MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Once in a while, there’ll be an ad that goes viral by pulling out all the stops. This week, it’s the mind-boggling WhatsApp 3D billboard ad that graced Piccadilly Lights in London, halting traffic, bringing passersby to a standstill, and delivering an important message in an unforgettable way.
The ad showed a series of stunning 3D visualization highlighting the messaging app’s privacy features.
To demonstrate its end-to-end encryption, promising “personal messages no one can see or hear,” the billboard mimicked a realistic facade of the building, showing different people through windows before they closed and the curtains shut. The building then vanished into dust as the ad talks about the Meta-owned app’s Disappearing Messages feature.
To feature the secure safekeeping that WhatsApp offers with its end-to-end encrypted backups, the billboard turned into a giant vault, complete with a door that seemingly swings outward through the screen before closing and being sealed shut.
This show-stopping digital billboard is part of the final round of the app’s campaign showcasing these features. Aside from this viral outdoor ad, the week-long campaign included taking over the live streaming platform Twitch and online game Roblox in a series of activations.
