I agree that this series is pretty damn good. But i think one of the greatest ad slogans of recent times must be Southwest’s end-of-commercial tagline - a pilot’s voice, following an intercom ‘ping’, saying “You are now free to move about the country.” That was an inspired piece of writing.
I have two that have already sort of been mentioned, but need more detail.
The first was the old Sprite commercial that had the streetballers talking all hard about their game and then one says, “That’s why I drink Sprite!” and holds the can up upside down.
The director then yells cut, and says “Hey, genius, you’ve got the can upside down.”
All the actors drop the macho act and start acting a bit more Frasier Crane-like and one yells “You can’t talk to me like that! I studied at CAMBRIDGE!” in an upper class British accent.
The commercial then cuts to the usual “don’t trust other people, obey your thirst” tag.
The other was the Snickers commerical when the quarterback gets hit really hard and is lying on the ground. The coach runs over and asks how many fingers he’s holding up and the QB answers correctly, then the coach asks what city their in and the QB answers correctly. The coach finally asks, “Who are you?” and the QB gets a wild look in his eye and says “I am…BATMAN!”
The voiceover then says the not going anywhere for a while, have a Snickers tag.
The best part is the end though, and there were two.
The first one was the QB prancing around using a blanket as cape and holding it out like Batman does.
The alternate was when the QB looks over at a lineman and asks “would you like to be my sidekick, citizen?” totally deadpan and the lineman just gives him the greatest look.
I really like that commercial, too. But I thought it would’ve been more clever if the M&M had said something like “Hey, you look real nice in those pajamas” instead of asking if he could watch TV. You know, if he had given a compliment. It would’ve been a great play on words.
The hedgehog commercials are for a video game starring Sonic the Hedgehog. The idea, of course, is that there’s only one Sonic and one can’t replace him. Kind of reminds me of the Snuggle commercial already mentioned here with animals like lobster and armadillo trying to be the mascot- no one can represent “snuggly soft” like a snuggly soft teddy bear. Commercials like that are pretty funny.
I love any of the California Cheese ads with the talking cows.
Examples:
Two young bulls on top of a grassy knoll are surveying a lush, green pasture full of cows when a “particularly fine” cow walks up. One of the bulls says, “Boy the fresh air and sunshine have sure been good to her. Watch this.” Then, to the cow he shouts, “Hey! You work out?”
Two cows are waking up to the crowing of a rooster. One says, “Morning,” and is answered by the kind of groan they could have recorded in my bedroom when I had to be at work early.
“Wanna get up?” says the first. “Naw, hit the snooze.” Wherewith the first cow kicks the rooster and sends him flying (not under his own power) out of the barn.
My son likes the commercial for Diet Mountain Dew where the old granny is trying to wave down a taxi. None will stop for her. When she finally gets one to stop, and is about to enter, a young man quickly runs in before she can enter.
The granny then snatches the man by the collar and flings him out, gets in, tosses his brief case out, and is driven away.
(This is his first post in the SDMB. He dictated it to me.)
The Chrysler minivan commercial where the driver of the minivan is asked to drop off a bunch of people at different places as he motors through town. He picks up a jockey and his horse, a kid going to his tuba lesson and a company of Civil War reenactors.
As the group goes down the road, they happen upon a group of beautiful school girls in short skirted uniforms who ask for a ride.
Cut to the reenactors, tuba kid and jockey on the curb as the van pulls away with the horse still in his trailer. The jockey says, “My pony!” in a plaintive voice. For some reason, the jockey’s squeal cracks me up.
One of my personal favorites is the Visa Check Card commercial in the pet store, where the paper check clearing process takes so long that the two rabbits the father is buying for his daughter multiply like crazy. Mostly because seeing that old shopkeeper putting that bunny up to his ear like a phone never fails to crack me up.
There’s a Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Dinner commercial out there that takes the cake.
It’s produced like a Wallace and Gromit short and directed like a sitcom. The setting is a Leave-it-to-Beaver type of home in a goldfish bowl. Mom’s in a blue-checkered apron, the works.
(DAD fish swims in (from where?) and takes his hat off. He leaves it floating in the water as if it were on a hatstand (nice touch).)
DAD: Hi everyone, I’m home!
MOM: Hello, Dear.
JUNIOR: Hi Dad! I’m helping Mom make Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Dinner!
DAD: Great! Now I won’t have to eat you like I did you’re little brothers and sisters!
(MOM, DAD, and JUNIOR all laugh, JUNIOR opens up package of yellow chemicals.)
MOM: Wait, dear! Don’t open the package!
(Yellow chemicals go POOF! and volumetrically fill up the bowl. It’s now a completely opaque orange yellow. CUT to view from high above the bowl. DAD’s lips appear just above the water.)
DAD: Nice work, son.
(MOM’s lips appear beside DAD’s.)
MOM: Ooooo dear…
(Junior’s lips and fins appear. One fin is holding the box, the other fin is pointing at the instructions on the box.)
JUNIOR: Guess it’s just as well. Says here we’d have to boil the water.
My personal favorite is one for some kind of throat lozenges, I can’t remember what brand. There is a guy playing golf, and he can’t call “fore” because he has lost his voice. He keeps beaning people with the ball. For some reason, the way the people fall to the ground after they have been hit reduces both me and my brother to helpless giggling every time.
I like the other one with Mr. Quackers. Same as above, except there’s a robot duck instead of a fridge. It runs around the track wearing down the other bots’ batteries and wins by default.
I also like the Geico commercial with the squirrels. You can’t convince me they don’t really do that.
I love the Universal Studios commercial that plays on all the old travel cliches. “I want to be pampered by locals” means Frankenstein painting a woman’s toenails, “I want to taste something exotic” means a shower of green slime. This ad always makes me smile, especially the woman crushing her two kids against her on the roller coaster. I’ll still probably never set foot in the park, but I smile.
I also like the Goldfish commercial with the catchy, folky jingle.