DMNews is celebrating 30 years. Here are a few of our contributions to the most iconic and popular direct response campaigns, whose innovations helped shaped today’s.

1. Shell  — The Shell Answer Man (1970s-1979)
Famous campaign which drove people to the informative Shell booklets handed out at Shell stations. Nice example of brands providing relevant content.

2. MCI Friends and Family (1991)
Introduced calling circles to marketing — innovative social marketing in the early 90s.

3. AT&T Sponsorship of American Idol
Mobile text to vote, this was the watershed for US mobile text use.

4. I Want My MTV (1996)
Both built the MTV brand and also worked as direct response, getting people to demand it on their cable system and to watch it.

5. LifeCall “I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up” (1989-1990)
The famous line spoken by “Mrs Fletcher” who was rescued by the medical alert and protection company. Tagline eventually re-licensed to LifeAlert.

6. OxiClean with Billy Mays (1993)

7. America OnLine (1995-7)
Giving away free disks everywhere got AOL aggressively on the map and onto people’s computers. Emulates book and record clubs of sixties and seventies and previews modern software distribution of free trial.

8. Apple iPod
Essentially the world’s best, most infectious product demo.

9. Las Vegas — What Happens Here, Stays Here (2003-)
Following failed attempts at family positioning, LV embraced its Sin City Image. Tourism hit all time highs when this debuted in 2003

10. Burger King “Whopper Freakout” (2006)
Drove a lot of sales by ostensibly taking away a beloved product to draw attention to it. It was integrated across media too plus event.

11. Lifelock
The CEO was so confident about the security from identity theft that he put his social security number in the print ad and TV etc. It was very timely and used classic principles.

12. National Pork Board — The Other White Meat (1987)
Created by Bozell, Jacobs, the campaign drove 20% improvement in consumption for an underdog meat, with bigger spending rivals beef and chicken.

13. American Express Travelers Cheques — Don’t Leave Home Without Them (1974)
Created for American Express Travelers Cheques, by David Ogilvy. Line later expanded to include charge card.

14. Milk Processing Board - Got Milk?
We know this worked.

15. McDonald’s Dollar Meals (at least 10 or 15 yrs ago)
Changed the category dynamics, started a lot of me-too activity and drove in store traffic

16. Mini’s US introduction
Amazing ‘Let’s Motor’ booklets we all kept. Innovative use of out of home and Bluetooth.

17. Thigh master — Great Legs (1998)
Suzanne Somers! Innovator in celebrity-driven products. Then came Cher.

18. Video Professor
We all wanted to call to get that VHS and later that CD.

19. The Body Shop (1980s)
Marketing as education about animal testing. Spurs early word of mouth and affinity. This was a trailblazer.

20. I Love New York
Iconic tourism. People came and bought stuff, especially these t-shirts.

21. Abecrombie & Fitch (1990s)
Every boy and girl wanted to get their hands and eyes on their soft porn clothes catalogue.

What do you think of this list?

Others to add? Other implications in modern direct that these made? Add a comment below.