Author: Joanna Pełech-MikulskaPublished on: 18.09.2026Category: Outdoor Advertising

The holidays are over, but outdoor advertising didn’t take a break in July and August. Quite the opposite: brands competed to win audiences over with original creative. Here is our subjective pick of the best summer outdoor campaigns from around the world.

Apple “Relax, it’s iPhone”

Nothing brings people together like shared tastes and experiences. The same goes for brands. If customers can identify with a company’s values, or even just its sense of humour, the brand wins a loyal customer. That’s why Apple, the maker of the iPhone, decided to show what its phones really look like in everyday use, especially on holiday. No retouching, no staged photo shoots. Just dirt, dust and dog drool. After all, phones have their own adventures every day too.

The campaign was meant to show how durable Apple products are and that they’re worth the investment. It’s also the brand’s first OOH campaign. It ran in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles.

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Uber “Sorry for Your (Team’s) Loss”

The 2026 World Cup was one of the biggest sporting events of the summer. The final days of the tournament brought an unexpected twist when England were knocked out just before the final. Brands show their creativity best when they react to what’s happening in real time, and that’s exactly what Uber did.

A truck shaped like a giant box of tissues, for wiping away tears after the defeat, toured the 9 host cities of the World Cup. It carried the line “Sorry for Your (Team’s) Loss”, a play on the phrase people use to offer condolences after a death.

The stunt was also tied to a promotion on group rides in the Uber app.

A black bus carrying a marketing campaign ad on a city street during the day

Carlsberg and billboard football pitches

Beer brand Carlsberg found a different use for billboards. On English streets, the posters showed a football goal and invited passers-by to use them for a kickabout. And people did: football fans happily took shots at the billboards on the walls of buildings. This way the brand not only tapped into current events but also encouraged the English to get active.

The campaign ran in London and Manchester. It was preceded by research showing that most English people hadn’t played football for at least 6 months before the World Cup began.

Two people playing football on the street in front of a large Carlsberg billboard with a green background

Universal Pictures’ Trojan horse

Film premieres keep getting louder, and the new film “The Odyssey” was no exception. An 11-metre Trojan horse appeared in London’s Trafalgar Square. The location was no accident. The sculpture, emerging from the sand, was placed right in front of the main entrance to The National Gallery, among the installations that normally stand there. The whole piece was designed to look like an archaeological discovery.

Alongside the horse, a gallery of behind-the-scenes photos was set up in the square, so visitors could see what work on Christopher Nolan’s latest film looked like.

A night scene in a public square with a huge red sculpture of a horse rearing on its hind legs, surrounded by smoke and the orange light of torches. A tall column monument and the city after dark are visible in the background.

The Laughing Cow and a cheese-shaped truck

Remember the triangular processed cheese portions with a laughing cow on the label that were so popular in the ’90s? If so, you’ll probably smile to hear that the brand is still doing great. What’s more, it has a good feel for current advertising trends and shows just how well experiential marketing works.

The brand went out to meet people, driving around Minneapolis and offering tastings of its products. Besides the samples, it also prepared recipes using the cheese that called for fewer than 5 ingredients.

The campaign was very well received by consumers. It was also combined with a prize draw where people could win branded merchandise, which is something Americans love most.

A silver The Laughing Cow delivery vehicle with a unique triangular shape resembling a cheese wedge (the 'Wedgemobile'), parked on grass among trees. The vehicle is decorated with the brand's signature smiling red cow logo and the words 'The Laughing Cow'.

The Andy Warhol Museum and the missing art

To encourage tourists and locals to visit, the famous artist’s museum launched a billboard campaign made up of text alone. Running under the name “See It at The Warhol”, the billboards featured only written descriptions of the artworks. Underneath was the line “Words don’t do it justice. See it at The Warhol.”, making it clear that if you want to see the works described, you have to go to the museum.

The minimalist campaign also set out to show that Warhol’s art has become so deeply embedded in pop culture that a few words are enough to conjure up specific works in people’s minds.

7UP serves alcohol-free drinks in a pub!

The popular soft drink brand did something no drinks maker had done before. It turned one of Clapham’s most popular pubs into a pink bar called The Pink Nel, serving an alcohol-free drink made from 7UP lemonade and alcohol-free lager.

The goal was to promote a new 7UP drink. The activation went on tour and also visited several other British cities. Anyone who walked into the bar and chatted with the bartender for a moment could get a mocktail completely free. A secondary aim of the campaign was to encourage Brits to pause, slow down from the daily rush and focus on spending time with others.

The pink "The Pink Nel" pub decorated with 7UP Pink Lemonade ads and a chalkboard offering free 7UP Pink Shandy.

Burger King and the summer tan

Let whoever has never got sunburnt while sunbathing cast the first stone. On OOH and DOOH screens, Burger King ran a “Leave the flame grilling to us” campaign referencing the funniest tan lines people end up with (from baseball caps, necklaces or bikini straps). At the same time, they brought to mind the grill marks that appear on food when it’s grilled.

This way Burger King tapped into the season (summer holidays), used humour and introduced its new grill menu, all at once. The idea for the campaign came from TikTok, where the tanmaxxing trend was everywhere.

A man with red hair and a beard whose face and bald head are badly sunburnt in a pattern resembling a grill grate. Blue sky in the background and the words "LEAVE THE FLAME GRILLING TO US".

Amazon’s outdoor library

An outdoor library appeared in London’s Victoria Park, with shelves full of books and comfy beanbags for reading in the open air. The idea was to encourage Londoners to read together in public spaces and build a community brought together by a love of books. It also promoted writers who aren’t yet known to a wider audience: the library stocked only debut titles that had been self-published. The whole activation was tied to the promotion of an Amazon competition.

Every year Amazon runs a competition for debut authors, encouraging them to self-publish through Kindle Direct Publishing. This is the 10th edition, and past winners have gone on to land contracts with major publishers, which has helped bring their work to a wider readership.

An outdoor Kindle Storyteller event: two women sitting on blue beanbags read books in front of a wooden installation with shelves full of books, surrounded by listeners sitting on the grass.

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Smiling woman in a white bathrobe using a smartphone in a spa area

Group of smiling young people giving high fives on the grass in a park at sunset

McDonald’s stolen flavours

In the centre of Warsaw, beneath the Palace of Culture and Science, a big yellow container appeared bearing the words “wykradzione smaki” (“stolen flavours”). It was surrounded by barriers, making it look like a crime scene. But what crime had McDonald’s, whose logo is on the container, committed?

As part of a menu expansion, the fast-food chain brought to the Polish market flavours that had until now only been available in its restaurants abroad. For the first time, Poles have the chance to try dishes that were previously unavailable in the country.

The campaign stands out because of its great location (central Warsaw), with several McDonald’s restaurants nearby. It’s also an unusual piece of creative by Polish standards, which helped get Polish Instagrammers talking about it.

Summer is coming to an end and autumn is just around the corner. At Be Media we didn’t sit idle over the holidays: we’ve been working on new campaign ideas we can deliver for you. To find out about our offer for OOH and DOOH advertising, as well as campaigns on TvPharma premium or TV Student, get in touch with us. We take campaigns from the creative idea all the way to final rollout.

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