Ads that you like

[kenobi65]

Comments from ENWorld's resident ad guy...

- The IBM ads have been great for a long time. They're definitely on my "I wish this was our work" list. My favorite is still the Avery Brooks ad from 2000 ("Where are the flying cars? I was promised flying cars!")

- The Peyton Manning MasterCard ads have been brilliant. "Here we go, insurance adjusters, here we go!!"

- Speaking of the "Real Men of Genius" ads...do you recognize the singer? It's the same guy who was the lead singer of the band Survivor. (He's also in the Starbucks Doubleshot ad, doing personalized versions of "Eye of the Tiger" for the drinkers.)

Some other recent ads that I've really enjoyed:

- The Guinness "Brilliant!" campaign, with the two Monty Python-esque animated brewers. I especially like the new one, where they wear limburger cheeseheads to a football tailgating party ("I smell feet!").

- Subaru Tribeca's "Dust in the Wind" spot. Well, actually, I liked it the first couple of times I saw it. Now that I've seen it 275 times, it's kind of tired.

- There's a new series of ads for Food Network, depicting people playing sports with food. Fencing with fish, golfing with meatballs, etc. Very silly.

- Apple IPod, especially the first few from last year. They just make you want to get up and dance.

 

[Arnwyn]

I like:

- most Capital One commercials
- most Geico commercials
- I have a rather sick fondness for the Maxell House coffee commericals with a bunch of firefighters singing about their coffee to the tune of "Our House" (by Madness). I don't know why I like it so much, but it can't be healthy.

 

[Warrior Poet]

Some favorites (some of these are really old; actually, most, if not all, are really old and will date me):

Coca-Cola: in the wake of a loss (or injury), an exhausted "Mean Joe" Green, on his way to the locker room, receives a Coke from a devoted and concerned young fan, and in return Green gives his jersey to the kid. When I was a kid, I loved the idea of someone famous acknowledging a little act of kindness. Coca-Cola, you got me with that one.

Tidal Wave Bubblegum (remember this stuff?): kid bites into Tidal Wave Bubblegum, giant wall of water washes through the set. Weird, yet I bought the gum.

Rondo Citrus Drink (remember this stuff?): grass-skiing. I like the weird ads, huh?

Apple: advertisement for the Macintosh (can't remember the year) with the woman athlete who throws the hammer through the Orwellian 1984-esque projection screen.

Nissan: animatronic G.I. Joe-type action figure rappels down from the toy chest to the model 300Z twin turbo, jumps in, and, with "You Really Got Me" as covered by Van Halen blasting on the stereo, drives to the Barbie-style doll house where he picks up the Barbie-style doll, leaving behind the Ken-style doll looking forlorn in his cardigan sweater tied around his shoulders.

Pace Picante Sauce: "NEW YORK CITY?" "Get a rope." I was born and raised in Texas, so this ad resonated alot growing up.

Bud Light: Randy Quaid's Biggest Party in Texas, including the ad with The Who (they were on tour that year), when the manger opens the dressing room and says, "Lads, there's a Randy Quaid here to see you," and John (r.i.p. ), Pete, and Roger look up and say, in unison, "Who?"

Isuzu: Joe Isuzu. When I was young, this smiling liar was so ludicrously appealing as an ad campaign for some reason.

Wendy's: as Diaglo acknowledged, the "Where's the Beef?" ads were great. Also great were the "Parts is parts" ads, though I don't remember if those were Wendy's or not.

Paul Masson Cellars: "We will sell no wine before it's time." Orson Welles voice was soothing and reassuring.

Boston Planetarium: billboard showing a deep space photograph with the words, "Visit the Boston Plenetarium, you tiny, insignificant speck in the universe." Awesome.

Bud (?) or Bud Light (?): can't remember the affiliate, but it was an advertisement during the World Cup a few years ago, with famous soccer (football) players competing in a kind of futuristic distopian soccer match in some sort of giant cage. Very atmospheric and strange.

Altoids: the various "Curiously Strong" print ads.

HP Printers (I think): with the digital photos that become people, then are passed to someon else, who pulls the digital photo away from their face. Hard to explain. Accompanied by a Kink's song. Cool ad.

Star Wars Special Edition Theater Release: "A Long Time Ago In A Galaxy Far, Far Away ..." It was 1997, and the last time I'd seen the movie on the big screen was 20 years earlier. Chills.

Terry Tate, Office Linebacker: "That's a long distance call, Doug!" Hilarious!

Capitol One: the barbarians in the mall at Christmas time. Who hasn't wanted to run amuck like that somewhere, destroying mannequins and commercial space with a flail? Or maybe that's just me.

and my all-time favorite ad, from 1994-1995 in the U.K. (don't know if it played elsewhere):

Levi's Jeans: filmed entirely in grainy black-and-white, a young man, in a rural area circa the late 1920s/early 1930s, drives to a drugstore in his Model A. He walks in and approaches the clerk, who is an older man. The young man asks the clerk for a package of condoms. The clerk retrieves them and gives them to the young man, but looks angry, suspicious, and disapproving, as though knowing what the young man has been up to, and thinking it decadent and wayward. The young man pays, puts the condom package (a small tin, like Sucrets {remember those?} used to come in) in the change pocket of his Levi's, and walks out. Later that night, the young man pulls up to a house, and a young woman looks out her window excitedly, clearly anticipating going on a date. The young man approaches, and the door opens, answered by the young woman's father: the old man who was the clerk at the drugstore. Both the young man and old man are surprised, then the woman appears, kisses her daddy on the cheek, and rushes out with the young man to get in the Model A and go on the date. Daddy tries to protest, but she's already gone, and as the young man strolls to his car with the young woman on his arm, he looks back over his shoulder at the dad and has a grin on his face somewhere beteween "funny how life is" and "-eating." Ad ends. Brilliant.

If I think of any more, I'll post 'em.

Warrior Poet

 

[kenobi65]

Coca-Cola: in the wake of a loss (or injury), an exhausted "Mean Joe" Green, on his way to the locker room, receives a Coke from a devoted and concerned young fan, and in return Green gives his jersey to the kid. When I was a kid, I loved the idea of someone famous acknowledging a little act of kindness. Coca-Cola, you got me with that one.

Still widely considered to be one of the (if not the) best TV ads of all time.

Apple: advertisement for the Macintosh (can't remember the year) with the woman athlete who throws the hammer through the Orwellian 1984-esque projection screen.

It ran only one time, during the Super Bowl in 1984 (of course!). Also considered to be one of the best ads ever.

Nissan: animatronic G.I. Joe-type action figure rappels down from the toy chest to the model 300Z twin turbo, jumps in, and, with "You Really Got Me" as covered by Van Halen blasting on the stereo, drives to the Barbie-style doll house where he picks up the Barbie-style doll, leaving behind the Ken-style doll looking forlorn in his cardigan sweater tied around his shoulders.

A great ad; Nissan, of course, got their butts sued by Mattel over using dolls that looked too much like Barbie and Ken.

Wendy's: as Diaglo acknowledged, the "Where's the Beef?" ads were great. Also great were the "Parts is parts" ads, though I don't remember if those were Wendy's or not.

Yup, those were for Wendy's, too, done by the same director as "Where's the Beef?"

 

[Joshua Randall]

I think this was a Super Bowl ad a few years ago. For... Tobasco.

Man is sitting on his porch, eating something with plenty of Tobasco. Mosquito lands on his arm. Man does nothing. Mosquito starts to inject its proboscis. Man does nothing. Mosquito sucks some blood. Man does nothing. Mosquito is finished, and starts to fly away, when... bam! It blows up.

Man smirks.

That ad ruled!

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Apple: advertisement for the Macintosh (can't remember the year) with the woman athlete who throws the hammer through the Orwellian 1984-esque projection screen.

easily the Best Ad Evar.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

With the mean joe green coke ad... I think there was a pepsi ad several years later that riffed on that with the superstar athlete exahasted and hot and the little kid with the pepsi - who pulls it away and says "don't even think it" because he wants to drink it himself more than he worships the sports-star.... I'm of mixed minds on the message of the ad, seems kinda trendy-cynical, but it was memorable.

 

[Eternalknight]

A lot of the Australian beer ads are cool; VB has some good ones as well. There are some Jack Daniels ads airing hear during sporting events that are hilarious; the whole ad consists of a picture of a JD bottle and a guy telling us things.

 

[WayneLigon]

Another good one was perhaps.. for a car? It featured all sorts of landscapes and different scenes and peoples... all done in one long unbroken pull-back take that I think was one of the first major CGI uses.

The ones where the guy works in an office full of monkeys is pretty good as well

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The 1984 Mac ad is my second favorite.

Terry Tate and the Peyton Manning commercials are also brilliant...as is the Guiness "Brilliant!" campaign.

But #3 on my list has yet to be mentioned: Outpost.com's Gerbil Cannon ad. The "CEO" was firing gerbils at a hole in middle of the "o" in the middle of a banner with the company's name on it...I forget why...but he kept missing.

BOOM! Thudsqueek! "Oops- missed!"

BOOM! Thudsqueek! "That was close!"

BOOM! Thudsqueek! "A little more to the left..."