Over the years, we have been seeing many brands attack each other through advertorial campaigns or social media campaigns; this way of advertising is called “Competitive advertising” This is one of the effective ways of advertising as it grabs huge attention and it keeps the customers and viewers excited and always anticipating the next advert.
Some of the brands are known to attack each other and have launched many creative campaigns, some are in Egypt and others are global but went very viral across the world.
So, today we will be showing you some brands that attacked each other through adverts and we call it the “War of Campaigns”.
Global Brands:
CocaCola Vs Pepsi
Coca-Cola and Pepsi are known for their adverts and how they always attacked each other over the years.
People have been always comparing Pepsi and Coca-Cola and the most common question among everyone, is “Are you a Pepsi person or a Coca-Cola person?” This is one of the factors that elaborate on why these two brands have always been competing.
The two brands were established in the late 1800 and this was started when Pepsi shot over Coca-Cola and created “Pepsi Challenge” in 1975 where it offered a free taste to the public and whoever liked it was given more soda.
Here’s a glimpse of the war between these two brands.
Coca-Cola and Pepsi have been rivals for a really long time. There are many adverts and even social media campaigns where they attack each other and to be frank, they were all creative.

Mercedes Vs BMW
These two brands are known to always compete in advertising.
Whenever you emotion competitive advertising, someone will always point out these two brands as they are extremely famous for mocking each other in their adverts.
Throwback ➤ Mercedes-Benz Give A Brilliant Happy 100th Birthday Gift To BMW
In 2016, Mercedes-Benz released an advert congratulating BMW for completing 100 years and stating that the first 30 it spent before BMW come to life was boring –hinting at how they always teased each other-.
Mercedes also wished BMW a happy birthday by inviting its employees to visit its Mercedes-Benz museum.
BMW Vs Audi
Just like Mercedes and BMW, BMW and Audi have been going at each other through adverts and both have been doing this for years.
One of the most viral campaigns was when Audi shaded BMW on a billboard saying “Your move, BMW” and then BMW replied with “Checkmate” on a billboard right next to Audi’s. The campaign didn’t end here, in fact, the two brands kept replying to each other using billboards and the chess theme.
Microsoft Vs Apple and Samsung
In a brilliant advert, Microsoft mocked Samsung and Apple’s phones.
There’s always an ongoing argument between people about which brand is better and Apple is always in this argument. To represent this type of argument perfectly, Microsoft presented in its advert how a group of people fight to prove their phone brand is better by stating its features.
At the end of the advert, you see two people presenting Nokia and that if these people knew about it they’d stop fighting.
Samsung Vs Apple
“A taste of your own medicine” This sentence can sum up what happened between the two brands.
Samsung stated in the below picture is that it is superior to Apple and then Apple used the exact same artwork to reply to Samsung. So, Apple gave Samsung a taste of its own medicine.
Oreo Vs KitKat
The two brands fighting for their customer’s affection through social media.
In 2013, a Twitter user named Laura tweeted that people can tell she likes chocolate too much because she’s following KitKat and Oreo.
Later, KitKat replied to her tweet by inviting Oreo to play a tic-tac-toe game to win her over. KitKat put its product into the game in a very smart way by being the X and Oreo being the O.
The fight for @Laura_ellenxx's affections is on. @oreo your move #haveabreak http://t.co/EN8YAfnNMZ
— KITKAT (@KITKAT) March 13, 2013
Although Oreo didn’t play along, it replied with a creative, funny tweet. The brand replied by complementing KitKat by eating half of it and saying it couldn’t resist using the hashtag #GiveOreoABreak.
Sorry, @kitkat we couldn't resist … #GiveOreoABreak pic.twitter.com/iMXjChetOa
— OREO Cookie (@Oreo) March 13, 2013
Read More ➤ Oreo Vs. KitKat: How to play the digital marketing game with your competitor?
McDonald’s Vs Burger King
This was actually one of the best campaigns and Burger King played it brilliantly.
On a global scale, Burger King and McDonald’s have been rivals and battle through campaigns. In the below street advertising stand, Burger King threw shade at McDonald’s in a simple yet creative way.
Also, to mention local campaigns, McDonald’s launched a campaign to let people know what celebrities’ favorite orders are so they can try them and Burger King mocked with a social media post telling people that they should order what they like not someone else’s order.
Since we discussed global brands, it’s time to go local.
Local Brands:
ToDo Vs Cadbury
This campaign went viral and many brands joined this battle.
Cadbury launched a campaign about its chocolate bars being found by aliens and that they arrived on earth. The campaign’s idea is to spread joy and happiness.
The brand’s campaign was originally launched in 2016 as a part of a global campaign, which was set to release in Canada, South Africa, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Pakistan, and some countries in South East Asia.
2 years later, it was launched in Egypt and it had a huge response on social media. Some people were not fond of the aliens and some thought they were creepy, while others liked it.
Read More ➤ Aliens Campaign: Cadbury escapes planet earth and Egyptians aren’t happy
These responses included ToDo’s; ToDo responded to Cadbury’s campaign in a hilarious way and this was when social media turned upside down!
Cadbury then replied:
And later many other chocolate brands interfered.
Interesting Read ➤ Cadbury vs TODO social media war: Localized engagement strategy wins
The Genie Battle: Etisalat Vs Vodafone and Orange
The three telecom brands have all collaborated with the genie to throw shades at each other.
Etisalat also has launched multiple campaigns that attacked Vodafone and Orange. After Vodafone presented to us the genie, Etisalat stole him and collaborated with him in an advert to shade Vodafone
Orange also had its fair share of attacking back the two telecom companies. Orange decides to attack Vodafone and Etisalat before in an advert and called them the green ghost (El Shabah El Akhdar) and the red giant (El Mared El Ahmar)
Know More ➤ One Tiny Mistake…One Red Giant Comeback
Vodafone replied to Orange right after this advert because the brand made a rookie mistake by not legally obligating the actor in the advert not to star in any other campaign for any other telecom company for at least 3 years.
Persil Vs Ariel
We all grew up watching these two brands attacking each other.
These two brands are always trying to prove it cleans better than the other but over the years we have seen only these two brands compete even though there multiple similar brands.
Fairy Vs Pril
Just like Persil and Ariel, these two brands always try to prove it’s better than the other.
We also grew up watching adverts for these two brands and we could easily get that they are targeting each other.
This is one of the effective ways of advertisement as it attracts a lot of viewers and increases engagement.
Which of these campaigns did you love the most?