Advertising is more than simply advertising your product/service these days, the art of persuasion has come a long way since the first paid advertisement way back in 1936.

Jef I. Richard once said, "Creative without strategy is called 'art'. Creative with strategy is called 'advertising'." Creativity has taken the front seat in the world of advertising, be it a television ad or a print ad, a billboard ad or my favorite form of advertising: guerrilla marketing.

Call me crazy, but I am one of those people who makes an effort to check out all the latest ads. Only because, I've realized that you can learn a lot about being creative through these ads and I love the way some companies use 'sense of humor' as their selling point. You will be surprised how some advertisements manage to inspire you as well. So let's have a look at some award winning ads of 2011:

Over the past few days, I've had a lot of fun compiling those end-of-the-year articles, where we've covered, lists of all lists in 2011, most popular e-scientists' finds, most innovative products of 2011, and top trends revealed by Facebook, Twitter & Google.

But I must say that it took me the longest creating this particular list, not because it was difficult or time consuming. Only because these amazing artists and their art has the power to consume you. I got so engrossed in browsing through their art and their interviews that I almost forgot about this post.

Through E-junkie.info, we've had the opportunity to interact with some truly talented artists and a chance to learn so many different forms of art. Their originality leaves you spellbound. So, have a look at some of the best artists and art featured on E-junkie.info in 2011:

Every year, Mashable finds the best of social media, technology, business and entertainment by nominating the most promising companies, campaigns, ideas and personalities. After two months of voting by Mashable community, they have finally unveiled the winners of Mashable Awards 2011.

When they announced Facebook to be the winner of 'Best Social Network', it obviously didn't come as a surprise, but when they declared John Cena as a must-follow 'athlete', it not only surprised me but also annoyed me a little bit.

Nevertheless, I was quite happy to see that Harry Potter & Deathly Hallows was awarded as the 'Best Social Movie Campaign', specially because it was also our top contender for excellent examples of how Hollywood movies leverage social media'. Also, it was interesting to see Super Junior winning quite a few awards, they have been all over the place...be it YouTube, Must-Follow Band or Best Mobile Game.

Let's have a brief look at all the winners below: