Top Ads of 2009

Over 16,000 print ads from 2009 were recently shown to a selection of young men and women by the research company MRI Starch Communications. The group was asked to rate which ads caught their attention. The results: eleven ad categories with a couple of top picks in each.

The good news is the ads were photography heavy; lots of visuals to help communicate the brand message. Surprising, however, was the pedestrian feel of the photography in some of these ads (not to knock anyone who worked on these, they’re clearly effective according to this research, but photographically they’re not ground breaking). This was a contest of eyeballs, not creativity, but as photographers and creatives we are exposed to so much fantastic work and it’s frustrating to not see any of that in this selection.

To see the 20+ attention grabbing images check out this AdAge piece. You might not be creatively inspired but at least you’ll know what opens peoples’ wallets.