Best commercials
From SNL:
Schmidt’s Gay, with Adam Sandler and Chris Farley
Budweiser greats:
bud–weis–er
Whatsssss up?
Other greats:
¡Chicks dig the long ball–Big Mac, Glavine, Maddux and hot-as-hell Heather Locklear.
The Seinfeld / Superman American Express ad.
Yoda or Yogurt? A dilemma for the ages.
The anti-littering campaign from the '70’s where the American Indian (Iron Eyes Cody, actually) walks across a litter-strewn meadow to the edge of an interstate, just as some jerk throws a fast-food bag out of his car which lands on the warrior’s feet. The warrior looks around at the trash and pollution, and a single tear rolls down his cheek.
That, my friends, is possibly the best commercial ever.
I still think it’s tied between the Clarica commercial with the androgynous person, and the IBM commercial with the beeper-wearing nun. (Anything with nuns in it is automatically funny, except for Catholic school.)
The finest commercial I’ve ever seen was by Sony. In it, a mature Japanese snow monkey stood on the shore of an Icelandic fjord. The ape was holding a Walkman in its hands while listening to an attached pair of earphones. The soundtrack of the commercial, which obviously echoed what was listened to by the monkey, was an incredibly visceral piece of opera. Listening to this, the eyes of the ape were closed in transcendant rapture as it listened to the sheer beauty of what was being played. After approximately 30 seconds of this, the Sony logo appeared on the screen followed closely by a fadeout of the entire scene. It was genuinely lovely, and I’ve yet to see any other ad which approached this one.
Later, I heard that Sony was running this in various locales with different types of music based on the desired demographic. Even though I’m not an opera fan, I couldn’t see how any other style of music would of worked in this setting, and I’m glad that I saw it with the opera soundtrack.
There are three SNL comemrcials I like, including “HAppy Fun Ball”. The other two are:
i) Stevie Wonder using the Nikkon camera to take completely out-of-focus pictures of a tennis game
ii) the Buddweiser hockey game that ends in a massive stick swinging fight
RUN, do not walk, to adcritic.com and check out the Top 100 List. My own current faves: “Cat Herders” from EDS, remembered by many as one of the only decent SuperBowl ads last year, and two by FX Network: “Sex, Dan” and “National Anthem.”
No matter who you are, you will find a commercial to make you wet your pants laughing at adcritic.com. Going there now to try to find the Sony ad described above.
I’m suprised no one has mentioned any of the This Is Sportscenter commercials.
I like most of the aforementioned, and would like to add the Pampers commercial with all the baby animals with their mommies, and Rod Stewart singing “Forever Young”. It’s precious.
Pugluvr: I just saw that one, too! The expression on the neighbor’s face when the girl says “Try jiggling it.” Too funny!
Two favorites:
SNL: “Oops, I Crapped My Pants.”
Real: Adidas used to have the sweetest Notre Dame commercials. They had one with an old footage clip from the 40s or so, with an Irish player making an incredible run and breaking a ridiculous amount of tackles. Every 2 or 3 seconds, it would say something on the screen like “7 Heisman Trophy Winners”, “12 National Championships”, “172 All-Americans”, with the Fight Song playing in the back.
Once he crossed the finish line it said, “This Isn’t Football.”
“This is Notre Dame Football.”
We started off our section meetings with that commercial. Made everyone cheer for about 5 minutes every time.
I love the Bud light “Real American Heroes” radio commercials.
…Mister Supermarket Deli Meat Slicer…
I agree with Tomas, the snickers one about the candidates. The last two lines are classic, but I still like the “kiss me I’m on tv!” said by the donkey.
There are these new condom brand radio commercials that suggest the virility of someone wearing their condoms. Very funny if you get to hear it.
Boss coffee (a popular canned drink in Japan) has been running a great series of ads for the past year or so. They all focus on people getting themselves in trouble by not watching what they say, or by criticizing people they think can’t hear them.
–Young employee is standing on a train platform next to his boss. A little further down some schoolgirls are fooling with their mobile phones, which are playing the Boss Coffee theme music. Young employee starts in on how only an idiot would have a phone ringer like that. Suddenly the Boss Coffee theme starts playing from inside his boss’ coat. Young employee nervously drinks his coffee as the boss says “we’ll miss you at the office.”
–Company meeting. The boss is babbling some nonsense about turning the company into an e-company. Young employee at the end of the table says “Why are you talking like an idiot?” Everyone turns to look at him in shock, revealing that he was listening to a walkman (a giveaway prize at the time) and was just singing along absently to an old song. Young employee nervously drinks his coffee as the boss stands behind him and says sarcasticly “I’m sorry I act so stupid for you.”
–(My favorite) Man comes home late from work, very tired. Wife asks “Don’t you want to eat dinner?” Husband: “No, I got some on the way home.” Wife: “Aren’t you going to give me a kiss?” Husband: “No, I got some on the way home.” Long silence. Husband drinks his coffee as he tries to think of what to say.
I’m not sure why these ads are good arguments for drinking the coffee, but they were funny as hell.
–subight.
I heard of that commercial. If that won’t raise your awareness and evoke concerns regarding the importance of the ecological balance in the environment, I can’t imagine what will.
BTW, Iron Eyes Cody died last year at the age of 94.
Juan de Cuba said:
Yep, those are good ones. The best by far is the one featuring Big Mac, “Best Buddy” Dan Patrick, #62 home run ball and the Ferrari. That was pure genius.
Yoda or Yogurt? A dilemma for the ages.
How about the ESPN NASCAR/Speed Racer commercials? Those were great. One had NASCAR personalities talking about Speed Racer like he was a real competitor, including one swearing to get revenge on him. The other was a NASCAR committee trying to decide if the Mach 5 was track-legal:
“25000 horsepower? NASA might approve it, but NASCAR won’t.”
“The spinning saw blades’ll have to go.”
“What about the chimp?”
“Oh, there’s a precedent… A driver who took his parrot on every race.”
– Bob (who’s sure he mangled those quotes somewhat)