A classic. If *that *doesn’t bring a tear to one’s eye, one simply has no soul.
I’ve hesitated to post this here, because I’ve posted it to SDMB twice before, but I can’t let a challenge go by. If you want a tear-jerker, here it is.
Don’t know if these are on YouTube, but I saw them on Johnny Carson back in the late '60s or early '70s:
A British commercial that starts out on a train platform … a long, drawn out, very romantic farewell between a middle-aged man and his wife … orchestral music plays as he runs after the train and they wave goodbye to each other until she disappears into the distance … he trudges home alone through a working-class neighborhood … he arrives and settles down into his easy chair for the evening … he flips on the telly … and it turns out you’re watching an advert for frozen TV dinners, which is all the poor guy has to eat with his wife away!
A German (or maybe Dutch or Swedish) commercial that starts with an extreme close up of what looks suspiciously like part of the female anatomy … the camera starts to slowly pull back … and the narrator says in a deep accented voice “This … is a peach!” It turns out you’re watching an advert for toilet paper, with which a hand massages the peach very sensually as they slowly fade out…
The second one brought the house down! I though Carson was going to pass out from laughter!
This Portlandia-esqueone from Geico gets me every time. I could watch it six times in a row and still crack up.
I’m falling in love with this one. First of all, it’s not my mom. And also her son is getting what he deserves for driving around in a snobby BMW.
I’ve said this exact phrase before IRL and I’m really quite surprised that they HAVEN’T made a movie yet.
I think Clash of Clans and the other one (maybe two) knock-offs of the same company are all hilarious and fun.
Don’t Touch that!
I miss the old Weather Channel “The Front” commercials (I miss the old Weather Channel, too, but that’s a different rant).
The Front was a “weather bar”. They had a series of these. I like these two the best:
Oh man! What happened to the future? We used to have space shuttles. We used to have good science programming. We used to vaccinate our children.
How did we go backwards?
My wife and I will sometimes start dancing next to the mini-van and singing, “danger.” It works best if the kids are around to embarrass.
The Salt n Peppa one was funny the first twenty times. Now it just gets that song in my head.
I like the Lilly one where she says she’s into bedazzling, and the little sister’s delivery of “And you admit that?”
Ha. They even have a listing for The Weather Channel, the one channel to rival MTV for the furthest drift from the original concept. I mean, TWC shows “weather themed” movies, fer cryin’ out loud.
I want my network that made “The Front” commercials.
Thanks for the link to the Network Decay article. I would have commented over there, but the thread is two years old. Several networks I used to love, such as Weather Channel, History Channel and Arts & Entertainment, have gone down the toilet.
Back to the topic: I always enjoy the Budweiser Super Bowl commercials with the Clydesdale horses. That’s my “warm and fuzzy” commercial.
I grew up in Minneapolis, went to college in St Paul. Someone has got to remember these “locally produced” commercials from the '70s or early '80s:
Every long weekend, Channel 5 (I think) would do a marathon of old-time cinema, mostly serials from the '30s and '40s (Zorro, Flash Gordon). These were hosted by a thirty-ish guy named Tim, who actually owned the movies (had quite a collection, as I recall). Before station breaks, he’d do a stand-up against a wall in his business suit, reading trivia about when the films were shown in the theayter off of cue cards. Then they’d cut to him doing a commercial for a takeout joint, standing up against the same wall in his blue jeans and sweater hood and reading his lines off cue cards:
“Pizza, the best in town!”
“Buckets of chicken!”
“Mountains of ribs!”
Every cut of the commercial, he’d be stuffing his face with food. Must have put on ten pounds every Memorial Day!
The other one was typically shown around 2:00 am and had a guy named Oscar who owned a carpet warehouse and apparently insisted on doing his own adverts. He was probably fifty-something and looked like Jabba the Hut: bald and morbidly obese. He would always be dressed up for the occasion in something like a cheap Robin Hood costume or a kid’s cowboy hat (on holidays, he might be Santa Claus, Abraham Lincoln, Christopher Columbus, a leprechaun…). After reading his lines off cue cards deadpan, he’d end the commercial by saying “Tell them Oscar sent you!” and then making a dramatic gesture … like shooting a rubber arrow two feet or firing a cap gun into the air.
And that’s entertainment! 
It’s a regional thing, but I love watching the old commercials for Atlantic Transmissions. The boss’s wife with her fabulous Philly accent. This is the best I could find online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpJcGheyFeI
But unfortunately it’s lacking her rendition of their slogan:
So if yer traynzmishin gits outta kimmishin,
Dayn’t git frannic, kawl Itlannic!
She’s just so local it kills me every time.
It’s extraordinarily rare for me to be enamored of a commercial, but the recent Fiat 500 ad (vs the big black 4x4) absolutely cracked me up. Very ballsy concept and execution.
After you watch it -
[ What idiot chases an Italian to the docks!? ]