Best Ads of the Week: Experian, Blue Diamond, Pizza Hut, Apple, Dunkin'

Welcome to Best Ads of the Week, our weekly look at the campaigns that stood out for the right reasons.

This first edition of 2026 spotlights work that succeeded through strong insight, smart timing, and creative decisions rooted in a real understanding of audience behavior.

Five brands made the cut this week by taking risks that paid off, from unexpected storytelling and thoughtfully used celebrity involvement to ideas that landed at exactly the right moment.

1. Experian: Fairy Tale Credit Scores

BBH London reimagined Grimm-style stories to reframe credit scores as a form of guidance for customers.

One spot follows a family living in a cramped shoe-house whose space expands into a boot as their credit improves.

The campaign extends Experian's "Big Financial Friend" platform, making financial anxiety approachable through storytelling that doesn't rely on fear or urgency.

2. Blue Diamond x Jonas Brothers

The almond milk brand rejected AI-generated concepts in favor of the Jonas Brothers' actual creative input.

The spot shows agents pitching unrealistic ideas (such as space scenes, beach settings, and milk deliverymen riding giant almonds) before the brothers dismiss them.

The campaign grounds celebrity presence in believable product usage, favoring it over manufactured endorsements.

3. Pizza Hut x Tom Brady

VML created the campaign that challenges quarterbacks to say "pizza" before "hut" during live games, with the first city where it happens earning a free pizza party.

A witty and comical 30-second spot shows Brady as a delivery guy getting tackled by a grandma.

The campaign turns football gameplay into a participatory brand moment, connecting the $10 Big New Yorker promo to live cultural events that fans already watch.

4. Apple Watch: Quitter's Day

Apple turned the second Friday of January into a villain, with beds and recliners chasing runners through quiet streets.

The campaign uses Apple Heart and Movement Study data showing 60% of users increased daily exercise minutes by over 10% in January, with nearly 80% maintaining gains through the month's end.

The "Ring in the New Year" challenge helps sustain fitness momentum beyond the typical mid-January drop-off by pairing humor with behavioral data.

5. Dunkin' x Megan Thee Stallion

Dunkin' launched Protein Milk across its menu, adding 15 grams of protein to coffees, lattes, matcha, and Refreshers.

The "Dunk N' Pump" spot features Megan as "Pro-Tina" leading jazzercise-inspired workouts.

The campaign extends through retro workout apparel, a Bala Bangles collaboration, and Solidcore studio classes, treating protein as social infrastructure rather than a performance enhancer.

These three trends stood out across this week's best campaigns:

• Reassurance beats urgency in stressful categories: Experian and Apple chose empathy over fear, creating space for audiences to engage without feeling judged.
• Authentic celebrity involvement beats surface endorsements: The Jonas Brothers shaped Blue Diamond's creative direction, while Megan and Brady extended campaigns into lifestyle touchpoints.
• Cultural timing creates participation windows: Pizza Hut's live gameplay challenge and Dunkin's studio partnerships are active brand moments that fans can actually interact with.

Brands are finally learning that people respond better to kindness than panic, especially when money or habits are involved.

Moving from fear-based messaging to empathy-driven storytelling is the right way to speak to audiences who are tired of being sold solutions to problems they didn't know they had.

This week also showed that campaigns succeed when celebrities actually contribute ideas and create real moments for fans to participate in.

Our Pick: Experian

We think the campaign that stood out most this week is Experian's fairy tale approach to credit scoring.

The work is special because it does something genuinely creative with one of the driest topics in advertising.

Credit scores don't usually inspire whimsical storytelling, but BBH London managed to turn financial anxiety into something that feels like a relatable bedtime story.

In a week full of strong campaigns, Experian won by making something inherently stressful feel genuinely approachable.

Don't miss our last roundup of 2025, where we lined up standout ads from The Salvation Army, Beats, and Supercell.

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