Today is the 30th anniversary of San Francisco’s Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, one of the most brilliant creative ad agencies in the history of the business. To celebrate, GSP decided to compile a “30 for 30” list of the best work it has produced across those three decades. “We reached out to a group of distinguished GSP alumni—creatives, strategists, media planners, producers, account leaders and others—and asked them to vote for their 10 favorite things produced at GSP in our first 30 years,” the agency explains. All those top 10 lists were then crunched into a master list. The top 10 are ranked in order of popularity, followed by an alphabetical list of the 20 runners-up. “Got Milk?” dominates the top 10, placing three spots there, including the No. 1 overall pick—the classic “Aaron Burr” spot (posted below), which got four times as many votes as any other spot or campaign.

1. California Milk Processor Board, “Aaron Burr” (1993)

To say that “Aaron Burr” won our alumni poll by a landside is a bit of an understatement—it got four times as many votes as any other spot or campaign.

And that makes sense: it was the spot that launched a 20-year campaign and a 20-year client relationship, both of which are tremendous sources of pride for the agency.

Director Michael Bay (well before he was known as a big-time movie director) disagreed as to whether or not the spot should clarify who “Aaron Burr” was before the hero tries to say the name. Bay reluctantly got one shot of the paining with Burr’s name—the last shot of the day as the film rolled out, making it potentially unusable. (It was the rollout that created the flashing you see in the spot.)

Producer Cindy Epps remembers looking at Erich Joiner and Chuck McBride and crossing their fingers, hoping it would be enough. It was.

Click through to the 30 for 30 site to see the rest—a great collection of classic work.

Source: ADWEEK