3420 replies to this topic

[BattyGrrrl]

I didn't see a thread for this one & I know there are some commercials out there that are actually really great & funny. Whether I buy into what they are selling or not, that remains to be seen.

What are some of your favourites?


I think my favourite commercials of all time are the Visa commercials about identity theft with the people talking about their cards being used by someone else - ie the big guy with the valley girl voice, the young woman with the geek voice ("A girl robot"!), the older woman with the truck voice ("those mudflaps with the girlies on them") Those commercials always crack me up. I wish they still showed them.

I also like the other from the same company (Citi?) about talking to a real person - the people who have to beep their way through to try to talk to a real person and the current "Big Boy" commercials

Edited by BattyGrrrl, Mar 10, 2006 @ 11:18 AM.

[FfrauleinN]

Those are awesome, although I didn't even realize both series of ads were for the same company. My other recent favorite is the series of Geico ads featuring the gecko. He's so damn cute! I love his accent, and the little habit he has of scratching his chest while he's talking. And then when he almost fell off the tree branch but caught himself in time? Hee! So cute! I know I'm gushing but I seriously love him. "It's pie ... with chips ... for free!"

[Cet]

Target owns this thread for me. I love the distinctive style of their "Design for All" campaign. The way they use shapes and patterns to transition from one item/scene to the next is incredibly clever. I've enjoyed all the ads in the series.

I don't mind seeing commercials like this at all - they're quick, catchy, and don't insult the viewer's intelligence.

[Cet]

Sorry about the double post, my computer's being a brat

Edited by Cet, Mar 10, 2006 @ 12:20 PM.

[emma675]

I will always love any of the Budweiser spots featuring the Clydesdale horses.
Two favorites are the campaign where the mule wants to join the group and the one with the baby Clydesdale trying so hard to move the big wagon. So, so cute.

[FfrauleinN]

Target owns this thread for me. I love the distinctive style of their "Design for All" campaign. The way they use shapes and patterns to transition from one item/scene to the next is incredibly clever.

I like those too. What I can't stand are the WalMart ads that are clearly trying to do the same thing, only with their happy face logo. It just doesn't work.

[guinevere34]

I don't think this commercial has been on the air for at least 10 years, but its my all time favorite --and this essentially blows the theory that if you remember the commercial, you'll remember the product, because I actually don't. It was for some kind of sauce or seasoning that you put on chicken, fish and meat. I do know it was not "Chicken Tonight." I hated those commercials.

Anyway, goes like this:

A boring family is sitting around a dining room table, waiting for Mom to come out with dinner. She comes out with meatloaf. Everyone sighs with resignation at another tedious meatloaf dinner. Then, however, Mom discovers "Yummy Stuff You Put On Food" or whatever it is, and suddenly meatloaf is exciting again!

This in and of itself is not funny. However, what's funny is the Dad's delivery. When the new meatloaf comes out, he goes "Meat-looaaaf!" and gets all bug eyed and kind of licks his lips randily, as if Mom just brought the meatloaf out naked or something. The same thing with "Chick-eeeeeeen!"

At the end of the commercial, it's just a close up on the Dad's face, and he goes, "Fl-OWN-der!"

I can't express to you why I found this commercial so funny, but at the time it was running I was waiting tables, and me and a couple of other waitresses would walk by each other and go "Fl-OWN-der!" and crack up.

PLEASE if anyone remembers this commercial OR the name of the product, let me know! Gracias!

Edited by guinevere34, Mar 10, 2006 @ 1:27 PM.

[C.]

I have to say, I'm adoring the Applebee's ad with the two guys singing the Gilligan's Island theme. I don't even care that they've changed the words, I just love the harmony.

[Gamera]

The current Applebee's ad is the first Applebee's ad I've liked since... well, since ever. It doesn't feel nearly as annoying as they usually do. Weird, that.

[Mibbitmaker]

I'll do FfraulienN one better: I love most of the Geico ads in general. I may be the only one in my family to like the fake-out ads. The gecko in the talk show one inadvertantly seems to refer to that, though he is meant to refer to the Geiko ads in general.

Favorites include the one where the jogger runs into and has a fight with a sometimes-fake deer. It's wonderfully meta-silly.

I love the one with the squirrels best; it's darkly funny when one runs the car off the road, then high-fives the other.

Of the gecko ones, I like the sight of him driving to the rock music. Now that's the image of "cool". With a tiny lizard creature.

There's one creepy moment in the original gecko ad where he licks his own eye. EEWWWWW!! ;o)

[janeybird]

I hope its OK to post about commercials that aren't current or aired anymore, so here goes:
There was a commercial that must have been for the Florida orange juice council that had a classroom full of kids that were passing orange slices to each other when the very old, very STERN looking teacher wasn't watching. The kids were puttng the slices in their mouth to cover their teeth and would flash these big orange smiles at each other but quickly close their mouths just as the teacher would turn to face them from the blackboard. Then all of a sudden she smiles at them and has an orange slice covering her teeth. It sounds dorky as I'm reading this, but it always made me smile.

[TraceyBee]

I'm generally not a huge fan of children in commercials, but Cheerios had some very sweet ones. There's one with a father and his baby, with a football game on the tv in the background, and the father is "showing" his baby different plays with Cheerios on the table. The baby grabs one and eats it, as babies will do, and the father says something like, "Hey, you just ate my tailback!" Then he says, "That's ok, I was going to trade him anyway."

Another one shows a grandmother putting Cheerios on a map to show the baby where everyone in the family is.

I adored the old VW ad (before they went crazy and started this "fast" campaign) with the young father talking about how crazy it is that's he's a father, when he himself still uses the 5-second rule after dropping a cookie.

[Taiichi]

My all-time favorite commercial?

"1984"

(It's just like "Blade Runner"-lite!)

Off the top of my head, #2 could be "Mean Joe Greene (Coca-Cola)"

Man, now I'm all nostalgic...

[Tabbyclaw]

I want to hug the Gilligan's Island Applebee's commercial. I normally hate their ads with a passion, but these guys seem so enthused it's hard not to love.

[FfrauleinN]

I can't express to you why I found this commercial so funny, but at the time it was running I was waiting tables, and me and a couple of other waitresses would walk by each other and go "Fl-OWN-der!" and crack up.

PLEASE if anyone remembers this commercial OR the name of the product, let me know! Gracias!

At first I didn't know what the hell you were referring to, but then it all came back to me. I don't remember what the product was called either, but the man's delivery of "fl-OWN-der" made me laugh too. Hee. Now I've got that commercial in my head. Damn it, what was that stuff called?

[CoderLady]

United Airlines has been putting on some of the best animated commercials I've seen in a while.

I love the one where a woman is trying to make a corporate presentation via conference call but the people on the other end aren't buying it. She flies out to their office and successfully impresses them by making the presentation in person. The committee transforms from unfriendly critters to smiling faces as she speaks, but what really does it for me is how real and expressive her face is throughout, even with the simplicity of the animation and drawings.

Her reaction to the froggy guy at the end is a total hoot - did she end up kissing him, I wonder?

[theglitterfades]

I love the Petsmart commercial with the dachsund and his toy dachsund, Bobo. The dachsund essentially takes Bobo everywhere until one day it is just too grody to bear, so the dachsunds owner steals it away while the dachsund is sleeping, and then takes him to Petsmart to get a new one. It is just too cute.

[FfrauleinN]

The best part is when the cashier picks the dog up ('cuz he's so tiny) to ring up the toy. Cute.

[help me lucy]

The commercial I used to really like was for... I want to say the VW Jetta, but I'm not really sure. In it, there was a young couple dancing around their apartment to music, and they get yelled at, so they pack up their things drive off to move to a house and it ends with them dancing around again, and the tagline was something about growing up. I just always liked it because it had a nice, fun feel to it.

[kat_may]

Favorite current commercial? That car insurance one with the cavemen. It's so perfectly deadpan and hilarious, even though I can't remember the name of the company and don't care. I love how polite the cavemen are, even though they're furious. "I don't have much of an appetite, thank you." He's a gentleman to the waiter! I don't know why I love that so much.

I also really liked that Visa ChequeCard one with Charlie and Martin Sheen. Charming, funny in an unexpected way, and brief.

[Scrambled Eggs]

The commercial I currently enjoy is the German VW rapper. That'll probably start annoying me soon, but for now I enjoy it.

I loved the Priceline commercials with William Shatner backed up by various indie musicians, like Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney. I also like the HP Photo ads with "Picture Book" by the Kinks. Love the song and the imagery. Good music will draw me in every time.

[pottie-mouth]

Best commercial of all time? Bonkers candy. There was this crazy old lady who would eat the candy, only to have gigantic fruit fall from the sky and crush her as she laughed like a maniac. Even at the ripe old age of five, I knew that this was totally irony - who uses the threat of death by produce to sell their product? The candy was pretty tasty, though (especially the grape).

[foultemptress]

Oh, I loved the check card commercial where the guy was trying to buy a rabbit by writing a check, and it took so long the rabbits kept multiplying, and at the end the clerk picked up the phone and it was a rabbit. Love it.

I love that one, too, it's hilarious! The look on the little girl's face when the rabbits start gettin' in on is hysterical. I'm sure I'm annoyed my husband to death over it, though, because every time the clerk said "Have to phone this in," I'd yell "On the BUNNYphone!" Yes, I'm terribly clever.

[metalspork13]

As far as visual effects go, I always loved that commercial for HP printers (or whatever) that had the guy with the white picture frames that he'd put around his neck and stuff, while that "Picture Perfect" song played.

The commercial I used to love was the one for Raisin Bran Crunch (or some other crunchy cereal), where the guy had to fire Steve (I think that was his name), who just sat there all day eating the cereal, and couldn't hear himself being fired because the crunching was so loud. Then the guy does a victory dance, and Steve does a little dance back at him. The look on Steve's face just cracked me up every time.

[Stinger97]

The commercial I used to love was the one for Raisin Bran Crunch (or some other crunchy cereal), where the guy had to fire Steve (I think that was his name), who just sat there all day eating the cereal, and couldn't hear himself being fired because the crunching was so loud.

His name is Johnson, and I too love those commercials.

[Indecisive]

It's so perfectly deadpan and hilarious, even though I can't remember the name of the company and don't care.

Geico. I love that one too; the man in the commercial was so insensitive, he ruined the caveman's appetite.

My favorite series of commercials are for Diet Snapple. I like the older one, where the neighbor gushes about the Snapple drinker's abilities to communicate with animals: "And without this gift--!"

And the one where the hapless guy is trying to talk to a person on the support line, and ends up catching his broom on fire.

Edited by Indecisive, Mar 10, 2006 @ 9:57 PM.

[the hero factor]

At the end of the commercial, it's just a close up on the Dad's face, and he goes, "Fl-OWN-der!"

...

PLEASE if anyone remembers this commercial OR the name of the product, let me know! Gracias!

I remember the commercial. The "Fl-OWN-der" thing was definitely funny. As for the product, I want to say Mrs. Dash. I'm really not sure if that's right, but it's what keeps popping into my head.

[Sandman87]

the man in the commercial was so insensitive, he ruined the caveman's appetite.

Naw, the ad guy was trying to make up for it. It's just that the caveman is being a total bitch about it.

[Mibbitmaker]

One thing I noticed about the cavemen ad is that the one in close-up with the last pissy comment looks like Joe Piscopo doing an SNL sketch in the early '80s.

Those HP Photo ads are the most visually brilliant things I've seen in a commercial. I didn't know originally that it was a Kinks song they played in them, so I didn't have a chance to be unhappy about that; that music works great with the ads, so as long as it wasn't a song I'd heard before...

About the Priceline ads with Shatner, I love the one they originally showed with Leonard Nimoy in it. It was a nice Trek tweek. The second one with Nimoy in it was stretching the joke alittle far, but the first one was good.