Pears' Soap advertisement with Halley's Comet
The pattern
This still is filed under Campaign line as series.
Define
One line that can be replayed across executions so the campaign is a family, not a one-off.
Mechanism
Repeatable frame. Each ad is a verse. The line is the chorus. Recognition compounds because the structure is stable.
Verdict
We will run more than one execution and need them to add up in memory.
Why it works
This is newsjacking with a reversal built in. The comet supplies free attention, then the copy uses it as a foil rather than a flattery - rarity is the comet's property, ubiquity is the brand's, and the comparison lands the ubiquity claim far harder than asserting it alone would. The illustration repeats the same move silently by making the product's own wrapper into the comet tail, so the borrowed image and the packaging are a single object and the ad cannot be remembered without the pack. The 1789 date converts a ubiquity claim into a durability claim at no extra length. Note the restraint: no price, no coupon, no dealer, because at this stage the money is buying name registration, not response.
Steal this when
Use this when a news event everyone is already looking at has a property your product is the opposite of - borrow the event and make it the contrast rather than the association. Best for a brand established enough to need registration rather than a direct response.