6 super cool advertisement campaigns done in Dubai

You won’t be skipping these on YouTube…

In a world full of raging capitalism and countless advertisement campaigns being hurled at us every day, how do you grab attention? You make the most out-of-the-box advertisement campaign in the room.

Big, bold and mad creative, these advertisement campaigns from the years past with Dubai as their backdrop are all sorts of mind blowing. Iconic landmarks, famous faces and even the good old NFT. All is involved.

Barbie by the Burj Khalifa

This new Instagram reel made quite the noise on social media, to no surprise of course, with all the Barbie fever at the time. The release of the movie itself had been delayed in the UAE (sheds a single, dramatic tear) but pink state of mind is a constant and this video is proof.

The video of the giant CGI Barbie stepping out of it’s packaging next to the Burj Khalifa was created by a boutique social media agency called Eye Studio and features the doll wearing a zebra-print swimsuit similar to the one worn in her debut back in 1959.

A Barbie world indeed.

Zinedine Zidane and Nouf Al Anzi’s football game

Adidas’ 2021 film featuring the Dubai Frame starred French football legend Zinedine Zidane and rising Emirati football player Nouf Al Anzi playing an interesting game of football. The video saw the pair kicking a ball back and forth, except their post is a 150-metre-tall architectural wonder.

As the ball flies through the Dubai Frame between Zidane and Al Anzi, it symbolises the great past and the promising future of the sport the way the Frame stands for both the magic of old Dubai and the possibilities of the new one.

Truly iconic, to say the least.

BMW bragging rights but make it NFT

BMW’s ‘Museum of Sound’, a unique NFT collection of artworks was released in 2022 and serves to immortalise the legacy of the BMW M engines. As the planet and BMW gear up to go green with electric cars, the automobile giant, in collaboration with Serviceplan Group, got 19 of their customers to take a speedy tour of the Dubai Autodrome track with external mics attached to all the vital parts of the engines

The parade was led by DTM Champion Bruno Spengler and at the end of it, audio clips of the iconic roar of each of the 19 M engines were made into NFTs and minted for the owners. Each piece of art visualises the sound waves of the engines. A collection like no other.

Live billboards to the next level

In promotion of the launch of their full coverage swimwear line in 2022, Adidas erected a unique billboard in collaboration with Havas Middle East on a stretch of Dubai beach. It was essentially a water tank that invited female beach-goers to take a public dive into the billboard and become a star of their ‘Beyond The Surface’ campaign.

The campaign itself was launched to highlight a YouGov survey the sportswear brand did in the UAE, in which only 12 per cent of women stated they were comfortable wearing a swimsuit at a public pool or beach. A tribute to diversity and courage, the liquid billboard was the first of it’s kind.

Figure skating in the clouds with Zahra Lari

In 2022, ace Emirati figure skater Zahra Lari put up a spectacular performance to inaugurate the The Next Level at The Palm, a viewing deck sitting 240 metres above the ground and offering panoramic views of the city and beyond.

The athlete performed an incredible figure skating routine, with spins, jumps and stunts, on the deck transformed into an ice rink for just one day. She was dropped onto the platform from a helicopter.

The deck itself has no obstructions, and offers uninterrupted views beyond just a glass barrier

CGI celebrations

Remember that historic moment when Argentina’s national football team took home the Fifa World Cup of 2022? Yeah, we do too. It was quite the victory for team captain Lionel Messi, the first World Cup win of his life. He’s somewhat of a mythical creature in the world of football, considered one of the greatest players of all time, and became the star of one of the largest out-of-home installations the world has ever seen.

No one does tributes like Adidas, who sponsors the player and the team. Post-win, they posted a video of a CGI billboard advertisement in the Dubai Frame featuring Messi circa different World Cup finals from his life and the beloved trophy – a long time coming now. A tribute to his mythos. It was unmissable, much like the moment that made it.