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

The 27 Best (Non-Super Bowl) Commercials of the 2000s: Balls [Bravia] - Birthday [Got Milk?] - Bubble Boy [Volkswagen] - Bus Station [Starburst] - Carousel [Phillips] - Cog [Honda] - Dangerously Low [Levi's] - Diorama [Halo 3] - Evolution [Dove] - Freestyle [Nike] - Gorilla [Cadbury] - Grrr [Honda] - Hello Tomorrow [Adidas] - Lamp [IKEA] - Like [Volkswagen] - Mountain [Playstation] - Noitulove [Guinness] - Odyssey [Levi's] - Rabbit [Comcast] - Sheet Metal [Saturn] - Stork [Monster] - Swear Jar [Bud Light] - Tag [Nike] - Tea Partay [Smirnoff] - Touch [Skittles] - Wedding Toast [Budweiser] - Yes We Can [Dipdive]. Part of Adweek's "Best of the 2000s" competition, which also includes rundowns of the 22 Best Super Bowl Spots and the 15 Best Print Campaigns of the last decade, among many other voting categories.
posted by Rhaomi on Nov 23, 2009 - 72 comments

A sampling from John Moschitta Jr.'s oeuvre: Minute Rice • Northern Exposure Series Recap • The Theory of Evolution in One Minute • As "Blurr" on Transformers • As Supersonic Seymour on Garfield and Friends • On Sesame Street: 1 2 • As the Micro Machines guy: 1 2 • And the role that catapulted him to fame
posted by not_on_display on Feb 1, 2009 - 10 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

The Living Room Candidate. A fascinating archive of presidential campaign commerials. (Yes, I saw in on the Colbert Report, and so did you.)
posted by The Deej on Sep 30, 2007 - 11 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

The Chopper Show commercials are awesome! They're 30 minute (or longer) commercials for a dealership in Las Vegas. They're obnoxious, over the top, and mesmerizingly amusing. It boggles my mind that there are people who purchase cars based on these commercials, but I can understand why The Chopper is so popular in Las Vegas. If you can't speak spanish, I recommend El Chopper en Espanol - it's even funnier if you can't understand the sales pitch.
posted by Fantt on Jan 24, 2005 - 26 comments

Jason Alexander thinks the McDLT is the best tasting lettuce and tomato hamburger ever. [link to 10mb MPEG file]
posted by Peter H on Aug 24, 2004 - 61 comments

Discovery Network has some amusing new commercials. (click "Watch the TV spots", lower-left). My favorite? Milk truck!
posted by mr_crash_davis on May 28, 2004 - 13 comments

TiVo to Sell User Viewing Data TiVo executives said they will be gathering information only in aggregate, such as by ZIP code and that the habits of individual users will remain anonymous. However, not everyone agrees that TiVo can't/isn't tracking individual viewing habits. And now advertisers will be able to see exactly how many commercials we're all zipping past.
posted by stevis on Jun 2, 2003 - 17 comments

Whatever happened to Saturday Morning Cartoons? An astonishingly intelligent article about how Cable TV, dual-family households, regulations and more eliminated what more than a few of us remember quite fondly as the magical time when suddenly TV existed for our personal entertainment purposes. Anyone else remember occasionally dragging themselves out of bed at 6AM for what was ultimately five hours of really, really cool commercials? (Link from Fark!)
posted by effugas on May 9, 2003 - 71 comments

Starting with Super Bowl 2002 , the ONDCP launched a media campain linking drugs to terror, pregnancy, shooting your friend with your dad's gun, and running over a girl on her bike (Cost to taxpayer: $3.4 million). Soon after, the ads were refuted and parodied. Now the ONDCP says they'll end the ads in June, but not before they make some token Earth Day link and a weak argument against legalization.
posted by MarkO on Apr 22, 2003 - 32 comments

Space Needle Missing from the Seattle Skyline? (subscription) The rumor is someone bought the Space Needle in Seattle and moved it to their house. No! It was an ad for the lottery. Do TV channels need to make it clearer that something is an ad, or do people need to be more careful watching TV?
posted by scudder on Oct 17, 2002 - 28 comments

Can biaised TV coverage of motorsports events be bought? The Aussport Post says it can. According to the linked article, Ford Australia signed a deal with Network 10, which has exclusive rights to telecast the V8 Supercars series, ensuring that other car manufacturers would be unable to advertise during telecasts of the series, in addition to guarantees of a certain amount of coverage of their cars during the series. Ironically, the car that lead the first 30 laps of the biggest race of the year, the Bathurst 1000, did not carry any Ford signage.
posted by dg on Oct 14, 2002 - 5 comments

Journalists response to the web wide debate sparked after their interview with Jamie Kellner CEO of Turner Broadcasting. Where he likened not viewing the adverts to theft. It's a story I was very interested in and it seems it caused a fair amount of debate. Other than the 'Osama is evil' explosion what's your favorite meme with legs ?
posted by mrben on May 30, 2002 - 8 comments

People don't watch adverts - or at least they try not to. I tend to flip, or press the mute button. Given this research, plus the fact that certain stations think it's our duty to watch .. do you think they'll find another way to slip them in when we're not expecting it ?. (previous discussion about tv commercials)
posted by mrben on May 27, 2002 - 45 comments

"Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots.... Any time you skip a commercial.....you're actually stealing the programming" According to Jamie Kellner, CEO of the Turner Broadcasting system, you're committing a crime if you don't watch every commercial during a broadcast. Even going to the bathroom doesn't seem to be a good enough excuse to him for missing a commercial. While I sympathize with those who are trying to create and maintain business models for content and programming in these days of advanced technology, arguing that the use of this technology is some kind of moral lapse is both laughable and insulting.
posted by gspira on Apr 29, 2002 - 38 comments

Miss Cleo Part II Who calls these hucksters? This is simultaneously hilarious and sad. Be sure to listen to the audio.
posted by McBain on Mar 15, 2002 - 6 comments

What sort of salesman can't sell TV ad during the Super Bowl? Even after taking a 25% discoount off the $2 million 30-second spots from last year's game, FOX is still having troubles getting advertisers. See what happens when you cool off the economy, Mr. Greenspan?
posted by tsarfan on Jan 23, 2002 - 10 comments

Brand virus leaps to another level. Law & Order episodes on TNT next month will have ads digitally inserted.

Which reminds me--I was thinking about a device that would remove objects (say, Bruce Willis) from any channel I pick. . .I say we should get paid for watching ads customized to our specifications. (via Q)
posted by aflakete on May 27, 2001 - 15 comments

Well, only 10 shopping days left until Super B(bleep)l Sunday, and of course, everyone's ready for the big... commercials. This one, from People for Eating Tasty Animals -- er, um, sorry; mispronounced that -- was refused by CBS, or so saith the minions at AdCritic. Hope they're planning a Superbowl focus page during and after the show. They really oughtta hold a vote. No, wait... it would take too long. :-}
posted by baylink on Jan 18, 2001 - 7 comments

Remember those PSA's the tobacco companies said violated their agreement with the federal government? Well, they're back, and harsher than ever

I saw the body bag commercial last night at 3 am . . . when all PSA are played.
posted by alan on Sep 22, 2000 - 7 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

CBS said NO! Reebok said yes.

If you have watched survivor, many of you may have noticed the ads for Reebok that push the limits of your imagination... somewhat. Now, watch the ad that CBS won't air. But Reebok has kindly put up on their website.

Is this a new low for TV? Or just another barrier being breached?
posted by da5id on Aug 7, 2000 - 1 comment

It's like a party in my monitor. I adore TV Party. Tons of old commercials, show snippets, and jingles. But most importantly, Supertrain, the show that seemed bad then and is even worse now! (Yet its theme stuck in my head for days on end....)
posted by hijinx on Apr 26, 2000 - 0 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