We’ve just ticked over into August – well done everyone, almost time for shops to start with the Christmas decorations.

Advertising in 2017 is risky business, and we have covered our fair share of ad fails this year (Kendall Jenner, anyone?), so let’s head in a different direction and see which campaigns can hold their heads up high.

Adweek have complied their favourite ads of the year thus far, including some great print efforts, but we’ll focus on video and TV below.

To start, let’s get you right in the feels…

84 Lumber, “The Journey” – Agency: Brunner

The best ad of this year’s Super Bowl, “The Journey” was a beautiful and provocative take on immigration, with 84 Lumber workers building a door in Trump’s border wall to let in an immigrant family from Mexico. A home run on the biggest stage from a smaller agency and an all-but-unknown marketer.

Apple, “Earth (Shot on iPhone)”

Apple used narration from the late Carl Sagan, reading from his 1994 book Pale Blue Dot, to deliver this beautiful protest ad shortly after President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord. It serves as a poetic warning of everything we have to lose, with no viable Plan B.

Coca-Cola, “Pool Boy” – Agency: Santo

This is the ad that Coke should have run on the Super Bowl—a stylish, saturated story of a visiting pool boy and a brother and sister who both lust after him, only to be upstaged by another family member. Great work from Santo, which also made the brilliant “Parents” ad for the brand a few years back.

Hornbach, “Regret Nothing” – Agency: Heimat Berlin

Heimat makes delightfully offbeat ads for Hornbach, the German home improvement store, and this weird and wild ad, violently celebrating the gift of failure, was one of its most remarkable and fun pieces yet.

PlayStation, “Gravity Cat” – Agency: Hakuhodo

One of the year’s craziest ads was also one of the most entertaining, as PlayStation quite literally turned two sisters’ apartment upside down in this wild spot for the video game Gravity Daze 2. Amazing work by the actresses, who not only had to deal with an animal but a fully rotating set as well.

Sheesh, that last one gets mighty trippy towards the end.

You can see Adweek’s full list of standouts HERE.

[source:adweek]