talk, The Look, The Choice
This week we look at Procter & Gamble’s powerful trilogy of spots about racial bias: “The Talk” from 2017, “The Look” from 2019, and “The Choice” from 2020. We dig into the craft of each piece and explore P&G’s evolving approach to fighting racism, from the early days of the Trump presidency to the murder of George Floyd and beyond. Presented by GSTV.
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Apr 26, 2021
Under Armour | Rule Yourself: Michael Phelps
This week we unpack one of the great sports ads of the past decade, Droga5's Michael Phelps spot for Under Armour, made for the 2016 Olympics. We look at how the spot shed new light on the world's greatest swimmer, how it was expertly concepted and crafted, and how it was ahead of its time in broaching the difficult subject of Olympic athletes and mental health. Presented by GSTV.
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Apr 19, 2021
Johnnie Walker | The Man Who Walked Around the World
This week we time-travel to 2009 to revisit BBH London’s five-minute brand-history film for Johnnie Walker, starring Robert Carlyle in a virtuosic performance, shot in a single take. It’s a story of great copywriting, top-notch camerawork and theatrical visual storytelling—as well as soaking rain, insects, and last-minute problems with legal. Presented by GSTV.
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Apr 12, 2021
California Milk Processor Board | Got Milk?
This week we serve up an ice-cold glass of nostalgia as we look at the making of the culture-busting “Got Milk?” campaign from Goodby Silverstein & Partners. It’s the story of a powerful insight, darkly comic creative, a lightning rod of a tagline, and a client who loved partnerships and parodies and gave the world’s blandest product advertising’s hottest campaign. Presented by GSTV.
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Apr 7, 2021
Fernando Machado, Activision
On this bonus episode, we catch up with Fernando Machado, who made waves this week by announcing his exit from Burger King and RBI after seven years to join Activision as CMO. We take a stroll down memory lane, as Fer walks us through his many of his greatest BK hits (he even picks his favorite) and also reveals why he’s making the move to gaming. Presented by GSTV.
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Apr 5, 2021
Metro Trains | Dumb Ways to Die
This week we unpack another megaviral ad, McCann's "Dumb Ways to Die," the little Australian train safety video that became a global sensation. We chat with the creatives, clients, animators and musicians who crafted the delightfully twisted song and music video, and we look at how McCann tried to think like a record label in promoting the campaign. Presented by GSTV.
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Mar 29, 2021
Always | Like a Girl
We close out Women's History Month with a look back at one of the great female-empowerment anthems ever made by an advertiser, "Like a Girl" from P&G's Always. Hear the whole story of the social experiment turned viral film turned Super Bowl showstopper from the folks who made it. Presented by GSTV.
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Mar 22, 2021
Volkswagen | The Force
This week we don our Darth Vader mask and travel back to the 2011 Super Bowl to look at the VW commercial that Force-choked all rivals into submission that year. It's a story of great craft around some beloved IP, and a Sophie's choice that would change Super Bowl advertising forever. Presented by GSTV.
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Mar 15, 2021
Dos Equis | The Most Interesting Man in the World
In our inaugural episode, we look at the making of the iconic "Most Interesting Man in the World" campaign from Dos Equis, from the creative team's sarcastic initial pitch, to the battle to sell it through, to the frightening first shoot day, to the demise of the celebrated campaign a decade later. Presented by GSTV.
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Feb 16, 2021
Welcome to Tagline
Tim Nudd explains how Tagline came about, and what to expect from the first season. Tagline premieres March 15.
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