Hal Riney, a legendary ad man, has died at age 75. Hal Riney has died of cancer. You may have heard his voiceovers for First Union's PBS sponsorship ads, chuckled at his ingenious fictional 'every person' wine producers Bartles and Jaymes or been blown away or utterly disgusted by his Reagan presidential campaign ad series Morning In America (rumor has it that Riney was a Democrat), worked with him or for him at Hal Riney & Partners or Publicis & Hal Riney in San Francisco, or marveled at how his agency made Saturn a major player in the auto industry (while obscuring it was just another GM product!). So long, Hal!
posted on Mar 25, 2008 - View this thread

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 on Nov 12, 2007 - View this thread

Not without some controversy, the advertising industry collectively patted itself on the back again while competing for lions at the Cannes Advertising Festival last week. All the winning commercials are now viewable on-line. The Cannes Fringe provided more insight, while others attempted to distill the festival's essence via text-mining; meantime, Cannes't had its ears to the ground. One of the few alternative events: The Coney Island Advertising Festival (which could presumably feature the best illegal advertising). My personal short-list among the winning films (all .mov's): Epuron - The Power of Wind ; Pot Noodle - Intro, Italy/Wales ; Altoids - Banana Hands Allen ; Axe 3 - Crashes ; Vaseline - Sea of Skin ; Big Yellow Storage - Tide ; Discovery Channel - In A Man's Life ; as well as the Grand Prix winner Dove - Evolution.
posted on Jun 28, 2007 - View this thread

East Germany suffers from a posthumous image problem. People think that life in the former GDR was a dreary round of dodging the secret police and mandatory attendance at Boy-Loves-Tractor films. Nothing could be further from the truth. Life in the GDR was fun. You could take pictures with ORWO Film (mildly NSFW. Five seconds of toplessness at 1:15). You could zip through the countryside in your MZ. You could fit every soccer ball in the neighborhood in your Wartburg. And for the ultimate in class-conscious, revolutionary mackitude, there was the Trabant. If these little clips aren’t enough, if you want a whole bunch of East German commercials, here’s a long video called Flotter Osten (Again, mildly NSFW: Same topless shot for about five seconds at 8:07).
posted on May 6, 2007 - View this thread

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

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 on Dec 23, 2006 - View this thread

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 on Feb 2, 2006 - View this thread

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 on Oct 28, 2005 - View this thread

Some people said they sucked, but either way they're all here: the 2005 Super Bowl Commercials courtesey iFilm. Meanwhile ESPN dished up an all-time top ten list for Super Bowl commercials and had the readers do the same. (previous posting attempt credit to Doohickie)
posted on Feb 9, 2005 - View this thread

Everything about the Super Bowl ads is here. You can vote on your favorites and least favorites, see what the experts picked, see the controversial spots that didn't make the cut, and more. (There are also links to info about some game that was played yesterday). My favorites? The Ameriquest ads: the one where the cat knocks over the sauce and it looks to the girlfriend like the guy is killing the cat, and the ad where the guy at the convenience store is mistaken for a robber.
posted on Feb 7, 2005 - View this thread

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 on Jan 24, 2005 - View this thread

Meet The Lucky Ones. (more...)
posted on Jan 11, 2005 - View this thread

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 on Sep 20, 2004 - View this thread

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 on Aug 17, 2004 - View this thread

Friday Fun! It's good to see a local advertiser with the guts to go for a "funny" ad campaign. I imagine these get a good response. If I lived in Oregon, this place would get my business (well, if they sold Hondas). Viva la Trunk Monkey!
posted on Jul 9, 2004 - View this thread

Why won't Ron Jeremy say 'penis' on the air? This and many more important questions are pondered at the Ridiculous Infomercial Review. If you click in the next 20 minutes, you'll receive Matthew Lesko's wardrobe, absolutely free!!
posted on Jan 27, 2004 - View this thread

The World Federation of Advertisers 50th Anniversary Hall of Fame 1953-2003
posted on Nov 1, 2003 - View this thread

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 on Jun 2, 2003 - View this thread

Yes, we all HATE Carrot Top... but AT&T has the last laugh.
posted on May 5, 2003 - View this thread

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 on Apr 22, 2003 - View this thread

TV Censorship? This advert has just been banned from British TV after a record number of complaints were made about it.

What do you think of it?
posted on Mar 19, 2003 - View this thread

Best ad campaigns of the last 20 years Adweek posts its list of the 20 best ad campaigns over the last 20 years. Of the 20, two were single commercials rather than entire campaigns. One was Apple's "1984" ad; I won't spoil the other one for you.
posted on Jan 15, 2003 - View this thread

And my opponent was all like beepbeepbeepbeepbeep... Bob Ehrlich is running for governor of Maryland. Bob Ehrlich's ad agency has seen the Apple ads and likes what it sees. Bob Ehrlich and his agency think it would be a great idea to jump the Zeitgeist Train: "I used to be a Democrat, but I'm switching."
posted on Oct 22, 2002 - View this thread

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 on Oct 17, 2002 - View this thread

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 on Oct 14, 2002 - View this thread

The Commercial Closet. The world's largest collection of gay advertising.
posted on Oct 8, 2002 - View this thread

Ludacris Barks Back At Pepsi... Papa Roach does pornos, Britney is sluttier than ever, but they get the thumbs up. How did this happen?
posted on Sep 10, 2002 - View this thread

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 on Aug 24, 2002 - View this thread

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 on May 30, 2002 - View this thread

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 on May 27, 2002 - View this thread

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 on Apr 5, 2002 - View this thread

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 on Jan 23, 2002 - View this thread

Watching the golden globes there was a commercial for something called mlife, so this link works, and is quite content-free. anyone have any ideas, other than this :) which somehow i don't think is cool enough for a big ad-campaign.
posted on Jan 20, 2002 - View this thread

Is it me or does this animated beer ad owe a not inconsiderable debt to this internet 'classic' (their phrase)? WARNING! WMV and Flash links respectively, also whilst I'm at it, WARNING! Ladies Beer and Language/Dismemberment respectively.
posted on Dec 23, 2001 - View this thread

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 on May 27, 2001 - View this thread

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 on Jan 18, 2001 - View this thread

AdCritic has finally posted my favorite commercials: a series of ads for the Fox Regional Sports Report. They present intriguing new sports from around the world. Areas covered include China, India, Russia, South Africa, and Turkey.
posted on Dec 25, 2000 - View this thread

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 on Sep 22, 2000 - View this thread

"Ahhhhh the atmosphere" should get at least a giggle out of you. Commercials at their best.
posted on Aug 15, 2000 - View this thread

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 on Aug 7, 2000 - View this thread

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

Amtrak is running one of the most bizarre promotions ever. Yesterday, I saw a bunch of billboards along the freeways saying "Do you have a face that can stop a train?" Below that was this URL: winafacelift.com. How a train company and facelifts go together, I don't know. It's almost as if they want their slogan to be "when you're too ugly for plane travel, take a train."
posted on May 14, 2000 - View this thread

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 on Feb 11, 2000 - View this thread

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 on Jan 30, 2000 - View this thread

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 on Jan 12, 2000 - View this thread