I was watching TV recently, and saw the Visa commercial that features retired grandmaster sumo wrestler Konishki. It basically follows him at various restaurants eating obscene amounts of food. I always make sure to watch this one, because when Konishki visits the sushi place, and has a football field-size plate, one of the chefs faints dead away. It just strikes me as so funny that I just have to see it.
What other TV commercials strike you as so good or funny that you just have to watch? Two more come to mind for me: the Pampers commercial set to “Forever Young” featuring the baby animals, and the Visa Check Card ad at the pet store. Something about that store owner putting the bunny to his ear like a telephone cracks me up every time.
Mine is a Twizzlers commerical. A guy is standing on a table, and down below are his co-workers are laughing hysterically at him. He’s holding up a red Twizzler up to his face and imitating his boss. “You’re fired, you’re fired, my moustach is fired!” Then his boss arrives, and he’s some guy with a bright red mostache.
One of my favorites was for Honda scooters and involved Lou Reed. The sound track played the “colored girls” doo da doo da doo from “Walk on the Wild Side” and showed some guy playing sax leaning against a lamp post. Then cut to Reed with a red scooter, in black leather and sunglasses, who turns to the camera and says, “Hey - why settle for walkin’?”
I only saw it once. Never knew why it got pulled. One of the best ads I ever saw.
The new Guinness ad featuring the snail race. Basically the snails shoot round this track like little radio controlled cars with the spectators running round after them trying to catch up. Its an absolute scream to watch.
It was a commercial for some supermarket in the Boston area about 5 years ago. A guy was watching TV and his wife called to him from the other room saying that he could “save extra” at this supermarket. He didn’t hear well, and he thought she said “shave ezra”. So he says, “OK…”. The last screen was of this little dog, completely shaved. It was much funnier than I described it.
Does anyone remember that commercial?
My all time favorite commercial is a european commercial for some product that I’ve forgotten, it is actually pretty irrelevant.
John Cleese is dressed as Robin Hood, drawing his bow with a look of intense concentration. Cut to a closeup of a young boy with an apple on his head. Arrow slices the apple cleanly, the boy doesn’t even flinch. Cut to the crowd shouting hooray and clapping. Cut back to the closeup of the boys face. Camera pulls back slowly to reveal… the boy’s body riddled with arrows.
my favorite Snickers ad was the one with the matron pining over her missing man, everything was so sad then she opened her locket and there was Gilligan followed by the Gilligan’s Island theme in the background.
There’s an old commercial for San Francisco Giants season tickets where Jeff Leonard says: “The good book says that you shouldn’t hate anybody. But if you’re going to hate somebody, the Dodgers are a good place to start”.
My favorite part is with the girl who says, “Oooh gurrrl!” Just the way she says it makes me crack up. And the old lady at the fruit stand who looks mortified.
another of my favorites is the last Taco Bell ad with the dog where the dog says it’s all right to pick up the man in the mask. That was the ad agency’s last ad and they made the most of it. I’m surprised Taco Bell ran that ad.
I love the commercial for snickers where the guy is talking about panda’s. I think the way he says “pretty, pretty dancing” and “do you know what panda’s eat? THEY EAT BAMBOO!!!” is one of my favorite commercial moments of all time.
the bunnies that multiply outragiously in the pet store are a close 2nd though
My favourite would have to be the Purina Beggin Strips commercial. I wish I could find a clip of it. Whoever wrote it, has a great understanding of dog psychology.
The commercial is shot entire from the perspective of a dog (with just his nose sticking into the shot from below). He is frantically trying to find the source of a wonderful smell and we get to hear a running stream of consciousness monologue while he investigates different parts of the kitchen: “Bacon! Where’s the bacon? Bacon, Bacon, Bacon . . .” he finds a bag “What’s that say? I can’t READ!! Oh please, please, gimme what’s in the bag!”
I like the current series of (I think its) Capital One Visa card ads - they show a maurading horde - vandals, gladiators, and most recently train robbers (standing in for hidden fees, high interest, etc.) - being stopped in their tracks by the Capital One Visa card. The maurading horde then goes away dejected.
The other night, I was tuned into Comedy Central to catch the Dailey Show. The credits for the previous show were running, and the voice-over, telling the viewers what the next show would be, said (paraphrasing from memory) “Coming up next, The Dailey Show! Because time is rigidly inflexible.” I was only half listening, and it caught me so off guard it put me on the floor, I was laughing so had.
