10 Best Valentine's Day Ads of All Time

As every romantic cynic will tell you, Valentine’s Day as it is today was only invented to sell greeting cards. However, smart brands have used it to sell far more than that, as our guide to the 10 best modern Valentine’s Day ads shows. From chocolates to heart transplants, Cupid’s creative arrow has definitely struck these spots.

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Talk Talk: Shapes

Director: David Frankham | Agency: CHI&Partners London | Production: Smuggler, Stinkfilm UK

The only one of our ads not to debut in February, this enduring spot for Talk Talk still uses the iconography of Cupid’s arrow and Valentine’s ads among its shapes created by people’s bodies in the spot that launched the telecommunications company.

Orange: The Flower

Scott Benson | Marcel | Troublemakers

Using sumptuous African-inspired animation, Orange showed us ‘words are the greatest gift’ in their 2014 fairytale commercial, which told the story of a princess, a competition to bring here a legendary flower, and man who brought it to her using poetry.

lastminute.com: Sexy Delights of Europe

Robert Smith | adam&eveDDB | cain&abel

You’ll never look at your holidays the same way after seeing this risqué ad. Using statue bottoms, trains going into tunnels and milky white suncream hitting someone’s chest, the film takes us through the whole sex act, giving us a horny take on holiday highlights.

Not Impossible Labs: Don’s Voice

Lost & Found | Not Impossible Labs | Not Impossible Labs

A short film made by Not Impossible Labs in collaboration with HP, it tells a beautiful and heartbreaking true story of love overcoming adversity as Don Moir, an ALS sufferer, gets to tell his wife Lorraine he loves her for the first time in decades thanks to new technology.

Milka: Most Tender Selfies

Felipe y Sepia | Del Campo Saatchi & Saatchi | Primo

Just as you thought you couldn’t hear the word ‘selfie’ again without internally screaming, Milka show us old couples taking their first smartphone photos and talking about their many decades together in a way guaranteed to make you feel romantically inadequate.

Galaxy: The Chase

Juan Cabral | AMV BBDO | MJZ

Although only released this year, this vid for Galaxy is destined for classic status, undoing decades of schmaltzy sentimentality in 90 seconds through its fairly violent imagery of a woman avoiding Cupid’s arrows, only being hit when she stops for a moment for a square of chocolate.

Hallmark: Put Your Heart to Paper 

Martin + Lindsay | Leo Burnett | Chelsea

Hallmark basically invented Valentine’s day, but their best ad saw them changing their own game. Using a simple idea - having people talk about their partners and then playing back these videos to those partners - and combining it with progressive steps like featuring lesbian couples, one of the industry’s most hackneyed companies became its most innovative.

Omaze: Idris Elba Wants You to Be His Valentine

shots is definitely not immune to a little flirting, especially if that flirting is Idris Elba asking us to ‘pound his yams’, as he does in this advert for philanthropic group Omaze’s charity prize draw for charity W.E. Can Lead. 

Heart Transplant UK: Give Your Heart this Valentine’s Day

James Strong | Dare | Dark Energy Films

For most of us, giving your heart on Feb 14 is purely symbolic, but as this ad shows giving it for real could save someone’s life. What starts like a dating profile sound unveils itself as a plea from Stacie Pridden, a real woman waiting for a heart transplant.

Rushes: Let’s Get it On This Valentine’s

Leo Weston | Rushes

In a randy piece of self-promotion, VFX house Rushes bring to life two pages of animals mating, from hedgehogs humping to dolphins doing it, to an unholy union between a dog and a duck that might even raise David Attenborough’s eyebrows.