Holy crap!
While watching Adult Swim I saw a couple of commercials called “A day in the life of an extra life” or something.
It focused on the two pac-man extra lives talking. One was them singing “Time is on My Side” and the other had them talking about the first one winning an eBay auction for a guitar!
“But…why would you want a guitar? You have no arms.”
“Dude, you’re missing the point…I won.”
The greatest commercial of all time is Corona’s “Feliz Navidad.” Hands down.
I really liked that 60-second Nike commercial they played during the 2000 olympics with people playing various sports where every shot started with somebody in the same that the person in the previous shot ended with. It was very well done, and it had a good soundtrack.
I actually sat through one of those “Greatest Commercials of All Time” TV specials once, and I think they claimed that the greatest commercial of all time was a “1984”-themed one by Apple – “so that 1984 won’t be like 1984.” Eh.
The one the OP mentioned reminded me of the spots they used to run on Nick at Nite making fun of some of the old TV shows. Some of them were very clever.
One funny one I remember was, I think Swedish. You saw two guys sitting next to each other in a steam room, obviously naked, though you only saw them from the chest up. The one guy keeps peeking at the lap of the other guy, till he’s practically staring. The other guy catches him looking, and smiles politely. The first guy is embarassed, but asks something like “May I take a closer look?” “Be my guest,” says the other guy happily, and the first guy reaches over and picks up…a newspaper that had been sitting in the other guy’s lap. 
Much as I dislike ads in general I have to admit that the Carlton beer parody ads are pretty good. They generally make fun of the artsy fartsy alcohol ads where there’s sophisticated people doing sophisticated things while enjoying beverage x. The tagline is “Made From Beer.” 
The “I just saved a lot of money on my car insurance” ones are usually good (what company is that? Geico?). They have one with late-night infomercial guy Tony Little that totally fooled me – that one made me laugh.
IKEA ads are always awesome. I also liked the Carlton Draught Big Ad. The only downside is that I can’t listen to O Fortuna anymore without hearing “It’s a big ad… it’s a big ad.”
Yeah, I love that Geico ad, the SpeedRacer one, and the one for “Tiny House”… I do love them Geico ads! Hell, I don’t even own a car!
I like the arty, pretentious ones; I liked the Guinness ‘He waits - that’s what he does’ one - with the surfers and the white horses. I also liked the one where two people were running through walls, then up trees and into the sky (what was that one for, and what was the music?)
may favorite Geico’s are the SpeedRacer one and the salmon/bear nature show one.
Any commercial that makes me smile, giggle, or laugh out loud becomes my current favorite - unfortunately I usually forget the product being sold
Many commercials make me switch channels, sometimes the ones with obviously low budgets, but mostly the ones that are obnoxious or didactict
This is truly ancient, but plenty of Dopers have mentioned it.
The “Jeno’s Pizza Roll” ad written by Stan Freberg, back around 1970. It was a parody of the “Show us your Lark Pack!” ads that Lark cigarettes used to run. The premise of that ad was that a truck with a camera and a banner “Show us your Lark Pack” drove around town. People (undoubtedly planted actors in staged shots) pulled out their maroon-colored packs of Lark Cigarettes and showed them, name unobscured, to the camera. Over this played “The William Tell Overture.” The Freberg Pizza Roll ad poked fun at the entire concept. A food cart being rolled around a social gathering has a “Show us your Jeno’s Pizza Roll!” banner on it. People stop talking to reach into their jacket pockets and purses to pull out packets of frozxen pizza rolls to show to the camera, all to “The William Tell Overture.” At the end, a man in a suit, holding a prominent maroon cigarettte pack, goes up to the guy wheeling the cart and says threateningly “We want to talk to you about your commercial!”
A hand falls on his shoulder, causing him to turn around.
“I wanted to talk to you about the same thing!” It’s the Lone Ranger and Tonto! And it really was Clayton oore and Jat Silverheels, the original Lon Ranger and Tonto!
“Pizza Roll, Kemosabe?” asks Tonto.
…
Another, slightly more recent one (and I’ve mentioned it many times before) is the original Joe Isuzu ad, with the Compulsive Liar. Every time he says something there’s a disclaimer at the bottom of the screen, contradicting him. He gets to praise the Isuzu to the skies, and the caption brings it down to earth (which is a pretty clever concept). But the last two claims are just wonderful:
Joe: …and you can buy one with your pocket change!
Disclaimer: (Provided you have $9,799 in Quarters and Nickels.)
Joe…And it’ll run forever on a single tan of gas.
Disclaimer: (Your Mileage May Vary.)
Another one I love may never have acually run. It was a student-film ad that I saw at a screening of outtajkes and the like.
It starts with a hooded figure lighting black candles and chanting. The camera puuls back to show more hooded figures, chanting around a table with candles on it. The drawn together in a tight circle, surrounding something we can’t see.
There’s a shot of an upraised hand holding an ornate dagger. It strijkes downwards. Again and again.
The figures are picking up something red and white and dripping red liquid. They messily cram this into their mouths, smearing it on their chins and cheeks. they chew ravenously, like the zombies in “Night of the Living Dead”.
The camera slowly tilts up and over the group to look down at the table where we see…
…a partially-eaten pizza.
Up comes the snappy jungle: “Why not visit the Snack Bar?”
…
I no longer have a TV and largely cherish my freedom from commercials. However, a few are burned in my memory:
The steak sauce commercial with the cow singing “Can you imagine … how much I love you … moo moo moo moo … you know the only one for me (yah!) could ever be you! My arms won’t leave you and my heart won’t tryyyyyy!” This is my favourite commercial of all time and to this day I can’t hear that song without laughing. Hell, I’m a vegetarian now and if I saw this commercial today I would run out and buy the steak sauce, and maybe even a steak to go with it.
The back-to-school ad with the dad dancing through the store, singing “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” tossing pencils and binders and calculators into his shopping cart, followed around by his two hilariously-dejected-looking children
Most Leons ads. This is an (I think) Canadian furniture store with fantastic ads every time. Like the “No Money Miracle” event: a guy who sits down in a new chair - “I can sit! I CAN SIT!!” I can’t remember the others but I always got a laugh out of them.
I came here to say exactly this.
But the official website has a bigger version.
THAT IS AWESOME!
I liked that Superfriends ‘Wazzup’ parody. Was that an actual commercial on Cartoon Network, or just something they whipped up for viral web marketing?
Man I wish we had ads like that here! That’s just too good for words.
Vlad/Igor
You beat me to it. This has never been topped.
There may be pop ups in these links (leastwise I’m getting the blocked pop up messages).
The old Zazoo condom ad. Priceless link
The Hahn Light (beer) commercials. The ones I originally came on to post. Linkety 1.
Linkety 2
Might not be safe for work due to content. No swearing or nudity. Just poor taste but hilarious. www.kontraband.com/show/show.asp?ID=1911&NEXTID=0&PREVID=1052&DISPLAYORDER=20050223223816&CAT=tvads&NSFW=1&page=3&genre=0&rating=nsfw_sfw
Crap, just realized, the Hahn commercials feature scantily clad women which may not be work safe for some. Can a mod PLEASE break those links/fix it?
Thanks