5 creative Valentine’s day ads to inspire your Valentine’s promotions this year

While we’re barely out of the holiday season, and retailers, brands and agencies are already working on their summer campaigns, we can’t ignore the next big spending-holiday, especially not when it’s a holiday where US consumers alone spent almost $26 billion last year.

We’re of course talking about Valentine’s Day.

The season of chocolateers, florists, jewelers and champagne.

Certain brands and retailers can potentially create a healthy foundation for the rest of 2025, but what if your brand or store doesn’t fit the classic notion of what people want on Valentine’s day?

Does that mean you should ignore the holiday completely?

Not necessarily.

We’ve taken a look at some of the most creative Valentine’s Day ads, and none of them are from your obvious “Valentine’s Day brands”, to help you get inspired before you decide against celebrating the day of frantic shopping… uh, love… this year.

1. McLove is in the air

Nothing says extravagance and romance like a helping of stale fries dipped in chocolate sauce and soft serve ice cream, does it?

No?

While McDonald’s isn’t your typical Valentine’s Day brand they’re not a brand to sit out a promotional opportunity, and even though their product doesn’t fit the classic notion of Valentine’s they still found a way to match their product with the season of love (and a way to make a statement while they were at it,

In February of 2020, McDonald’s released the “Lovin’ is Lovin” campaign in Puerto Rico, which was created by the ad agency TWBA. The print medium campaign consisted of three simple assets that fully captured the spirit of the season and made a statement at the same time.

2. Searching for true love

Historically, there has been an obvious tie-in between food, gifts, and luxury items and Valentine’s day, but what if your product isn't in any of those categories? What if you are a software vendor? What if you’re a search engine?

In 2009, a Google Valentine’s day ad titled ‘Parisian Love’ gave us the perfect example of how you can show off a product completely unrelated to this couple's holiday, and still hit the proverbial nail on its head.

The short video tells the story of a person falling in love with a Parisian woman on vacation, trying to make a long distance relationship work, moving to Paris, getting married, and having children, and the entire story is told through Google’s interface.

3. Taking care of singles on Valentine’s Day

If you thought McDonald’s was the only fast food brand to come up with a creative Valentine’s promotion, think again.

In 2017, Deliveroo used the season of love (and their Valentine’s Day ad) to tell the tongue-in-cheek story of Kevin, a single who was going to spend the day alone.

4. This Valentine’s promotion celebrates the season of revenge?

You didn’t read that wrong. 

While wine (especially fine wine) usually falls into the category of Valentine’s day related products, the sheer audacity of this Valentine’s promotion has landed this UK brand on our list.

And why?

In their 2020 Valentine’s Day ad the brand LIAR WINE offered their customers a once in a lifetime opportunity to get back at their ex. The promotion stated that if you bought six bottles of wine for yourself, they would ship one to the boy, girl, man, woman or person whose lies hurt you more than anything.

5. One of the cheesiest Valentine’s Day ads ever

Who said a chain of fast-casual cafés couldn’t be a great option when you want to woo that special someone on Valentine’s Day?

Well, most people would probably say that. But that doesn’t change the fact that American bakery-chain, Panera Bread, went all in on their 2021 Valentine’s promotion. 

In a parody on blockbuster romcoms Panera Bread had Cory and Topanga from Boy Meets World, Danielle Fishel and Ben Savage, reunite on screen in a trailer about two people who fall in love over their shared preference for pepperoni flatbread pizza. 

Even though it is essentially a Valentine’s Day ad for a lower-end bakery chain, the trailer for the film “Forever Flatbreads” manages to hit all of the tropes and includes references to classic scenes from Love Actually, When Harry Met Sally and Jerry Maguire.