Agency: Bader Rutter & Associates

Name of ad: “PowerFlex Battleship”

Launch date: January 2010

Creative credits: Associate creative director/art director: Jeff Martinovici; creative director/copywriter: Brendan Kennedy

Why we liked it: As a rule, we don’t cotton to borrowed-interest visuals. In this ad for Dow AgroSciences PowerFlex, however, the battleship cruising through a field of winter wheat works for us. It works in part, because, the winter wheat aspect of the visual isn’t borrowed interest; it speaks to the target market: winter wheat growers. We like the battleship, because, well, we like battleships. Sue us. It’s an arresting image, and in this case it’s an appropriate metaphor for PowerFlex, an herbicide. The body copy is fairly bellicose, too: “Growers trust PowerFlex to control tough, yield-robbing weeds like downy brome and cheat—not to mention more than 40 other problem grasses and broadleaves.” It sounds pretty convincing to us. In fact, if we ever decide to grow some winter wheat in our garden by the garage, PowerFlex has just moved to the top of our herbicide list.