Thought provoking videos are a great way to share a message and educate people about the brand or a product. But when one creates an impactful ad, it may result in a bit of criticism which then follows hype in sales and visibility. The initial response to every controversial advertisement is a lot of hate. But when people realize the actual message the ad wants to convey, it completely changes people how they think.


“A good public controversy is better than good advertising for a brand’.

From the ads relating to the Black lives, to the refugees, from ads against sexual harassment to supporting inter-faith love, these ads are not something traditional. These ads are not just product central but social issue centered.
Here are 5 thought-provoking videos that changed how people think and also made a huge social impact across the world.

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Airbnb’s #WeAccept

The commercial campaign by Airbnb went on air after the Syrian refugee crisis. It was based on taking a stand for those refugees and also sent a message to accept them.


The tagline of the campaign read, “We believe no matter who you are, where you’re from, who you love, or who you worship, we all belong. The world is more beautiful the more you accept.” The commercial displayed a montage of the many faces belonging to various nationalities, which then moved to blend into one another.

Airbnb ad campaign


By this commercial, Airbnb highlighted that they will be providing short-term housing for the people who need it. It can include refugees, natural disaster victims, and aid workers.


When the commercial aired, it received a fair share of hate on social media. But the positive response overtook it all. During the first half of the Super Bowl itself, the ad generated 33,000 tweets. This was more than any other advertisement. In this ocean of tweets, the majority were positive (over 85% positive responses).
After Airbnb’s commitment to open their homes to displaced populations became viral, it resulted in over 15,400 volunteer host signups!

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Nike’s “Believe in Something is another thought provoking videos that touched our hearts

”When we see the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020 and 2021, we do not fail to recall the as a campaign which Nike did on its 30th Anniversary campaign in 2018.


On the occasion of Labor Day, Nike released their commercial featuring Colin Kaepernick. He was a former NFL player who was expelled from playing any professional football. It all happened because he got termed as an Anti-American when he refused to stand up for the national anthem during his games.


It was his way of standing up to his beliefs and protesting against the inequalities faced by the minorities in the US. “Just do it”, the tagline of Nike follows the quote, “Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything,” which the actions of Colin reflected.


When the commercial of a black and white headshot of Colin aired, the public got divided over Nike’s choice of their representative for their campaign. It also accompanied people boycotting the company and burning Nike’s products. Social media was flooding with #JustBurnIt images.

Ironic the controversy, the word about the campaign spread all around the world, with Nike’s sales going up to around 10%.


By this, you can see that Nike’s trends were ahead of its time. The choice of Nike’s representative brought the lives of Black people in front of the world and created awareness. Though it saw much hate on social media, it also made the sales and awareness about Black people go up.

Gillette’s “We Believe: The Best Men Can Be”

What do you expect from an advertisement by Gillette? You think it must be about beards, any shaving or personal grooming product. But unexpectedly, Gillette’s “We Believe: The Best Men Can Be.” was about challenging stereotypes and “toxic masculinity”.


Gillette started this campaign when the world was undergoing the #MeToo movement. Gillette being a well-established shaving company took this risky step to wade into the fray of the #MeToo movement.

As with other controversial ads, this has too gained many positive and negative responses. The ad gained popularity among the Millennials, with more than 30 million views on YouTube.


The ad also gained a whole lot of media coverage and customer engagement. Other than men, women also found that advertisement appealing and effective.

This ad promoted social responsibility, which showed how a brand wants to promote its image.

Google’s “Reunion”

This ad by Google featured a fictional story of two men who used to be best friends before the Indo-Pak partition. But then they got separated as one chose to stay in Pakistan and the other one in India. The ad revolves around how Google helps in reuniting the two separated friends. 


The ad gained 5 million videos in the first week of release!

This beautiful ad shows us how a Google search not only works on the web but for mobile phones as well. Though at that time mobile Google searched were not that popular, but Google with its far vision made an ad for the future and not the present.


Another thing that concerned Google after this ad was that people would not use Google services as much as Google search. But due to the immense popularity of Google, this concern was also solved eventually.

Google already had a 97% market share in search in India. People criticized Google for making a costly 3.5-minute ad, though it was mostly as a joke.


This ad had an emotional element of two friends uniting using technology. People found that Google can in useful in a variety of things such as booking, knowing the weather, searching the location, etc with just one click. So it was a win-win for Google.

Tanishq’s “Ekatvam” is one of the most recent thought provoking videos

This ad by Tanishq was in the context of inter-faith marriage. Here a caring mother-in-law is respecting her daughter-in-law’s faith. This portrayal attracted a mass of criticism which led to a lot of threatening, calling Tata anti-national, and too much violence in real and in social media as well.


Following this huge negativity the ad was facing, they had no choice but to withdraw the advertisement.
What happened after Tanishq withdrew the advertisement was all in the favor of the company. The controversy hiked up Google searches for the advertisement. Twitter began to roll with the criticism of those who criticized the ad. Tanishq even toped Google Trends for a while.

Tanishq is a brand with a lot of loyal and faithful customers who supported the brand even after the criticism. The brand continued to remain at its position even after its so-called offending advertisement.


This controversy not only increased Tanishq’s visibility but also polished the brand’s reputation and value. All this took place due to the overwhelmingly positive coverage by mainstream and social media.


It is not a shocking thing to know that social media covered Tanishq more than the ad itself. The critics, who were against the advertisement by Tanishq, lost their credibility and faced a huge backlash on social media. 


In all the above advertisements and ad campaigns, we can see one thing the public’s opinion is what matters for an advertisement. When the public understands the motive behind these thought provoking videos, no matter what the critics say, the company’s visibility and reputation are bound to increase.

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