The one where G.I. Joe pulls up to the dollhouse in his red Porsche, and Barbie ditches the tennis outfit for a silver tube dress and zooms off with him while Ken mewls quietly.
Remember, I’m pulling for you; we’re all in this together.
—Red Green
Volkswagon has some great commercials. I love the one for the Jetta (I think) in which there’s a bunch of them driving around a corral, doing little jumps and stuff and the narrator saying “You can tell by the gleam in their daytime running lights that these are happy cars.” A take-off of a dog food commercial… absolutely hilarious. It’s been on the air for a while now and it’s still funny.
Voguevixen, we don’t have Jack-in-the-Box here in the midwest, so we don’t get to see those commercials. Your descriptions had me chuckling!!
No, it is a girl named “Regina Miller” in the commercial (not her real name). I love when he yells at her “Where’s your game at?” and she yells back, “Shut up!!”
I can’t remember what the ad is for (Snickers?) but one of the most hilarious ads I have ever seen is this one:
Cute guy and girl walking out to the car, guy opens door for the girl, shuts the door to walk around to his side. As soon as the door shuts, the girl rips a gigantically loud fart!! When the guy gets in his side he looks at her and says, “So…Sally, have you met Jim and Tammy yet??” Jim and Tammy of course are sitting in the back seat and witnessed the entire incident and still have to spend the evening together. Of course it is a little distasteful, but classically hilarious. What makes it so funny to me is that the girl is the typical blonde bombshell…having her let one is just priceless.
I also love the Volkswagen commercial with the slackers driving around town listening to the “Da Da Da” song.
A few of these commercials haven’t seen the light of day here (Central Canada) I believe. But the descriptions given are hilarious enough…the next best thing! 
My all-time favorite commercial is the one for Tabasco Sauce…
It shows a homely kid on his porch, eating pizza and pouring the sauce all over each bite. A mosquito lands on the kid’s arm, and the kid does nothing as the skeeter sucks his blood. The mosquito then takes off, flies a few feet away, and explodes into a fireball!
I laugh myself silly every time I see this one…
My favorite commercial was for an insurance company in Europe. These guys are moving an exhibit in a museum and take a break, leaving a voodoo doll in the same room as a large portrait of Bill Clinton. Some tourists come in and start playing with the voodoo doll and there are these hilarious computer-generated scenes where Bill is waving his arms while giving a speech, turning his back to the audience, then falling over with a thunderous crash. Then the words “Accidents happen” appear on the screen, followed by the name of the insurance company.
– Sylence
“A friend of mine once sent me a post card with a picture of the entire planet Earth taken from space. On the back it said, ‘Wish you were here’.” - Steven Wright
You’ve got to love the Van Halen soundtrack to this commercial!!
One of my favorites, eventhough I’ve only seen it once, was this commercial for Denny’s that showed this rooster and a bunch of chickens chasing him. It had this funny disco or r&b tune in the background. It was a scream cause I like chickens. Anyone else seen this and can remember the song?
I’m not sure if its Labatts or Molson-
Phone rings in 20-something guy’s apartment. Since he’s too hung over to answer the phone, the machine picks up. His friend is asking what happened to him the night before, that he heard he was heading to some body piercing place. Hung over guy’s eyes pop open and he sees a business card from a body piercing and tattooing place on the cupboard. He quickly panics and scans his arms and shoulders for a tattoo. He doesn’t see one and is tremendously relieved. He does, however have his nipple pierced. After the initial shock, he looks at it admiringly with a “Hey, not bad, pretty cool” look on his face and flips the business card over - there is a phone number with the name “Cheryl” on it. Things are looking up! His friend is still talking on the machine as he turns around - to reveal a hideous, entire back covering tattoo of a pink teddy bear holding a heart with the name “Cheryl” on it. As he walks toward the door, his friend says “You’re the man, cool guy! See you at the beach!” Then it says something like enjoy our beer but don’t get totally pissed. This has been running for a few years, but it still cracks me up.
Couple of other nice ones. Bunny Girl mentioned the Nissan commercial with Van Halen. The company has added another one recently with Roger Daltrey’s legendary scream accompanying one of Nissan’s products sliding across a stretch of desert flat with a cloud of dust dragging behind it. Makes my blood curl every time.
I also found the series of commercials focused on the reaction of different couples getting the result of pregnancy home tests really well done because of its simplicity and its “human touch”. Those same commercials were panned on the worst commercials thread; which, I guess, goes to prove my premise as to the subjectivity of this whole matter.
voguevixen . . .
Have you seen the new one with Jack working late on a new name for his cheeseburger with real bacon strips and real bacon bits? Jack’s wife calls and apparently asks why he’s working so late. Jack says he’s trying to come up with a new name for his sandwich. All he’s come up with is “Bacon Bacon Cheeseburger.” Then, Jack says “You’re wearing what?” Jack’s face turns red and the next thing you see is the Jack-in-the-Box bag coming down advertising the new “Bacon Bacon Cheeseburger.”
AuraSeer . . .
You can get that music in a .wav file. My wife used it for a presentation. She loves that commercial.
D’oh
I saw a new one with Brandi Chastain of sports bra fame. She was playing foosball with three guys and when she scored the winning goal they all stood there looking at her kinda goofy. Finally one of them says, “What’s with the shirt?”
I don’t even remember what they were advertising, but it sure was funny.
“non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem”
– William of Ockham
Some of the best ones are the new M&M commercials, with Puddy from Seinfeld fame. The two in particular are:
-
Puddy and a yellom M&M are on a couch, and Puddy wants to eat the M&M. The M&M flops down onto the floor and says how he can’t be eaten because he’s on the floor. “Says who?” It’s hilarious.
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The M&Ms are standing around eating bags of M&Ms when Puddy comes in and says it’s cannibalism. They all switch bags. Puddy takes the M&Ms away from them, and as he walks out of the store he looks at the camera and says “That’s the most disturbing thing I ever saw.”
Okay, so my descriptions are lame, but I know you guys have seen them. They’re a riot.
–Tim
We are the children of the Eighties. We are not the first “lost generation” nor today’s lost generation; in fact, we think we know just where we stand - or are discovering it as we speak.
Another VW ad: a nerdy couple are driving along a suburban street (she’s driving, he’s in the passenger seat). She looks content, but he looks thoughtful, and says “hmm”.
“What?” she asks, looking at him.
Sucking on his teeth a bit, he replies “you know that, um, home video we made?”
She looks a little guilty, a little naughty, and a little self-satisfied. She giggles. “Yes?”
Cut to a shot outside the car, traveling alongside. As he says “I think we just returned it”, she locks up the brakes and the car skids out of the picture, as if your vehicle kept going.
Cut to an interios shot of the video store, as they pull up outside and jump out of the car. Inside, people are watching the tape on the video store TVs, and you can hear her voice laughing, saying “We’re going to erase this, right?”
It’s an old joke, but the commercial is so well filmed, and her reaction while thinking about the tape is just priceless.
The other ad I love is one where a little boy in a tux is holding a glass of punch, looking up into the camera, and says “My mommy says she can’t believe you wore white!”
I think that one may be in the same line as the other Chewy granola bar commercials.
Color me reactionary, but I hope I never see a Hummer, let alone that commercial. In California hit-and-run is a criminal offense–sorry to hear about the state where that commercial was made! It says, "By a Hummel and run down and kill everyone you don’t like! It sounds like a line from Nietzsche favoring war. (I refer to Outlines of History.)
My current favorite commercial is one for an office supply store, Staples, I think. The background music is a Christmas carol, “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year.” There’s a man dancing around with a shopping cart, zipping up and down the aisles, looking deliriously happy. Next shot, his two kids just standing there, completely expressionless. I don’t remember what the voice over says exactly, but it’s a back-to-school commercial. Cracked me up…and reminded me of my own parents.
That commercial reminds me of a “Dennis the Meance” panel wherein he’s about to run away from home again–with the usual teddy bear and belongings tied in a sheet, to a pole he carries on his shoulder. He says to his shocked parents:
“You’re always talkin’ ‘bout the ‘good ol’ days, when I wasn’t here.’ well, *enjoy * yourselves!” 
The commercial sure shows kids where they stand, doesn’t it?
I am biassed, being a sports fan, but sports-themed beer commercials and the ESPN Sportscenter campaign totally float my boat.
Yer pal,
Satan
My thanks to Misanthrope for reviving the dead