Someone beat ya to it in post #58
What is the “Goat” company that competes with AFLAC? 
My long time favorites:
A Tekken video game commercial dubbing an old kung-fu movie. The Master going “Yechh…” in disgust cracks me up every time.
“You know what a panda has for lunch? Yeah, they have bamboo.” Too bad the video quality on this one isn’t so good.
The original Energizer bunny commercials where the bunny interrupted other (fake) commercials were very good. The fake ads were good parodies of TV advertising.
Joe Sedelmaier created some of my favorite commercials. He did ads for Federal Express, Wendy’s and Aloha Airlines. He introduced us to Clara Peller (WHERE’S THE BEEF?) and John Moschitta, Jr. (Mr. Spleen, the fast talker in FedEx commercials). His commercials often featured schlubby-looking people barely coping with life’s little problems.
One of my favorites was for FedEx. It showed a dumpy-looking little man with everything going wrong on his way to work: he misses his bus, gets splashed by a car, the elevator is out of order and he has to climb twenty flights of stairs. All the while he is carrying three large briefcases and walks in a deliberate, plodding gait. He finally gets to work where he walks by his secretary, who must be the worst typist in the world - she sits three feet back from her desk with her arms extended at full length and hits about one key a second. As he passes by the man asks, “Did you type the letter I told you to type?” “NO!,” she answers. He finally makes it to his office, where he find a delivery from Federal Express on his desk - the only thing that has gone right all day.
Another favorite was for Alaska Airlines. It started with a man watching a TV commercial for “Sky High Airlines.” The ad-within-an-ad showed the passengers and crew on a Sky High flight whooping it up. Champagne flowed, people were eating caviar and wearing party hats. The jingle proclaimed, “Sky High Airlines! We’ve got our heads in the clouds!” The Sky High commercial ended with the pilot looking back out of the cockpit and giving a big wink and a thumbs up, which the commercial-watcher eagerly returned. Cut to the same man on a Sky High Airlines flight jammed into a tiny seat between two huge men, as a flight attendant offers him a paper plate holding three pretzels. At the end the commercial shows passengers on an Alaska Airlines flight looking happy while receiving normal good service.
BTW, Joe Sedelmaier is the father of J.J. Sedelmaier, the animator for TV Funhouse on Saturday Night Live.
I don’t remember what it was for (Sprite, perhaps?). There is a carton of some fictional orange drink on the breakfast table with a cute little smiling sunny logo on it; the logo comes to cheerful life in the way that so often happens in commercials, but the family’s reaction is not the usual for commercials: they run out of the house screaming in terror.
I always enjoyed that.
Ditto to this- I love, love, love the singing Advantage dogs and cats. There are also some great new commericals for the Atlanta Zoo, reminding folks that they have other cute baby animals in addition to the panda, but I can’t find a link to them (I did, however, just notice they have a few job opportunities at the zoo that I’m qualified for… hmmmmm).
One of the first TV ads I recall for Southwest Airlines was a hoot.
A very tired and worn out businessman is at the airline ticket counter. He says “When the next plane to Phoenix?”
The airline agent replies: “Do you like duck? We offer a wonder repast.”
The business man asks “When is the next plane to Phoenix?”
The agent goes on with how wonderful the flight is
He repeats “When is the next plane to Phoenix?” The kicker here is every time they cut to the business man, he looks even more weary, and worn out.
Finally the agent says
“Next Tuesday”
Re: cute animals… I’m such a sucker for animals in commercials. Remember the ones for…probably some pet food…the dogs waiting for their owners to get home, and getting all excited when they saw them out the window, and running over to the door, etc? Those made me cry every time.
I have no idea what product they were selling, but the father was trying to round up about 4 kids. He was noticeably frazzled, it showed a little girl washing his watch in the toilet and another toddler in the back ground running past the door screaming “AHHHHHH!” The kids were just so random, as kids are it just cracks me up.
Also, the entire series of being a good parent/father/whatever that had neighbors peeking in and seeing adults doing dorky things only to show that they were doing it with their kids.
Why yes, I’m a new mom, why do you ask?
I swear on my life and my love for it I have NOT tried to teach my 1 1/2 year old how to do the Algorithm March (Ok, maybe once, for 20 minutes)
I do love the Walk The Line coke ads.
Yeah-in the typical commercial of this type everybody seems to nonchalantly accept talking teddy bears, dancing cookies, little guys in boats lurking in toilets, etc., when 99.9% of the time a real person’s reaction would be to either flee or fight. I know if a stuffed animal suddenly came to life and started trying to engage me in a discussion of the merits of a certain brand of toilet tissue, I would be seriously doubting my sanity (and/or reaching for my shotgun).
Two come to mind:
A couple of years ago, there was a “Cotton” ad (post-“Fabric of our lives”) that showed several female mannequins wearing different seasonal clothing. The music was a cover of “California Girls” sung by a woman, and it was awesome. I searched all over trying to find out if it was a real cover, but it looks like they only produced a thirty-second spot in a studio somewhere, for that commercial only. I wish I could get the full-length version.
The other was an ad for a car. Crumpled car parts fall in a field to the tune of something by Moby (or by someone who sounds kind of like Moby). Eventually, we cut to a man sketching blueprints of cars and crumpling them up and tossing them into a garbage can. It was so intriguing and kind of beautiful.
Weird! I was into Of Montreal back in '99 - I had no idea they were even still around. I listened to their original, and I think the Outback version is actually better. :eek:
It’s a big ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1-dgS0ko3U
VW’s “Bubble Boy” (Mr. Blue Sky) ad entertained me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox655_y_S8Y
That’s not a commercial, but that’s pretty cool. I can just imagine an endless line of Algorithm Marchers.
Half of the best commercial ever, the creepy panda guy for Snickers. I’ll have to dig up a link to the other half, in which he intones in panda voice “coooome to luuunch, and have some bamboooo with meeeee!” That has never and will never get old.
Why so blue Panda Bear?
I’d love to know who the woman is.
I make a point of remembering the commercials that are actually good, since most of them are intolerable. My top advertisements:
[ul]
[li]Mountain Dew MDX: The one with the kinkajou[/li][li]Starburst Berries and Cream: I’ve watched this one online at least 10 times.[/li][li]Axe deodorant: “Let the order of the serpentine help you scrub away your shame!” - Said by random glowing guy who comes out of nowhere.[/li][li]Bacardi Limon: Stop-motion submarine made from a bottle of Bacardi and a sliced lemon propeller finds an underwater city/oasis made from beer bottles[/li][li]Wendy’s: Stop-motion hamburgers bouncing in rhythm to Benny Benassi’s “Satisfaction”[/li][li]Toyota Yaris: Gas nozzle spider[/li][li]Tetris DS: Amazing skydive[/li][li]iPhone: 30 second montage of various movie characters picking up the phone and saying “Hello”[/li][li]Windows Vista: “Wow” - Strikingly similar to the iPhone ad, actually. And totally cheesy, but I like it[/li][li]Bombay Sapphire: Guy with samurai sword carves a bottle out of ice[/li][li]CoinStar: Stop motion moving coins (1, 2)[/li][li]Corona: Trained parrot appears to open a beer bottle with its beak[/li][li]Tom Goes to the Mayor DVD: Don’t watch the show, but the commercial is the funniest and most random advertisement since “Berries & Cream”[/li][/ul]
Oh my god that is the best ad EVER!
ROFL! I just found this one …
The look on her face at the end