Some ads sell a product. Others quietly rewire the way an entire nation eats, drinks, and thinks about food. It is honestly a little unsettling how much a single slogan or a thirty-second TV spot can change consumer behavior on a massive, generational scale. From dairy farmers fighting back against soda brands to fast-food chains reinventing their image overnight, American food culture has been shaped, in no small part, by a handful of brilliant, wildly creative advertising campaigns. Let’s dive into eight of the most influential ones.
1. “Got Milk?” – The California Milk Processor Board (1993)
In June 1993, the California Milk Processor Board hired Jeff Manning as executive director to revive sagging milk consumption in California, and a month later he brought on ad agency Goodby, Silverstein and Partners to build something new. The strategy they landed on was almost counterintuitive. Instead of telling people milk was healthy, they focused on the horror of not having it. Rather than dwelling on everything milk could do for you, the ads highlighted the miserable consequences of going without it.
The first “Got Milk?” advertisement aired nationwide on October 29, 1993, and the ad, directed by Michael Bay, reached the top of the advertising industry’s award circuit in 1994. At one point, roughly nine in ten consumers in California were familiar with the campaign, an astounding level of awareness. While milk consumption did not dramatically reverse long-term declines, the campaign stabilized sales and boosted awareness, especially in California, and “Got Milk?” became one of the most quoted and imitated slogans of the 1990s and 2000s.
2. McDonald’s “You Deserve a Break Today” (1971)
The slogan was created in 1971 by a creative team at advertising agency Needham, Harper and Steers in Chicago, led by copywriter Keith Reinhard, and the campaign ran as a cornerstone of McDonald’s advertising for over a decade, eventually running in various forms into the early 1980s. Here is the thing that makes this campaign so fascinating: it didn’t sell food at all, really. It worked because it tapped into the universal human desire for a break from daily stress, shifting focus from the product to the customer’s emotional need for relief.
In 1970, McDonald’s system-wide sales were roughly $587 million, and by the end of 1972, just a year after the campaign fully saturated the market, sales crossed $1 billion for the first time. More than 43 years after the slogan was written for McDonald’s first national TV campaign, it was putting the brand on the map, and Ad Age rated it the top advertising jingle of the 20th Century. That’s not a small thing. That’s a legacy.
3. Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef?” (1984)
First airing on January 10, 1984, the Wendy’s commercial portrayed a fictional fast-food competitor called “Big Bun,” where three elderly ladies were served an enormous hamburger bun containing a minuscule patty, and at the center of it all was an irascible Clara Peller, demanding “Where’s the beef?” The phrase became more than a fast-food catchphrase; it was a call for substance over fluff, a fast-food critique that transformed Wendy’s into a household name and firmly rooted the slogan in American pop culture.
The commercial first aired on January 10, 1984, was an instant hit, boosting Wendy’s sales by 31% that year, and the ad even entered political discourse when Democratic candidate Walter Mondale famously co-opted the line to critique his opponent’s policies during a primary debate. Ad Age named “Where’s the Beef?” one of the top ten slogans of the 20th century, and Wendy’s even brought it back in 2011 for their Hot ‘N Juicy Cheeseburgers campaign. Three words. One 81-year-old woman. A permanent dent in American culture.
4. The California Raisins Campaign (1986)
The concept was created by advertising firm Foote, Cone and Belding for a 1986 Sun-Maid commercial on behalf of the California Raisin Advisory Board, when writer Seth Werner came up with the idea of dancing raisins singing “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.” The California Raisin Industry says developing and testing the first animated 30-second commercial cost $300,000, and to their surprise, the commercial became wildly popular, paving the way for several future commercials and opportunities through other media.
By all accounts, the campaign exceeded expectations, increasing raisin sales by around 20% after the first commercial aired, and somehow the Raisins themselves became celebrities despite initially only existing in advertising form. During their peak, the Raisins produced platinum albums, won an Emmy, had their own television series, formed business partnerships with Post’s Raisin Bran cereal and Hardee’s, garnered the attention of celebrities, had their own fan club, a merchandise line, and a series of comic books. Honestly, dried grapes should never have been this cool. Yet here we are.
5. Campbell’s Soup – A Century of Advertising Dominance
You might not associate Campbell’s Soup with a single explosive campaign the way you do with “Got Milk?” or Wendy’s beef. Their power was slower, quieter, and arguably more effective. Over decades of sustained advertising throughout the 20th century, Campbell’s Soup embedded itself into the American kitchen as reliably as a can opener. The brand’s consistent messaging helped normalize canned soup as a household staple at a time when convenience foods were still fighting for legitimacy on American shelves.
The iconic red and white label, which became one of the most recognized packaging designs in American food history, was amplified by advertising that consistently positioned Campbell’s as wholesome, warm, and trustworthy. At a time when post-World War II American families were embracing convenience products, Campbell’s ads met them exactly where they were. The result: a brand that today remains one of the most recognized packaged food names in the United States, a position built not by one famous commercial, but by decades of disciplined, consistent messaging.
6. Kellogg’s and Tony the Tiger (1952)
In 1952, Eugene Kolkey, an accomplished graphics artist and art director at Leo Burnett, created a character that was to become the official mascot of Kellogg’s new breakfast cereal, designing a tiger named Tony after an ad man at Leo Burnett named Raymond Anthony Wells. Since Tony’s debut in 1952, the character has spanned several generations and become a breakfast cereal icon. That’s over seven decades of the same mascot. Think about how rare that kind of staying power really is.
Tony the Tiger was invented in 1952 alongside Frosted Flakes cereal and quickly became an iconic cereal mascot, with his catchphrase “They’re Gr-r-reat!” first appearing in print in 1955 before becoming a sensation when Thurl Ravenscroft brought the character to life with his signature bass voice. Tony the Tiger’s decades-long run helped establish breakfast cereal as a non-negotiable morning ritual in American homes, teaching multiple generations that a bowl of cereal was not just a meal, but a small daily event worth getting excited about.
7. Coca-Cola’s “Hilltop” Commercial – “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” (1971)
Few food or beverage advertisements have ever reached the emotional height of Coca-Cola’s “Hilltop” commercial, which first aired in 1971. The concept was startlingly simple: hundreds of young people from around the world gathered on a hillside in Italy, each holding a bottle of Coke and singing together. It was filmed during a period of global social tension, and the message of unity landed with staggering impact. Advertising historians widely cite it as one of the most influential brand campaigns ever produced, and it is still studied in marketing programs around the world today.
What made “Hilltop” so transformative wasn’t just its emotional warmth, it was what it did for the idea of food and drink as a universal connector. Coca-Cola didn’t sell a sugary beverage in that spot. It sold a feeling of belonging. That reframe, from product to shared human experience, was revolutionary for food advertising at the time. It set a template that dozens of brands would spend the next half-century trying to replicate, with most falling well short of what those two minutes of footage achieved on a hillside in 1971.
8. “Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner.” – National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (1992)
Launched in 1992 and funded by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, this campaign managed to do something that feels almost impossible in advertising: it made a commodity product feel aspirational. The deep, authoritative narration paired with sweeping ranch imagery created an unmistakable sense of American identity around beef consumption. The campaign ran for years, steadily reinforcing the idea that beef wasn’t just an ingredient, it was a centerpiece, a cultural cornerstone of the American dinner table.
The campaign’s influence on U.S. meat marketing strategies was substantial. It helped cement beef’s position in American meal planning at a time when dietary debates and alternative proteins were beginning to chip away at traditional meat consumption. Much like “Where’s the Beef?” became an all-purpose phrase questioning the substance of an idea, “Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner.” lodged itself in American shorthand, becoming one of those rare slogans that people repeat without even thinking of it as advertising. That’s the deepest kind of cultural penetration a campaign can achieve, and it’s a reminder of just how powerfully food advertising can shape not just what we buy, but who we think we are.
