What was the worst ad of 2022?

Most car commercials are pretty ridiculous but Lambhorgini’s Huracán Sterrato launch really takes the biscuit. Visually, it does its job and ticks the class car ad boxes; a shiny car driven by a beautifully glamorous woman, filmed by a drone through sandy dunes. It’s the audio that turns it into the unexpected – and for the worse that is. 

The classic gravelly car voiceover is present and correct, but it’s talking absolute waffle. As in, more waffle than usual – and, for some reason, it’s presented in some kind of half-rhyming pseudo-poem format. And it makes absolutely no sense. A sample, for your reading displeasure: “Let adrenaline and fun collide / Spraying grains of dust aside / It’s no filth / This is design / Any amount of grime is fine / The more you get dirty / The more you’ll shine / Dust is gold / Dirt’s for the bold”. 

Honestly, upon first watch we thought that this must be some sort of SNL-like sketch. As a copywriter, I’m cringing. 

Another example of a poor campaign this year is EToro’s “Flying Your Way”. The ad sees pigeons and humans flocking together in the sky promoting the idea of people sharing stocks and crypto as a way to fly “to the moon” together. It seems like they went for the ‘nonsense’ route to capture people’s attention, but the feeling is of a poorly executed idea and dull humor.

To top it all off, we couldn’t write a piece on embarrassing and poor campaigns from this past year without mentioning the highly controversial Balenciaga holiday campaign. The campaign was shameful both for the lack of judgment in making the work and also for the decision to throw their agency and production partners under the bus without taking personal accountability. The entire thing was a shambles.