Colgate - 80 Years

Old ad. New smile.

This ad is pretty old now. Although not quite as old as it looks.

I should probably take it down. But I’m sentimental. It was the first ad I was properly stoked about making.

I’ve always loved old painted ads. Ghost signs, as the aficionados call them. And it got me thinking they’d be a cool medium to mess with somehow.

It just so happened that Colgate was coming up to its 80th anniversary in Australia, and the agency I was at, George Patterson, had worked with the brand for nearly as long.

So I suggested we mark the occasion by bringing back one of the earliest ads from our archive, repainted as an outdoor mural with a playful wink and a new, improved smile.