5. Molson Canadian - I Am Canadian

The number 5 spot on best advertising campaigns goes to Molson, for their Molson Canadian "I Am Canadian," campaign. This ad, not only, defined Molson's brand image, but defined, for an entire generation, what it meant to be Canadian. 

The commercial opened up on an empty stage a, seemingly, timid man walks out under the spotlight. He starts speaking about what he isn't, " I'm not a fur trader, I'm not a lumber jack, I don't own a dog sled." As time goes on his shyness subsides and he becomes emboldened with his speech. He switches, then, from things that he is not to things that he is; that we all are as Canadians. He rouses the crowed with his passion for his homeland of Canada, and by the end cheers, hoots, and applause is audible from the crowed as he finishes he speech with the, now immortal, words of "I Am Canadian."

This spot proved to be so successful with audiences that an entire campaign of stickers, bottle caps, touques, and other special marked items were launched to to satisfy the jingoistic needs of anyone who felt empowered by the commercial.

Molson's true victory here was that their commercial had transcended just a TV spot, and that phrase had become culturally iconic.