I love the Capital One Canada commercials. Too bad I can’t find a video.
There’s a picture here, and I’m sure you can figure out the general idea. A song that repeats “hands in my pocket” plays in the background.
I like the one from Staples (office supply store) that they show every year around back-to-school time. The father is prancing happily through the store while “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” plays and his kids are standing by looking sour.
I love the updated Staples commercial with Alice Cooper.
I wear sweaters like that, and whenever I do, my mom asks me if my salad told me to wear it. (For the record, I hate salads).
I also love the Honda Element talking to the crab.
Car: “Do you hang out at the beach a lot?”
Crab: “Yes. I pinch.”
Car: “I carry their surfboards and they change inside of me.”
Crab: “I pinch.”
The crab is kind of a one trick pony, but I love him anyway.
AT&T.
OK, maybe these fall flat if one doesn’t know or care about NASCAR, but the long-running series of ads by UPS, focusing on the indignities Dale Jarrett is subjected to while trying to make “the truck” into a racing vehicle, crack me up every time I see them. I think it’s partly because Jarrett almost always does a fairly great acting job (er, playing himself, of course). His facial expressions alone are priceless.
Jarrett, riding with UPS Flack on golf cart: “But the top speed of the truck is only 75 miles per hour. How am I gonna race that?”
Flack: “Well, as you know, Dale, UPS has one of the worlds’ largest aircraft fleets. We had a couple of spare engines laying around, and…”
(UPS truck with jet engines mounted on either side goes flying past them at about 3 million mph)
Flack: “Any other concerns, Dale?”
Jarrett: “No, I’m good.”
Jarrett has just pulled into the pits and is arguing with his crew chief.
Chief: “We need to adjust the track bar.”
Jarrett: “Does this thing even have a track bar?”
Guy comes running up out of nowhere, thrusts a package into Jarrett’s hands, and says “We’ve gotta get this to Cleveland by tomorrow morning!”
Jarrett looks at the guy like he’s crazy, then at his crew chief, who says: “C’mon, Dale, they’re a really good sponsor.” With a disgusted look, Dale drives off…
This was several years ago, but one of my all-time favorites was from AIWA: Another One Bites The Dust
My all-time favorite car commercial was for, I believe Volkswagon. They showed the automibile in profile in front of a store, and eventually you see a shopping cart rolling toward the car. The car’s owner runs in from off-camera, and slams full-speed into the cart to keep his car from being scratched.
It’s all in the stuntman’s performance. He completely sells the manic devotion that would compel someone to risk injury to save his car from being scratched. There’s no sign of hesitation when he hits that cart.
Yep, the elephant dancing to “Singing in the Rain” in the GE commercial. I actually stop the DVR when I’m forwarding through commercials and back up to watch that one.
“I peench” snork
Which is rather interesting, seeing as GE has added quick “biographies” of the characters to the ad which can only be seen by pausing the ad on a DVR or VCR.
Those guys are great.
Guy 1: Do you even know what an analogy is?
Guy 2: Yeah. It’s before digital.
I’ve never seen “I peench”…I’ll have to slow my tivo down and look for it. And in the interest of continued employment, I have to clarify that the multiplying rabbits commercial is actually for Visa, not AmEx. I don’t much care for it, myself.
I’ve never seen it on TV – just on one of those “World’s Best Commercials” specials, but the Trunk Monkey spot is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.
Faves I *have * seen:
FedEx cavemen. Kicking the little dinosaur cracks me up every time.
All Target ads are generally good.
All T-Mobile ads are generally good (and having Catherine Zeta-Jones doesn’t hurt any). I particularly like the one with cops investigating the home where the homeowner opened his bill and keeled over. “Texting…wouldn’t be surprised if the boy was texting, too…”
24-Hour Fitness with the cheerleaders. I can see where they could get annoying after a while, but I like 'em so far.
See, I’m not a fan of that one, because he fucking LIES to his daugher.
Daughter: I thought you said school’s out forever?
Alice Cooper: No, I said school’s out for the summer.
LIAR! You did so say school was out forever! You want me to google the lyrics right now, Mr. IsEitherToDruggedOutToRememberHisOwnSongOrIsLyingToHisOwnDaughterRightToHerFace?
I really don’t get the Geico commercials with the cockney gekko, but I love him. “It’s pie…and chips…for free!” Pie and chips? Woo-hoo, I’m there!
“We love tha suuuuuubs!” My wife hates the Spongmonkeys. She refuses to eat a Quiznos in revenge for those commercials. I torture her by occasionally downloading that spot (or the original “We like thah moooooon!”), sneaking up behind her while she’s working at her desk, and hitting “Play” on my laptop with the volume maxed out. Her reaction is so entertaining!
I am in carnal love with Sabine Ehrenfeld, so the Overstock.com spots are always welcome. I just turn the volume off during the Christmas one.
Oh good lord yes. I wince every time I see that one. It doesn’t make me want to buy the car at all, but me and my friend (a former stuntman himself) lift our glasses and say, “Give that man a raise!”
There was a good commercial on last night during American Idol. It’s for some cell phone service, and it shows two creepy little girls standing in a hallway holding hands (as in The Shining) singing “We want a cell phone.” It also shows some other freaky looking girl who looks like Linda Blair in The Exorcist (she says something like, “I promise to only call family.”) as well as other horror-movie type children. The voice-over: Are you afraid to get your children a cell phone?
Wow. No one had mentioned the Trunk Monkey Commercials.
And I also like the BMW short films. Unfortunately, BMW has taken them down. I have a collection of my favorites that I downloaded, including “Beat the Devil”, which was the best of the bunch.
I hate to admit this, but I like…
I know, I know. This commercial crosses a definite line. But how can I not laugh at “Squirrel, please”? How can I not?
Only in posts #72 and #92. But they’re worth mentioning again.