Only The Coolest Shark Ads (Updated)

SHARKS! 10 ads.

In honor of Shark Week Month Fest. Sharks are amazing. Sharks are the BEST.

TRUE STORY. My dad was a deep sea scuba diver for about 30 years. One dive, he was on an old ship wreck trying to get a brass porthole loose when he felt a gentle bump in the back. He thought it was a buddy diver and waved him away. Another bump. He swiveled around and was staring right in the teeth of a large Tiger Shark. Luckily, it wasn’t hungry. Just curious.

Anyway, SHARKS!

AUSTRIA

Hugyfot. “Simple one-handed underwater camera housings”. Note the hover hand. Don’t want to get too intimate with DANGER. Ad agency: Lowe GGK, Austria.

AUSTRALIA

Australia Tourism shark ad. COPY:

“she’s been on a strict plankton diet. Put on her best swimsuit. And all she needs is someone to play with. SO WHERE THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU?

“bloody”. LOL. Backstory on the campaign here.

TURKEY

One execution from an award-winning campaign for the World Wildlife Fund. COPY: “Exploiting the ecosystem also threatens human lives”. Ad agency: DDB, Istanbul.

SOUTH AFRICA

Shark Conservation Group Shark Life anti-shark-finning “sundial”.

Expensive shark fin soup is a must for many Chinese weddings. But more than 30 sharks have to be killed to feed a wedding banquet with 300 guests. Disgusting.

CANADA

For the last 20 years, Vancouver’s Science World has produced some of the best museum ads ever (see 13 billboards here). The swallowed gramophone is a brilliant touch. Ad agency: Rethink, Canada.

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(Another free article, feeling generous this week. It won’t last. Please buy a subscription here; $50 a year, that’s less than $1 a week.)

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SWEDEN

Ad agency: Søder Reklambyrå, Stockholm.

FRANCE

Tampax Compak. Staying with the above theme, here’s the rare tampon ad that acknowledges that blood does in fact come out of vaginas. Ad agency: Leo Burnett, Paris.

NYC & AUSTRALIA

Two past Shark Week efforts. L—Shark Boy billboard on Houston Street, Manhattan. R—In 2007, the Discovery Channel scattered these promo boards around Sydney's beaches. Ad agency: Rapp Collins, Sydney.

GERMANY

Lastly, a great execution from a great multi-award-winning campaign for Faber-Castell colored pencils. Ad agency: Serviceplan, Munich.

UPDATE: GERMANY

Forgot one. Berlin hosted an international track meet in 2007. The Berlin Aquarium placed this ambient ad on the pole vault mat. Pretty cool. Ad agency: Scholz & Friends.

TOMORROW: The best Shark Movie Posters of all time!