Ding! Furniture stripping. Rock drills. Herbs. Die casting. Dumbwaiters. Conductive shoes. Vanity cases. Civil engineers. If it's out there, it's in here. [MLYT] [more inside]
posted by Orinda on Dec 11, 2011 - 4 comments

4 photogenic youngsters travel to beautiful cities, to Paris, Barcelona, Beijing & London. Short, upbeat commercials by Gustav Johansson & Albin Holmqvist for a French language school
posted by growabrain on Mar 9, 2011 - 22 comments

Old Play-doh ads! Chop that mop. Excellent! What has been done cannot be undone. Arbeit Macht Frei! Oooooh...pretty sparkles.... Tasty! Bart Smit? Basa?
posted by GavinR on Jan 30, 2009 - 22 comments

It's time to get ready for the Super Bowl... Ads! Adland has freely available archives of 37 years of commercials from the big game, over 2,800 ads - from 1969, when Winston, Salem, Camel, Tareyton, Pall Mall, and Silva Thins smoked up the Bowl *cough-cough*, all the way to 2008, when the best-liked ad was Bud's dalmation inspiration (how do we know it was best liked? SCIENCE!). Some highlights of the collection include: [more inside]
posted by taz on Jan 29, 2009 - 40 comments

Horror movie or pasta sauce commercials? (The company web site is a little odd, too.) [via]
posted by Armitage Shanks on Apr 17, 2008 - 14 comments

The latest All-Bran commercial really pushes out the product's virtues, although not without making a stink. Personally, I still prefer a heaping bowl of Colon Blow.
posted by brain_drain on Nov 12, 2007 - 53 comments

An amazing collection of classic American television commercials. Sorted by category: Eat, Drink, Smoke, Clean, Groom, Shop and Travel. Includes descriptions and historical background. The commercials can be viewed in either RealPlayer or MediaPlayer format, and newer ones will work in both IE and Firefox.
posted by amyms on Apr 10, 2007 - 7 comments

2007 Super Bowl ads (note the multiple pages). And be sure to post your fav (mine = the Coke GTA spot).
posted by JPowers on Feb 4, 2007 - 159 comments

BestAdsonTV.com Browse TV spots from around the world at this industry site highlighting new creative work. Highly rated ads include this one for Carlton beer, this sober PSA, this lovely one for the California lottery and a fun take on evolution for Guinness. And then there's this, um, sausage ad. Browse the controversies (mostly complaints about copycats), ads from Romania and Iceland and Belgium, or last year's best ads. Many of the most amusing seem to be for beer.
posted by CunningLinguist on Dec 23, 2006 - 8 comments

Is is just me, or have Superbowl ads gotten way too predictable. Here's hoping this year offers something new. 2006 brings Fabio sinking a gondola, an approved(!) GoDaddy ad, the first ever bilingual ad, and the commercials being offered on DVD and PodCast. Also keep an eye out for muppets, macgyver and machetes.

I hate linking to heavy, but they have all the banned ads, some of which are funny (especially the anti-mac one) and some were just made to be banned. You can see previous years' ads at iFilm.
posted by FeldBum on Feb 2, 2006 - 47 comments

Tim Yang's TV Commercial Blog is sweet, sweet succor for those of you who miss the heyday of AdCritic.
posted by grrarrgh00 on Dec 13, 2005 - 7 comments

The Best Banned Advertising, from the publishers of the Best Rejected Advertising books, is a collection highlighting quality ads that received numerous consumer complaints and in some cases government bans. Most aren't your typical "too hot for tv" commercials; some are fantastic.
posted by kyleg on Oct 28, 2005 - 23 comments

The results are in (NYT - rr). To follow-up on this thread, the favorite ad icons and slogans have been chosen, as well as the recipients of the "Stars of Madison Avenue" award. And I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say...Derek Jeter?!?
posted by braun_richard on Sep 20, 2004 - 12 comments

Vote for your favorite ad icon and slogan! In celebration of something called Advertising Week in NYC in Sept, Yahoo and USA Today ask for your vote. (more inside...)
posted by braun_richard on Aug 17, 2004 - 36 comments

Specs spots are commericals shot by people who hope that they'll be considered for shooting real commercials. Because they are vying for attention, some of them can be pretty outrageous. This site allows you to rank them ala hotornot mode.

My personal favorite pertains to that "make a wish" ritual around blowing out birthday candles.
What are your favorites? (Spots themselves are Quicktime links)
posted by jasper411 on Aug 10, 2004 - 10 comments

Wake America from Its Bloodless Trance "Unfortunately, most of you will never see my anti-war commercial. Why? Because the major network news outlets refused to accept it, claiming that the imagery was too graphic... linking death to war seems to be taboo at a time when the connection should be on the top of our minds. Few in the major media are talking about casualties in the Iraq war, and it seems our nation does not want to confront the reality that the war will result in casualties, anywhere from a few thousand dead and wounded (itself a horrific number) to tens of thousands, according to international experts. Let's be clear – that's thousands of dead or wounded people, at a minimum. "

Six anti-war commercials , featuring, among others, Mos Def, Russell Simmons, Susan Sarandon and Ben and Jerry.
posted by Espoo2 on Mar 9, 2003 - 85 comments

"Since Terry has been with us our productivity has gone up 46%" Here's hoping our company doesn't resort to recruiting Mr Tate - otherwise I'll have to remember to fill up the coffee jug. (Windows Media, requires sound)
posted by ralawrence on Feb 6, 2003 - 29 comments

Campaign for Freedom. The Ad Council does some good work. This campaign has been running for a bit, but until yesterday I'd only seen the spot Main Street USA. The others in the series, like this and this are probably my favorites-- all the more so because we're heading in exactly that direction.
posted by Cerebus on Sep 11, 2002 - 12 comments

Smokey's Vault: all about the history of the campaign, the "real" Smokey Bear, and Smokey's unique place in American culture. Created in 1944, the Smokey Bear campaign is the longest running public service campaign in US History. Smokey's forest fire prevention message remained unchanged for 50 years until April 2001, when the Ad Council updated his message to address the increasing number of wildfires in the nation's wildlands.
posted by josephtate on Aug 24, 2002 - 11 comments

Steven. Steven. Steven. I can't get enough of this incredibly-cute-but-I-don't-normally-go-for-such-obvious-twinkiness pitchperson for Dell Computers. Apparently, neither can anyone else, as Steven (or more properly, actor Ben Curtis) has been Dell's most successful advertising, uh, tool ever. Why do we love him? His Bill'n'Ted vocabulary? His toothy grin? Whatever the reason, at least now I no longer have to glue myself to the television to watch his latest commercial overandoverandoverand Dude, I'll get a Dell if you deliver it to me personally. So to speak. Is it wrong to love a fictional character so much? Is there a support group? Any other MeFites have a strange attraction going on here? I can't be the only one, can I?
posted by WolfDaddy on Jul 9, 2002 - 66 comments

Collected TV Ads of Enron. Quite hilarious. Interesting to be reminded that even Gabriel Garcia Marquez (second old guy in) was prepared to tart himself around for these shysters. Keep asking: why, Gabriel? Why?
posted by theplayethic on Apr 5, 2002 - 2 comments

"Make obstacles obsolete".... OK, I know that SUV-bashing has been done to death on Mefi, but has anyone seen the most recent TV commercial for the Cadillac Escalade? In a long video-game like sequence, the Escalade hurtles through a blade runner-esque cityscape, defeating missiles and a computer-generated robot. The voiceover chimes in to announce the brand and drop the tagline "Make obstacles obsolete."

That really sums it up, doesn't it? Driving an SUV is all about making obstacles obsolete - people, bicyclists, other cars....i'd like to see gas prices hit about US $5 a gallon this summer so that the Escalade would become obsolete...
posted by preguicoso on Jun 21, 2001 - 49 comments

A taste of Nostalgia... while it's not really an informative MeFi posted link, the list of commercials brings back memories. It's too bad there aren't any clips. Are any of these familiar to you?
posted by Cavatica on Mar 23, 2001 - 11 comments

CBS pulled this ad from the Superbowl. Which is a shame because I think it deserves a place on the Ad Critic Superbowl Top 10.
posted by Brilliantcrank on Jan 30, 2001 - 6 comments

"Ahhhhh the atmosphere" should get at least a giggle out of you. Commercials at their best.
posted by physics on Aug 15, 2000 - 5 comments

IBM's Linux commercial. Part of their Avery Brooks "serious software" ad campaign, which I like a lot, I have to say.
posted by dan_of_brainlog on Jul 22, 2000 - 2 comments

The Lot, a New Zealand e-commerce site, has a hilarious commercial (2.7Mb mpeg) that a friend sent to me with the title "Shopping in LA." The NRA could not be reached for comment.
posted by mathowie on Feb 11, 2000 - 3 comments

Ad Critic is going to be featuring all the superbowl ads right after the game. So I guess there's no need to tape it anymore, just check out the site afterwards...
posted by mathowie on Jan 30, 2000 - 5 comments

Nike this weekend will unveil a new 50-second commercial. The first 30 seconds will appear in a TV commercial before Saturday's Dolphins-Jaguars game. The second 20 seconds will be available at the Web site. The ad was created by Wieden & Kennedy of Portland.
posted by luke on Jan 12, 2000 - 4 comments