Top 25 Cartoon Style Ads for Business!

If you want a memorable video that will stay in your viewers’ minds for a long time and attract tons of customers to your business, then I can’t recommend cartoon style ads enough!

The cartoon art style is not only fun and engaging, but it’s also great for delivering important information to your customer base in an effective and creative way… If you do it right, that is!

But how can you know if you’re on the right track when crafting an animated piece of your own? Well, I’m here to answer that! I’ve compiled and analyzed 25 of the best cartoon ads out there, so you can see for yourself what makes them so effective in the first place.

Now, let’s cut the chit-chat and get started!

What Is a Cartoon Style Ad?

As the name indicates, this style uses cartoon characters to promote a company’s products or services through short commercial videos.

The use of cartoons for advertising has been popular in marketing for several decades now. The first advertisements that appeared in the newspapers used illustrated characters and cartoons to promote their products to the American public with a newly acquired ability to consume.

Unlike its beginnings, though, today’s advertising cartoon style uses colorful, vibrant backgrounds and exaggerated characters to captivate the audience’s attention and leave a positive impression. Cartoon ads are very engaging, using a blend of humor, creativity, and relatability to connect with viewers.

The main benefit of cartoons is that they’re very relatable. Sometimes, it’s easier to relate to an animated character than a real person—especially when, for years, advertisements used actors for their commercials that didn’t necessarily reflect the real American public. A character can express emotions, hopes, and challenges more easily, making it much more appealing to viewers.

This, combined with the fact that, in animation, everything conveys feelings, from the shape and design of the background to the color palette of the film itself, makes cartoons for advertisements a great format for leaving a profound impact on your viewers.

Why You Should Invest in an Advertising Cartoon

Before diving into the examples, I want to give you a rundown of why the cartoon art style can be greatly beneficial for your business:

• Cost-effectiveness. Of course, the final price tag will depend on your budget, but the cost of animated pieces can be more affordable than live-action since you don’t need actors, sets, or expensive camera and lighting setups.

• Customization. The different cartoon styles you can choose from give you a virtually endless list of creative and narrative possibilities. The restrictions imposed by real life disappear when you opt for animation and you can fully tailor your piece to match your audience’s preferences.

• Brand identity. Your brand’s signature colors, fonts, and characters can be added to your cartoon for advertising to create a cohesive look that matches your other assets. Take, for example, the doughnut in our logo. We always include cartoon doughnuts at the end of our company’s animated videos to reinforce our branding.

• Appeal. Let’s be honest here: people of all ages love animation! In fact, we’re seeing more and more TV shows made in the cartoon art style but aimed at adults nowadays, and it’s not difficult to understand why. Animation is highly engaging, fun, and can compel viewers with ease, so it’s the perfect medium for your ads!

25 Best Cartoon Style Ads

Now, without further ado, let’s jump straight into the top 25 animated ads to inspire your next piece!

1. Amazon Coins – Advertising Cartoon by Yum Yum Videos

Remember when I said a cartoon for advertising was a great tool for explaining how a product works? Well, I wasn’t lying!

This Amazon Coins advertising cartoon, developed by us at Yum Yum Videos, helps explain a new feature of the mega-corporation’s online sales strategy. Companies within the SaaS industry often find it challenging to showcase their services to potential customers, as they don’t have a product they can directly display.

Here, we incorporated imagery of the platform’s layout to make it easier for users to get a hang of the service. But to avoid boring them out with static images, we included motion graphics effects and cheerful animation like the coin jumping around the entire screen.

Oh, and did you notice how we switched from a cell phone to a computer? That’s because you can use Amazon Coins on different types of devices. And that’s the magic of cartoons for an advertisement: you can leave subtle traits that display how your service or product works, with no need to state everything verbally.

2. Tortilla Land – Cartoon Style Ad by Yum Yum Videos

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Let me apologize in advance for adding this example we made, because I know the jingle will be stuck in your head for a while!

This ad has everything needed to become a hit: adorable characters, catchy music, and a memorable slogan —five simple ingredients for simply healthier tortillas. People who come across this ad know immediately what makes Tortilla Land’s tortillas better than the rest and where they can find them, in just one minute! Pretty effective, right?

3. Eat today, feed tomorrow – Chobani

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I absolutely adore this beautiful cartoon style ad! It reminds me of the calm and relaxing atmosphere of Ghibli movies (unsurprisingly, the score was made by a Ghibli composer).

This example is so powerful because of this very characteristic: the peaceful vibes it transmits make us feel cozy inside while watching it. It’s no secret that evoking positive emotions in your viewers is an infallible recipe to make a successful ad. But while achieving such an atmosphere would be hard with live-action pieces,  animation makes it possible with no effort!

4. Slack vs Email – Slack

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Representing Slack’s value proposition would be no easy feat without the help of the cartoon art style. That pile of unread emails made me feel overwhelmed, and they’re not even real!

A cartoon ad can make your message more relatable, even when you’re trying to convey emotions or situations that aren’t easily transmitted with just words. Animation is an excellent choice if your business is related to the digital world or a similar “intangible” industry since you can easily show your audience, rather than tell, the benefits of working with your business.

5. Get House Loans – Bankwest

If an advertising cartoon is great for building a bond with the viewers—then why not make the most up of it with a cheerful rhyme? Combining cute 3D cartoon characters with a catchy voiceover, this Bankwest ad helps convey the most important thing about their accessible home loans: the fact that they allow you to finally have a house to call your own. 

When it comes to ads for banking or healthcare companies, inspiring your viewers is key. Here, Bankwest achieves just that, with a short but very relatable animation that displays different people with different lifestyles, but all enjoying their own, unique home.

6.  Rick & Morty + Adidas X Speedportal – Adidas

If you still have about how successful a full original advertising cartoon will be—then why not collaborate with an already existing cartoon?

Here, Adidas makes a hilarious collab with Rick & Morty, which allows them to take advantage of the benefits of this genre, like memorable characters and funny scenes that leave a mark without going to the trouble of planning their video from scratch.

This helps them take advantage of the show’s popularity while avoiding the extensive planning that comes with developing a cartoon animation. Still, they don’t forget to showcase their new shoe’s benefits by adding pro players as support characters in the Rick & Morty animation style.

The lesson is easy to understand: the new adidas X make you to play like a pro.

7. mPOS Solutions – American Express

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Demonstrating everything you can do with Amex’s mPOS would require quite a lot of people and different sets and props if you wanted to create a live-action piece. However, there’s no such hassle when opting for cartoon for advertising!

This video is really effective at delivering the company’s message for two reasons. First, it speaks directly to its target audience, addressing their specific needs. Secondly, it also shows all the cool features the mPOS has, going over them thoroughly but without overwhelming the viewer. 

The cartoon style and its educational value are key here to clearly showcase the different solutions Amex provides.

8. Calm The Chaos – IMODIUM

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I apologize to sensitive folks reading this article, but sometimes we need to get real!

Let’s face it, even the most taboo and uncomfortable topics need to be tackled in advertising. And it can be extremely hard to do so while being tactful and serious, especially when it comes to… bodily functions or other sensitive topics. 

Luckily, appropriately conveying what you need to say becomes ten times easier when you can use cartoon style animation to represent your topic!

9. MedVector – Cartoon Style Ad by Yum Yum Videos

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Sometimes, the nature of your work requires you to share large amounts of complex information with your audience. Well, the good news is that the whiteboard cartoon art style is perfect for such cases!

This particular style gets you hooked right from the start, making the piece come to life right before your eyes and helping viewers follow along the thorough explanation easily. In your case, using an animated whiteboard can help establish your brand as a field authority, since you’ll be sharing your industry knowledge with your audience like an educator teaching something to a student.

10. Superhero – Red Bull

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At this point, who hasn’t seen one of Red Bull’s iconic advertising cartoons? Well, that’s no accident. The company has been consistently making its commercials in the cartoon art style and keeping with a single theme, which has allowed the ads to become truly iconic. Moreover, the well-known slogan Red Bull gives you wings can be clearly represented through animation. I think this is a great example of the power that cartoon style videos can have!

11. Build Your Credit – Self

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This ad’s script is really simple and goes straight to the point, which is why the plain 2D cartoon art style used here complements it perfectly.

This goes to show that there’s no need for a huge video production budget or anything of the sort; using a few animated characters is more than enough to convey your idea! 

If you’re new to the video advertising world, beginning with a similar piece can help you start learning what works and what doesn’t for your brand.

12. Green Initiatives – Acer

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If you’re looking for a way to share your values and missions with your audience, why not do so with a charming cartoon style ad?

In the case of Acer, opting for animation allowed the brand to emphasize its eco-friendly message and reinforce its branding by using green for the majority of the color accents in the video —a really smart move!

13. API for Business – Michelin

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Since software solutions can be quite complex and difficult to understand, making an effective ad for the IT industry can feel like an almost impossible mission if you don’t have the visual support of animation.

When it comes to tackling such abstract concepts and ideas, even the most seasoned professional can get lost trying to digest a lot of information condensed into a short video. That’s why using an advertising cartoon to go along with the voiceover can help convey your message more effectively and ensure viewers clearly understand it!

14. Live Music for Weddings – Silver Arrow Band

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If you want to make an ad that stays in your viewer’s minds long after they’ve finished watching your piece, then you have to include a relatable situation that they can identify with.

The beginning of this cartoon style ad presents the target audience with a scenario they can easily relate to in order to hook the viewer right in. Additionally, Silver Arrow Band also summarizes all the perks of working with them so viewers know from the very beginning if the business is a good fit for their needs.

15. Family Problems – Childline

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As I said before, the cartoon art style is a perfect medium for sensitive topics. This is particularly true when your ad is aimed at children, and you need something they’ll want to engage with.

Representing family problems in a respectful way while also catching the attention of the target audience is a challenge, to say the least. But using an advertising cartoon is the perfect tool to represent scenarios that children in vulnerable situations can identify with, without triggering negative emotions or harmful memories.

16. Adulting Anthem – Heinz

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I don’t think I’ve ever seen myself represented so perfectly in an ad in my whole life, and I’ve never tried Heinz ketchup before!

When your target audience is composed of young people struggling with the menial issues of everyday adult life, you simply can’t not use humor to get to them. The cartoon style allows Heinz to use hyperbole to represent those tiny issues that seem huge when you’re overwhelmed, like the pile of Tupperware without lids, in a hilarious and simply fantastic manner. All while posing the product as the hero that comes to save the day!

17. 2X Cold Brews – Madrinas Coffee

Who says an advertising cartoon needs to be long to work? In this ad, Madrinas Coffee only needs half a minute to make a place for themselves in the competitive business of coffee brews and allow us to learn from them.

Sometimes, the best way to navigate your product’s promotion is by focusing on one single aspect. Madrinas Coffee achieves it by highlighting the extra energy its new coffee blend provides with a funny animation of a kind-hearted gorilla. 

Thanks to the versatility you gain by using cartoon for advertising, they can make their characters experience magical growth and extra strength, displaying their product’s benefits in a unique, exaggerated, and funny way.

18. Pretiis – Cartoon for Advertising by Yum Yum Videos

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This video we made uses some funny animations to address viewers directly and tell them all the benefits of Pretiis’ services.

Humor is a great tool to make your ads stand out from the rest and pique your audience’s interest. We used the cartoon style to make typical issues one comes across when househunting seem like scenes from a scary movie, ghosts included! This resulted in a piece that is as amusing as it is effective, highlighting Pretiis’ value proposition in a unique way.

19. Language Learning is Hard – Duolingo

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This is another great example of a song that’ll stay with you for quite some time 😅. However, the advertising cartoon boasts over 8 million views on YouTube! Evidently, the combination of the cartoon art style and catchy music is undefeated.

The animated characters shown here are all featured frequently during the app’s language lessons. This smart branding move increased the video’s engagement, with some people even making rankings of the characters in the comments! Doing something similar and creating cartoon characters for your brand can make your customers connect with it on a deeper level and increase engagement effortlessly.

20. Security Tech Forum – Samsung

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For the 2023 edition of its Security Tech Forum, Samsung opted for a cartoon for advertising to give viewers all the basic information they need in just half a minute.

While we definitely know this company didn’t go with this option because of money issues, it’s nonetheless a great example of what amazing results you can achieve with cartoon ads, even on a tight budget! Just 30 seconds of a few simple animations are all you need to get an awesome piece that promotes your next webinar, conference, or event.

21. Many, Many Thank You’s – Airbnb

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Last but certainly not least, we have this really sweet cartoon style piece made by Airbnb. In addition to being a great example of animated ads, it also perfectly showcases the power of storytelling.

Telling stories in your advertising cartoon is a foolproof strategy to catch the attention of your viewers and keep them hooked until the very end. Since they’re already an essential part of our lives, compelling stories can easily build a connection with your audience. The viewers can see themselves reflected in at least one of the scenarios featured in this video and know that Airbnb is thankful for all their work!

22. Chinese New Year Magic – Coca-Cola

If we’re talking about animation, Coca-Cola is a total pro. This advertisement for Chinese New Year is here to remind us that a voiceover is not always a necessity. Sure, not everyone has such an iconic product that requires no explanation. But if there’s something to learn about Cocal-Cola’s branding, is that they’re always ready to renew themselves and their brand.

Today, Coca-Cola’s image is about standing in a family and enjoying together, be it a New Year’s celebration or a simple family dinner. And here, they aim to remind their audience that, no matter their happy occasion, a bottle of Coca-Cola is going to be there to add its magic.

Plus, the iconic bottle-opening sound can make anyone thirsty!

23. Andes Origen – Cartoon for Advertising

One of the benefits of an advertising cartoon is that you don’t need to speak the language to understand what’s happening. I mean, that beer looked tasty in Spanish, English, and probably Chinese too.

With a smart use of color and typography, this short video perfectly conveys how it feels to drink a beer after work with friends. The scenery, bustling with conversations, and the surprised looks of the bystanders capture the essence that the brand tries to convey: that a chill night-out goes hand in hand with an Andes.

Moreover, they found a very smart way to display the actual product at the end.

24. FIFA Women’s World Cup – Cartoon for Advertising

You don’t need to be a football fan to love this advertising cartoon—after all, the dynamic transitions and creative characters make it an iconic, highly engaging piece. 

When it comes to promoting sporting events, though, you can’t expect less: your cartoon for advertising needs to reflect the energy on the pitch, and this FIFA Women’s World Cup achieves it to perfection.

25. Why does Starbucks blend coffee? – Advertising Cartoon

Have you ever wished to share your brand’s promise but had trouble conveying it in a way that wouldn’t bore the viewers? Well, then this is the advertising cartoon for you. In this video, Starbucks shares why they blend coffee—and make our lives a little bit easier.

While the reason may not be that impactful, it is the shifting animations that make it impossible to look the other way. With smooth transitions and reliable characters, this attractive video takes viewers on a trip through the brand’s values. While making it impossible to look the other way, the animations make the piece memorable, leaving a lasting impression of the brand on the viewer’s mind!

Frequently Asked Questions About Cartoon for Advertising

As you can see, there are various ways of taking advantage of advertisement cartoons, depending on your brand and needs. This is a very flexible format that can be easily adapted to a company, their product or service, and even the platform where it’s going to be shared. From television to digital media, a cartoon for advertising is able to make itself a place anywhere.

That doesn’t mean, though, that making compelling animated ads doesn’t come with it’s own set of challenges. To create storylines that showcase your products in imaginative ways and attract potential customers, here are some FAQs.

1. Is It a good idea to use cartoon for advertising?

Yes, it is. 

An advertising cartoon can be a great tool to inform potential customers about new products and services, describe their features, and build a connection—all while reinforcing your brand’s image with logos, colors, and unique characters.

When done well, like the Red Bull Campaign or Tortilla Land, you can leave a lasting impression among viewers that goes beyond your industry and puts your company’s name in the mouth of everyone. (Adding a catchy tune always helps with that 😉)

2. How much does it cost to make a cartoon style ad?

The final price of a cartoon for advertising will be defined by various factors—from the overall duration of the video, the animation company hired, and even the style used. A 3.D animation will be much more expensive than a 2.D one, after all.

Duration is important, too, because video cost is measured by time. You can expect an animated cartoon video to range between $8,000 and $15,000 per minute of video. If these numbers are beyond your budget, we recommend discussing your options with a comprehensive animation company.

We have strategies to try and cut costs, like recommending a more accessible animation style for your advertising cartoon.

3. How long does it take to create a cartoon for advertising

As before, the total duration of production depends on the scale of the project we’re talking about. If you want an 60-minute documentary, well, we can’t exploit our animators!

Jokes aside, here at Yum Yum Videos, our usual production cycle requires six weeks. If want you’re looking for is a cartoon for advertising, chances are high your project will fit into that time window. 

Nevertheless, for us, incorporating your feedback throughout the process is very important, so there may be some extra time due to any needed changes.

Wrapping Up

As you’ve seen in the examples above, cartoon style ads aren’t only fun little pieces of animation, but also powerful tools that can make your business stay relevant and stand out from the competition.

Animation’s only limit is your imagination, as virtually anything you can think of can be brought to life through different cartoon styles! On top of that, any kind of video can be animated and still deliver the goals you’re after, from a product demo to an explainer video or even a testimonial.

Now that you’ve gotten some inspiration with this list of the best 25 animated ads out there, it’s time to start thinking about what your next cartoon piece will be like! I’m sure it’ll be awesome 😉.