17 Outstanding Sources of Advertising Inspiration
By Steven Snell | Published August 12th, 2009 in InspirationAdvertisements can also be an excellent source of design inspiration in part because of the creativity that many ads exhibit. If you would like to find more inspiration from advertisements, the sites featured in this post will provide you with a great start.
Ads of the World is a showcase of advertisements. There is a lot of great work to be seen on the site, and it also includes a blog and forum.
The Adland blog features advertisements, including a lot of video. The archives are categorized so you can browse through print, radio, television commercials, and more.
Adverbox is a popular advertising blog that reaches over 9,000 subscribers.
The Inspiration Room Daily frequently posts inspiration from design, print, commercials, music videos and more.
Design You Trust showcases user-submitted design. The advertising category is a great place to get some inspiration.
AdForum contains 90,000 ads and provides information on 20,000 advertising agencies. Ads can be search by media type, date range, country, ad agency, and more.
The Behance Network provides designers and creatives with a place to display their work. You can browse the Advertising category to see inspirational work from Behance members.
The Advertising Archives is a searchable database of 50,000 print ads. You’ll need to register to view ads full size.
The Ad*Access project is part of the Duke University Library. It maintains a database of over 7,000 advertisements from 1911 to 1955.
Adflip is a database of print ads. You can browse by decade, category, what’s hot, or you can search by keyword.
Coloribus includes more than 2,000,000 ads in its database. You can search by keyword or browse by category, brand, country, or agency.
Adaholic is a searchable database of magazine ads. The ads can also be browsed by category and prints can be purchased.
Creativity Online showcases advertisements of various types.
The Ad Feed is a gallery site that showcases excellent advertisements in print and video. The site hasn’t been updated in a few months but the archives contain some interesting and inspiring work.
adverlicio.us is a blog that showcases ads of differnt kinds. The archives can be browsed industry, brand, celebrity, or size.
I Believe in Advertising is a blog the features various advertisements. The site has been around since 2006 and has a lot in the archives.
AdGoodness has not been updated in a few months, but the archives include inspiration from commercials, film, animation and more.
For more design inspiration please see:





















Thanks for this selection! But your forget my website! http://dyvantity.com (ok, ok, it’s in French… but there’s no need to read when it’s a beautiful campaign!)
@dyvantity
This post is great, advertising can be some of the most creative, random and brilliant ideas which project a brand or image.
Thanks for highlighting my collection of online ads, http://adverlicio.us!
Excellent!
[...] 17 Outstanding Sources Of Advertising Inspiration [...]
Great source for inspiration. Thank you.
Use ad’s of the world a lot, but most of the others here are new to me. Good selection.
[...] 17 Outstanding Sources of Advertising Inspiration http://designm.ag/inspiration/advertising/ Posted on Thu 13 Aug 21:58 retweet 0 votes RT @ekkalak: 17 Outstanding Sources of Advertising [...]
Bookmarked already – advertisment creators usually are very well paid and talented designers, so I really believe such advertising sites can be beautiful inspiration for fresh ideas!
Awesome advertisement inspiration. Thanks for the share.
I agree with Dainis, some of the most talented graphic designers are advertisment designers. Thanks for posting this great resource for future inspiration on upcoming projects.
[...] Outstanding Sources of Advertising Inspiration “Advertisements can also be an excellent source of design inspiration in part because of the creativity that many ads exhibit. If you would like to find more inspiration from advertisements, the sites featured in this post will provide you with a great start.” [...]
[...] Outstanding Sources of Advertising Inspiration “Advertisements can also be an excellent source of design inspiration in part because of the creativity that many ads exhibit. If you would like to find more inspiration from advertisements, the sites featured in this post will provide you with a great start.” [...]
[...] Outstanding Sources of Advertising Inspiration “Advertisements can also be an excellent source of design inspiration in part because of the creativity that many ads exhibit. If you would like to find more inspiration from advertisements, the sites featured in this post will provide you with a great start.” 50 Inspiring Examples o Minimalism in Web Design “The sophisticated image of minimalism has always been a popular style of design. In webdesign a minimalist site is stripped naked of eye candy and fancy colours or effects, leaving the underlying structure exposed. The key to a beautiful minimalist site is a solid and structured layout, as well as focus on stylish and well designed typography.” [...]
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[...] Designm.ag publicaron una recopilación con 17 sitios de publicidades que podemos recorrer tranquilamente [...]
An excellent collection. I have only used ads of the world before. Will make sure to check some of the others out.
Love the creativity. This is a awsome sight!
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[...] 17 advertising websites to inspire – http://designm.ag/inspiration/advertising/ Posted on Thu 20 Aug 8:45 retweet 0 votes RT @megmack29: 17 advertising websites to inspire – [...]
just a side note I also run an ad blog http://www.adbrandetc.com please follow!
[...] 17 Outstanding Sources of Advertising Inspiration http://designm.ag/inspiration/advertising/ Posted on Sat 22 Aug 7:01 retweet 0 votes RT @site2you: 17 Outstanding Sources of Advertising [...]
The ads are really greatand provide a great help for inspirations. Thanks for posting
Well done on a really good set of links, of those you have added, we reckon the one that is most useful is the advertising archives
Those are some great resources that copywriters and advertising agencies can use to get ideas. I love study advertisments. One of my favorite things to do is study the video ads on Adwido.
Lol, I discovered Ads of the World about 2 years ago and since then always ‘assumed’ that it was the only Ad site on the net. How naive can one be?
Nice collection Steven.
Hey everyone, thanks for the great feedback on this post.
David,
Yeah, it was a long time before I knew about any others aside from Ads of the World. I had to seek them out.
[...] 17 Outstanding Sources of Advertising Inspiration from DesignM.ag – again, not really free stuff, but inspiration is a good thing to have! [...]
Here is one I like as it covers ad news like Drudge.
http://www.adrant.com
There are a few creative links there as well, but mostly news happenings.
I check it throughout the day.
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[...] 17 Outstanding Sources of Advertising Inspiration from DesignM.ag – again, not really free stuff, but inspiration is a good thing to have! [...]
With an ad weary public, ads have to be more creative than ever before in order to have any effectiveness. The visual part of the ad has to create a “promise” from a subliminal standpoint. The words that accompany it must reinforce that message.
nice ads collection !!!
Ads are very important when it comes to Advertising Inspiration. Ads tells more than the words could ever explain. Thanks to my people.
you know most advertisement do not not just happen in the name of business but building a greater business for the people around you to know that yes, what you are advertising must be a better one. so i think advertising is a precious and a good thing to do in the right time of the day….goodluck in your business advertisement!!!
Ads tells more than the words could ever explain. Thanks to my people.
nice job