COM alums spill the secrets behind ads that changed the industry forever

You’re not easily swayed. And your DVR has a well-worn fast-forward button. But every so often, you let your guard down. An ad slips through.

The jingle turns into a weeklong earworm—whether you want it to or not. You usually grab brand ‘X’ in the store without thinking, but somehow brand ‘Y’ lands in your cart. Your Monday morning blow-by-blow recall of that terrible Super Bowl play is postponed while you chuckle about movie star Seth Rogen plugging Samsung.

The greatest ads work in a moment and stick with us for decades. And many of the best were created by COM alums. Here, we share the secrets of some of these ads, from why they work so well to how they changed the world of advertising.