Images: Courtesy of the One Club for Art and Copy

Clairol’s “Does she…or doesn’t she?” ads were created in the staid 1950s by Shirley Polykoff, one of the first women to reach the pinnacle of the male-dominated world of Madison Avenue. Before Polykoff made dying your ’do acceptable, “people thought it was only done by movie stars and women of ill repute,” says Warlick. “The ads were considered quite provocative—Life magazine [initially] thought they were too scandalous to run.” Adding a youngster to play the model’s son gave the campaign a wholesome sheen—and suggested ladies could mimic their children’s youthful highlights.

Images: Courtesy of the One Club for Art and Copy

Rather than utilizing celebrity endorsements—as Bozell Worldwide did with its “milk mustache” print ads—Goodby Silverstein’s 1993 “Got milk?” campaign explored the downside of being caught without cow juice. Commissioned by the California Milk Processor Board, the ads “really reverberated in American slang, and inspired hundreds of spin-offs,” says Warlick. “You probably couldn’t name five celebrities in the mustache campaign, but everybody knows ‘Got milk?’ ”

Images: Courtesy of the One Club for Art and Copy

This 1984 Wendy’s commercial featuring three old biddies inspecting an oversize hamburger roll was titled “Fluffy Bun.” But more people know it by its punchy tag line, delivered by octogenarian Clara Peller. “She was such a striking character that ‘Where’s the beef?’ became part of the American lexicon,” says Warlick. Created by copywriter Cliff Freeman, the slogan was adopted by presidential hopeful Walter Mondale, who used it to deride his rival, Senator Gary Hart, in a televised debate before the 1984 Democratic presidential primaries.

Images: Courtesy of the One Club for Art and Copy

“It was a magical line that came into being before people were thinking so much about personal fitness,” Warlick notes of Nike’s now-ubiquitous catchphrase, which first appeared in 1988. “ ‘Just do it’ is a strong message that resonates with the pro athlete who’s going to push himself beyond the limit—but also with the couch potato, for whom it meant maybe just taking a walk around the block. It was also the first ad campaign to really market athletic wear to women.”