Good commercials?

[Bombadillo]

There's gotta be some commercials that you actually like. What are they?

I watched one recently for travel insurance: The guy's in bed with no shirt and reading something involving hotels while his wife is vacuuming all the air out of their luggage. Then she vacuums something off of the pillow and all of a sudden his fat disgusting man breast gets caught in the tube and he starts wailing!

Haha, that's dumb. Any others?

[IronParrot]

I watched the 2002 Cannes Film Festival's "World's Best Commercials" reel when it was shown in a theatre here last year, and some of that stuff truly is world-class.

I don't think very many of them were shown on TV, but I don't watch TV so I don't know that for a fact.

They range from the hilarious to the grand to the chillingly effective. The best ones were one that blasted tobacco advertisers in the form of a mock musical that criticized tobacco companies for their propagandistic practices. Just amazing.

There was another one, a commissioned ad by a British organization against child abuse, that had a live-action father beating around his cartoon child who bounced off walls with lumps on his dizzy head in Wile E. Coyote fashion. The child falls down the stairs and then the camera reveals a real boy in his place, with the caption, "Real children don't bounce back." (I also saw this in a reel of winners at the Ottawa International Animation Festival just a week or two ago.)

The winner at Cannes, as I recall, was part of the Nike "Play" series of commercials that had people running around in Nike shoes playing certain specific sports. This one had a guy just running around chaotically and causing everybody in a hectic downtown to move in reaction and shy away from him. You'd have to see it to believe it - this production was huge. Then at the very end, there's a freeze-frame of the guy chasing someone - and the caption reads: "Tag."

There were also a lot of Bronze and Silver level prizes to some very deserving ads, such as Budweiser's "This bud's for you" series that pays tribute to such legends as the mysterious inventor of spandex; and a commercial where a kid kicks a soccer ball that goes up into the stratosphere and never comes back down that reveals itself to be an advertisement for milk.

I used to watch a lot of great commercials on AdCritic.com but that was back when everything there was free to the public.

[hectorberlioz]

I liked those x-files/milky way commercialls.

[Varda Oiolosseo]

I can't believe i'm saying this but i think the 118 adverts are quite funny lol and that old kit-kat one " Remember you are not a salmon"

Gosh i'm sad lol.

[johnnyrod]

I was out on the razz in Oxford last week and saw someone with a 118 moustache. Funny how these things take hold.

[Lizra]

I like any comercial that plays Iggy...which are several! Also, loved that car one where they played T Rex "20th Century Boy", and the new Swiffer one with Mark whats his name, from Devo singing "swiffer" lyrics to "Whip it" is good.......But I LOVE that one for the Trading Spaces $100,000.00 show....Laurie looks too hot! Ty looks too great, Doug looks "ready", and the briefcases full of money look intense! Good music too!

[Bridgette]

There was a commercial during the last winter Olympics for verison wirless or some other phone compony. All these hockey players from different countries sneak into the rink at night. They are all skating about when one guy checks (sp?) another into the boards and then the guy who was checked just stands up and stares at the other guy. Then he (the other guy) shouts something like "Gonna go call your mommy?". The he shouts something like "Good Idea. I will." Then he flips over the board. Its been over a year since I saw this commercial so its not entirely accurate, but ye get the jist of it. I thought it was funny.

[Earniel]

I always liked that TV commercial from 'de Waddenzee' (a seal sanctuary and hospital in the Netherlands). You see an empty beach with a sort of transport box for animals. The box opens and a seal looks out, then he exits the box and hobbles into the sea. And all the while you hear 'a beautiful day' by Queen. That was really sweet.

[Goldberry1]

Recently, some beer commercial i forget what one - a guy keeps sending these beer bottles into the ocean with a piece of paper with his name and address on it... then some guy stranded on an island finds the bottle and opens it up and says "why do you torment me (whatever the guy who sent the bottle was named)!" and the camera pans back and you see a pile of like hundreds of bottles. then the guy who was on the island apparently got rescued and goes to the house of the guy who sent the bottles and puches him in the face. i just think its hilarious.... especially since beer commercials are normally really bad.