Genre-Bending Music in Advertising: D&AD Sound Design & Use of Music 2025
What does a 1940s jazz ballad have in common with alcohol awareness? Or traditional Música Mexicana with the launch of a smartphone? In the world of advertising, the most powerful messages are often born from the most unlikely pairings.
Today's boldest brands are bending and blending musical genres to create something entirely new and unforgettable, transforming the familiar into something profoundly moving.
At its heart, this practice is a form of powerful pattern interruption. Our brains are conditioned to expect certain sounds in certain contexts, and when a brand deliberately breaks that pattern, we are jolted into paying attention. But it goes deeper than simply grabbing focus. Music is an emotional shortcut, a direct line to our memories and feelings.
By using an unexpected track, or one that evokes a certain emotion, a brand can borrow the existing emotional equity of that song or genre and fuse it with their own message, creating a potent and memorable moment. A haunting melody doesn't just sound sad; it can carry decades of cultural association that a brand can tap into with a single, brave choice.
Beyond pure emotion, these choices are potent cultural statements. Selecting a niche artist or a historically significant genre is a way for a brand to signal its identity, to say: We understand culture, we have taste.
It is precisely this blend of artistic bravery and strategic insight that the world's most prestigious creative awards seek to celebrate. The D&AD judges in 2025 specifically highlighted the need for work to demonstrate "tangible business results," and the following winners prove that sonic alchemy is not just creatively interesting—it is commercially effective.
They are a masterclass in how a surprising sound can deliver real-world impact, proving that the right track, especially when it’s the seemingly wrong track, can be the most powerful voice a brand has.
To look at some specific examples, the D&AD awards are widely considered to be the most prestigious advertising awards, recognising and celebrating creative excellence in 2025. There were over 30,000 submissions across all categories of the competition, with 668 pencils in total awarded. 15 of these went to the Sound Design & Use of Music category.
This is the category we look at today. It focuses on the importance of sound design in modern brand communications, whether it’s an original composition, existing music applied to a project or a soundscape.
So, let’s dive into the winners of this prestigious award.
1. Never Just a Period
Bodyform’s "Never just a period" campaign uses dramatic orchestral music perfectly timed to the physical and emotional experiences of the menstrual cycle. This symphony of sound conveys the variety and complexity of the experience, often misunderstood and sometimes willfully ignored, with the aim of bringing about greater awareness, validation and advocacy.
2. Shot on iPhone - Suerte!
This short film depicts the experience of navigating the creative process. It's fully filmed on the iPhone 15 Pro and features traditional Musica Mexicana, including an original song by Ivan Cornejo, and mixes this with surreal imagery from Loteria, the Mexican board game of chance.
3. No Smiles
This campaign resulted in real change to the classic “service with a smile” mentality, or more specifically, the “Work with your smile” policy of McDonald's Japan, which was at odds with Gen Z’s desire for authenticity. The campaign featured Ano, a Japanese singer-songwriter, who only offers a softer, genuine smile at the end, after eating a hamburger.
4. Nike Air Jordan x Travis Scott
Nike film Travis Scott’s journey from backstage to onstage with momentous buildup, weaving in moments of quiet and noise, reflection and preparation. The scene ends with a slow-motion capture of Scott leaping into the crowd, his body replicating the form and the camera artistically conveying the hangtime of Michael Jordan’s famous jump.
5. Swing
Gaming platform Papaya demonstrates “the power of play” with their short film featuring two men experiencing the childhood pleasure of riding a swing - but this time, soaring through the streets and high above New York City.
The sheer awe and bliss you see in their eyes and their appreciation of the move as they soar and reach new heights conveys Papaya’s desire to push boundaries in gaming.
6. Someday
Man of the moment Pedro Pascal demonstrates the power of music to retune our emotions as he steps out into the cold and bleak noise of a winter street while dealing with the immediate aftershock of a break-up. Along the way, he finds a new rhythm (yes, he can dance!) and renewed energy for life through music - all channelled through his AirPods 4.
7. The Snowball
FCB Health New York raises awareness of alcohol abuse and its far-reaching ramifications for a sufferer’s family, relationships and job prospects in their ad Snowball. Mirroring the rise in alcohol abuse in winter, the campaign film tracks the losses of one man as he sinks into alcoholism. The film features Billie Holiday’s “Everything I Have Is Yours” - a message transformed into a haunting reminder of what alcohol abuse can take from someone.
8. Har Ghar Mein Star - Lovelina Borgohain
How do you make people resonate with cement? You humanise it.
The campaign Har Ghar Mein Star helped Star Cement convey their understanding of the climate challenges and natural disasters of North-East India, and the endurance of both its people (and its product) in the face of them.
The ad features Olympic medallist and star boxer Lovelina Borgohain and inspiring words of perseverance and power set to an original composition to drive home the message.
9. Magnetic Stories
Magnetic Stories transforms the often frightening experience of MRI scanning, which can produce sounds “louder than a military jet,” into an audiobook that children undergoing the procedure can enjoy.
The books synchronise the MRI sounds with moments in the stories, turning the loudest and scariest sounds into something promising and heroic - a starship act of bravery, dodging enemy laser beams.
10. The Sound of Violence
A Save The Children campaign from ad agency Cheil Hong Kong won a pencil in the Social & Experimental category for its approach to raising awareness of violence against children by replacing sounds from a film with those of real violence.
It raised awareness in terms of what to listen out for, resulting in a 23% lift in reports of suspected violence and a 16% rise in home interventions following calls.
11. This Is Not a Game
"This is not a game" recreates an authentic gaming soundscape, character movements and “choose your adventure” options in an affecting story that raises awareness for how children are contacted and recruited into gangs through mobile video games.
12. Paris Paralympics 2024: Considering What?
This Channel 4 ad for last year’s Paralympics won many pencils but in the music category, for its sound design.
Its soundtrack was designed to vividly demonstrate the physical impact and experience of competing, as Paralympians face all the elements and forces of nature, which don’t discriminate when it comes to the challenge they pose to competitors.
13. Tesla Roadster - The Experience
Heavy hitters Zelig created a masterpiece of speed demonstrated through sound for the promotion of the Tesla Roadster.
The intensity of the composition pushes the limits of what we can perceive in terms of sound diversity and complexity and pushes it one step further to demonstrate the saturating sensory experience of the Tesla.
Get inspired with more from the greatest minds in advertising
View winning work on D&AD website, not just for music and sound design but for all creative categories of this global award.
If you’re working on your own ad or short film, explore Universal Production Music’s award-winning music and discover our world-class tracks. Available as full tracks or stems, why not see where your creativity takes you next?