2 minute read

Leading up to Super Bowl LIII, Borshoff’s advertising team will share their favorite ad or ad campaign of all time.  

Coming from a writer, what I’m about to say is going to sound laughable, ludicrous, cockamamie—you name it. But when it comes to print ads, for me, the less words the better.  

Blasphemous? Perhaps. But I’ll double down and go as far to say in the rare occasions you can get by without any words at all, stand up, pour yourself a libation, and sip in celebratory writer bliss.  

Don’t get me wrong, words are great—I have all their albums—but at times, they can be, in a word, limiting. And at times, they get in the way of visuals that say infinitely more than words ever could. 

Enter copywriter Jerry Cronin’s Nike Running ad.  

It’s clean, simple (to the point you’ll kick yourself because you didn’t think of it), and best of all wordless. Its precise imagery delivers an ever-so-soft haymaker of messaging—impossible to misinterpret and unable to be ignored. And for that reason, it is my favorite ad.

Want to see more of our favorite ads?