In order to answer the questions: "Does creative advertising sell? Does 'effective' mean 'creative' ?" This paper has reviewed some advertising cases. Based on them, it is hard to say that all creative ads are effective or vice versa. The success of ads doesn't seem to be directly influenced by creativity itself, even though, statistically, creative/award-winning advertising is about two-and-a-half times more likely to sell than uncreative advertising. Even if creative advertising or award-winning advertising may sell more than uncreative, and non-award-winning advertising, it is more valuable to note that creative advertising doesn't always sell. Creative commercials - the ads that are well liked by the ad industry and ordinary people, hailed in the press, and recalled most frequently in surveys of television viewers - don't always work. They may provoke smiles and laughter or warm memories of wonderful moments, but they frequently do not increase sales. In contrast, unpopular commercials like the Energizer ad sometimes work well. Why?

As memtioned above, we should not evaluate the creativity of the ads according to the universal definition of creativity. Applying it to the advertising business, we might get the above results. Therefore, it's time to redefine creativity to reflect new ways of reaching customers and building brands.
Creativity has to include not only brand communication, but brand experiences which are collected over a period of time, as well. It should embrace not only compelling words and visuals, but also consumer-catching ideas that add value to the brand and generate action around it. Creativity needs to do more than please our sensibilities and win awards - it must reinforce the brand's image and materially augment the movement of the brand through its distribution channels and increase the information in the consumer's hands. Furthermore, creativity should result from team work not just from individuals; this factor makes advertising business different from the others.

Based on this new definition, the creative advertising that doesn't sell is not creative advertising any more, regardless of its performance. Creative advertising must sell the products or brands; this should be the one condition of evaluating creativity in advertising. No doubt great creativity has the power to evoke purchases. The most profitable outfits and the most creative ones are one and the same. And if there is 'Creativity,' one-time exposure is enough to appeal to and convince customers, just like "Apple 1984."