If April loosened the tie, May kicked the boardroom door off its hinges. This month’s best work didn’t just embrace entertainment, it sprinted toward it at full speed.
The strongest campaigns in May understood something many marketers forget: attention is earned, not requested. Brands gave us horror metal collaborations, floating Star Wars billboards, soccer streakers mourning the loss of their glory days, people named Reese questioning their life choices, and a Grammy-winning superstar playing a flute shaped like a rack of ribs. Somehow, it all made perfect sense.
Brands weren’t afraid to go bigger, stranger, and more experiential. The result was work that felt less like advertising and more like culture showing up in unexpected places.
Disney | Mandalorian and Grogu
After seven years away from theaters, the Star Wars universe returned to cinemas last month with The Mandalorian and Grogu, and Disney celebrated the launch by bringing a little bit of the Force into the real world.
In partnership with Havas Creative, Disney unveiled a striking experiential campaign across Madrid featuring floating outdoor billboards suspended above city streets as if Grogu himself were using the Force to levitate them.
The activation ran May 18 and 19 at several of Madrid’s busiest and most recognizable locations, including Cibeles, Alonso Martínez, Calle Alcalá, and Fuencarral, stopping pedestrians in their tracks and instantly turning the campaign into social media bait.
And unlike most “floating” billboard stunts, these displays weren’t visual effects or hidden supports disguised with camera angles. The structures were actually hovering in midair thanks to a custom magnetic levitation system developed by engineering company Andtonic.
Blizzard Entertainment | Diablo IV x KoRn
KoRn released its first new music in four years through an ambitious partnership with Blizzard Entertainment and Diablo IV.
The new track, Reward the Scars, arrived alongside a visually intense music video created to launch Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred, the latest chapter in Blizzard’s long-running dark fantasy franchise.
Mind blown.
Developed with 72andSunny, animation studio PASSION Pictures and director Philippe Guyenne, the film places KoRn inside the twisted psyche of Mephisto, the game’s infamous “Lord of Hatred.”
As the band performs, Mephisto violently tears through followers and enemies alike in a barrage of hand-drawn carnage, blending live action footage with aggressive animation inspired by the band’s iconic Freak on a Leash era visuals.
BuzzBallz | “SoccerBallz”
BuzzBallz embraced the full, chaotic soccer energy this summer with a campaign centered on a former pitch invader who is desperately trying to reclaim his glory days.
The ready-to-drink cocktail brand’s new “Streaker Steve” campaign introduced fictional ex-soccer menace Steve Bell, a once-infamous streaker now confronting the painful reality that nobody cares about his “ballz” anymore — because all the attention has shifted to BuzzBallz’s limited-edition “SoccerBallz” drinks.
It’s juvenile. Ridiculous. Slightly sad. Which is exactly why we love it.
Created by The Shop (the in-house agency of BuzzBallz parent Sazerac) alongside Erich & Kallman, the campaign leaned heavily into cringe comedy and faded notoriety as Steve repeatedly attempts to relive his glory days while literally annoying everyone around him.
SNICKERS | Peanut Butter Focus Group
SNICKERS escalated the candy peanut butter wars with a new campaign that playfully targets one very specific audience: people literally named Reese.
The latest push from Mars promoted SNICKERS Peanut Butter by leaning into the long-running creamy-versus-crunchy debate while taking a wink-and-nod swipe at its biggest peanut butter competitor.
The May campaign centered around a focus group made up entirely of people named “Reese,” including alternate spellings like Reece and Rhys. Directed by Eric André, the spots captured the participants reacting to SNICKERS Peanut Butter and SNICKERS Peanut Butter Ice Cream for the first time.
Chili’s | Lizzo Reboots “Baby Back” Jingle
In May, Chili’s Grill & Bar revived one of advertising’s most unforgettable earworms by teaming up with Lizzo for a modern remix of the iconic “Baby Back Ribs” jingle.
And yes, there is a custom flute shaped like a rack of ribs.
The new campaign, created by advertising freelance team It’s Advertising Time, celebrated Chili’s recently revamped Baby Back Ribs while paying tribute to the original commercial that permanently embedded “I want my baby back, baby back…” into America’s collective brain sometime around the late ’90s.
The new spot recreates several moments from the classic ad nearly shot-for-shot before spiraling into full Lizzo energy.
And that’s it for the Best of May. See you next month!
Colin Costello is the West Coast Editor of Reel 360 News. Contact him at colin@reel360.com or follow him on LinkedIn.
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