Twenty years ago Wieden & Kennedy, the Portland, Oregon stalwart known for its groundbreaking work on Nike, opened its doors in London. It was a turbulent start: Campaign’s 2000 School Reports wrote, “The jury is still out on whether W&K will ever make its presence felt in London.”
But since then it certainly has, making its mark as one of the hottest creative shops in the capital.
As the agency marks its 20th anniversary this year, Campaign looks back at some of its most memorable work over the past two decades and why it mattered.
1. Honda “Cog” (2003)
Made car parts cool embedded content
2. Honda “Grrr” (2004)
Made everyone love hate
3. Nike “Run London” (2006)
Got a city to run a 10K
4. Nike “St Wayne” (2006)
Created an icon for a country to get behind
5. Lurpak “Bread” (2009)
Challenged the conventions of food photography and gave a yellow fat a purpose
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6. Nokia “Supernova – Somebody else’s phone” (2009)
Created a massive phone-based drama
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7. Onedotzero (2009)
Built a logo made out of live feeds
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8. Nike “Grid” (2010)
Created a citywide running game using phone boxes
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9. Nokia “Dot” (2010)
Broke the Guinness World Record for the smallest stop-motion animation, by using a phone
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10. Cravendale “Cats with thumbs” (2011)
Convinced the UK its milk was under threat from polydactyl cats
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11. Kaiser Chiefs “Album launch” (2011)
Let fans make and sell their own versions of the album
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12. Lurpak “Kitchen odyssey” (2011)
A kitchen-based space odyssey
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13. Three “Pony” (2013)
Reminded people why silly stuff is important and let them create their own silly stuff
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14. Honda “The other side” (2014)
Let people experience the Civic Type R by the push of a keyboard button
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15. Three “Holiday spam” (2014)
Introduced a new phrase into the English language
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16. Reckitt Benckiser’s Finish “Dishes” (2015)
Told people that dishwasher tablets are a matter of life and death
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17. WWF “Endangered emojis” (2015)
Turned emojis into a micropayment system to help fund WWF
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18. Formula 1 “Rebrand” (2017)
Rebranded one of the world’s biggest sports brands
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19. Sainsbury’s “Food dancing” (2017)
Topped the Spotify charts with a song about people who dance when they cook
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20. TK Maxx “Why would anyone shop at TK Maxx?” (2017)
Answered a big question with a talking horse, among other unconventional voices
