Adland Professionals Rank Hungary’s Top 50 Ads of the Last 50 Years

"Sharing the Past / Shaping the Future” – this is the motto of Advertising Chronicles (Reklamtortenet), a leading blog on advertising in Hungary, also specialising in translating and publishing marketing and advertising books in Hungarian since 2016.

In its latest project, Advertising Chronicles teamed up with White Rabbit Budapest to collect and evaluate the top 50 Hungarian commercials of the last 50 years. Hence the title of this unique initiative: The/50/50/List. 

But the expression ("fifty-fifty") also refers to the shared experience of the project as well, since in the first round an online questionnaire was used to identify the commercials (and not just ads, but campaigns, or any idea-driven communication solutions) that had the greatest impact on the collective memory of Hungarian public. In the second round the 50 most recalled ads by the public will be ranked by a jury of 50 renowned professionals from the Hungarian advertising, marketing and media world, the trade press and the creative industry.

Levente Kovacs, founder & chief creative officer of White Rabbit Budapest, and founder of the blog/press Advertising Chronicles said, ”Such a list can give you a measure of scale, or even inspiration. I think it's important to have a point of reference for the adland of Hungary, which we can work on together, and which shows where we've started from and where we should go. In that sense, The/50/50/List is both a tribute to those who have gone before us, and a guideline for those who are currently in the advertising industry – and setting the bars for the future.”

Creative directors, strategic directors, account directors, brand/marketing directors, copywriters, art directors, film directors and journalists are invited into to jury. The shortlisted entries are assessed on five criteria: Idea, Salience, Craft, Humor, "Evergreen-factor". The final ranking will be defined based on these aspects.

”You might ask: is there any point in looking at old advertisements and ranking them? – Kovacs went on to say. – Is there anything to learn from the past? Well, I strongly believe there is. Fortunately, our jury members thought so, too. That's why we are doing this 50/50/List together, with the help of our industry.”

The shortlisted advertisements can be found here; the final ranking will be published on December 6, 2023.

The logo and identity of The/50/50/List was created by Balázs Szász (White Rabbit Budapest).