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Filterbuy’s Air Filter Ad Starts Normal. Then It Gets Gloriously Unhinged
PDA's national push for the brand opens as a tidy home-care ad. By the end there's a moose in the doorway and some amorous bunnies in the bedroom
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The 96th Percentile Is Getting Crowded
Indie Spin: The one with fourteen Adweek entries, a pizza built for one, and a brand memorability score.
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Grocery Store Receipts, a Rain-Soaked Sword Fight, and the Case for Being a Shark
Indie Spin: The one with an 83% valuation jump, a DP who jumped into Lake Arrowhead, and the ballot that…
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A Flying Suitcase, a Beer Named After an Album, and the Weekend the Ballot Closes
Indie Spin: The one with Wrong Guard, a 42% CPM drop, and a hot air balloon shaped like luggage.
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A Spokestrout, a Cat Named Mittens, and Ten Indies on the Inc. 5000
Indie Spin: The one with a fish who finally got the mic, 589 million hours of Canadian TV, and an…
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AI’s Steamed Carrot Problem, a Ketchup Ambush, and a Bodega Built for Protein
Indie Spin: The one with a fleet of Leading Women, a Times Square hot dog hijack, and 93% of physicians…
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The Night the Indies Cleaned Up (and a Jeep for Anyone Named George Washington)
Indie Spin: The one with a National Hot Dog Day trophy, a curl crush that broke 4.8 million views, and…
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IndieHQ Members Show Up Big Across the 2026 Small Agency Awards
31 IAN members are among Ad Age's 2026 winners — a category-by-category roll call.
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How a Joke About a Giant Juicer Ended Up in MoMA
Indie Spin: The one with permanent collections, Cannes cheat sheets, and a very pink dumpster.
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Fifty Submarine Spots, One Yellow Pencil, and a Camcorder Full of BuzzBallz
Indie Spin: The one with humor pencils, human taxidermy, and Tim and Eric in a basement.
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Horse-Powered Travel Planners and Other Reasons the Indie World Doesn’t Do Boring
Indie Spin: The one with predictive creator math, a Kentucky Fried three-peat, and a zombie game announcement nobody saw coming.
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Everyone Took Credit for the Coinbase QR Code Ad. The Freelancer Who Pitched It Didn’t. Until Now
Yuriy Mikhalevskiy tells the full story — he pitched the concept a year before the Super Bowl and got ghosted…
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No Ad School. Barely Any Experience. Typed the Script at the Airport, and It Ran in the Super Bowl.
Aisha Hakim was a permalancer making dealership banners at INNOCEAN. Her concept beat every senior team in the building and…
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How a Product Stat Hijacked the Super Bowl: The Story Behind It’s a Tide Ad
Maddy Kramer takes us inside the brief nobody cracked for months, a casting call solved by a teenager and what…
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Shortlists, Survival Strategies and the Comedy Business Case
Indie Spin: The one with agency recognition, CMO pressure points, and why laughter is a differentiator
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Data, Disruption, and the Changing Talent Landscape
Indie Spin: The one with pharma breakthroughs, industry transformation insights and Bradley Cooper
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The Toronto Report: A Big Week at Ad Age Small Agency
Ad Age's Small Agency Conference wrapped up in Toronto with IAN members claiming 40% of all awards