MetaFilter posts tagged with commercials and ads

Play-Doh!!!

GavinR — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:11:45 -0800

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?

Bomb, Blitz, Fumble, or Pass - Super Bowl Ads Go Long

taz — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:11:35 -0800

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: 1969 - Shall we take bets on the least expensively produced Super Bowl ad ever? I'll put my money on Gillette's Techmatic razor ad, but it's also cute and clever, and a great example of vintage animation of the period. 1973 - In what was probably the first Super Bowl "superstar" ad, "Broadway" Joe Namath is so excited because he's "gonna get creamed" by Farrah Fawcett. This is a landmark ad, and the only pre-'90s entry to appear on MSNBC's list of Sleaziest Super Bowl Ads of all time. 1980 - Scary-scary Mean Joe Green melted hearts with his "Hey Kid" Coca Cola ad, which weighs in at #1 on Gawker's list of most memorable Super Bowl ads, though ESPN claims it never debuted during a Super Bowl (see bottom note). This ad was such a winner that Coca Cola hopes to recreate the magic this year with a remake, featuring Coke Zero and Pittsburgh Steeler Troy Polamalu. 1984 - Apple's 1984 ad is certainly one of the most famous Super Bowl ads ever - and also one of the most expensive advertisements in television history, with with a budget of $900,000. It clocks in at #1 on a bevy of lists of best Super Bowl ads. 1994 - With his Wavy Lays ad poor Dan Quayle proved no more exciting in marketing than he was in politics, showing up on this list of television's most forgettable Super Bowl ads. zzzzzzzz. 1999 - A former Miss USA heats up the game with Ali Landry's 1999 Doritos ad, voted by Spike as number one in its list of Sexiest Super Bowl ads. This year also featured the offensive Kenyan Runner ad, called "the ad from hell" by Salon, and voted by Adland as number one on their list of the worst Super Bowl ads ever. 2007 - CGI wins the day with Coca Cola's Happiness Factory ad, chosen by DVICE as number one in its top 10 list of Super Bowl commercials featuring technology. 2008 - While now-President Barack Obama's regional campaign ad made history, Audi's Godfather ad got a heads-up on a lot of lists as #1 for the year, and Tide cleaned up with a (previously) Cannes award-winning spot. So... with the economic situation looking fairly desperate, can we expect 2009 Super Bowl ads to be fewer and less dazzling? Well... apparently, no? BloggingStocks says 2009 Bowl ad sales are strong (or are they?), and MSNBC reports that at $3 million, Super Bowl ad time is ... cheap? Either way, the Wall Street Journal advises Super Bowl ad-watching as stock strategy, and all we know for sure is that we won't be seeing PETA's Vegetarians Have Better Sex ad.

the red invasion

Armitage Shanks — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:01:32 -0800

Horror movie or pasta sauce commercials? (The company web site is a little odd, too.) [via]

Have a Bowl of Cereal, Make a Bowl of Gut Chutney.

brain_drain — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 09:02:14 -0800

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.

Just Commercials... Really Old Ones.

amyms — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 21:01:23 -0800

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.

2007 Super Bowl ads

JPowers — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 20:14:39 -0800

2007 Super Bowl ads (note the multiple pages). And be sure to post your fav (mine = the Coke GTA spot).

"The greatest art form of the twentieth century"

CunningLinguist — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 09:32:25 -0800

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.

Superbowl Ad Roundup 2006

FeldBum — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 22:17:22 -0800

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.

'Cause we're just that capitalist.

grrarrgh00 — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 07:21:19 -0800

Tim Yang's TV Commercial Blog is sweet, sweet succor for those of you who miss the heyday of AdCritic.

Fighting the standards of taste and decency

kyleg — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 17:13:31 -0800

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.

Ads and icons

braun_richard — Mon, 20 Sep 2004 12:26:10 -0800

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?!?

Where's the beef?

braun_richard — Tue, 17 Aug 2004 16:58:28 -0800

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...)

Rate spec spots!

jasper411 — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 13:10:09 -0800

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)

Wake America from Its Bloodless Trance

Espoo2 — Sun, 09 Mar 2003 21:27:20 -0800

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.

We've got a new boss in the office

ralawrence — Thu, 06 Feb 2003 06:40:55 -0800

"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)

Cerebus — Wed, 11 Sep 2002 21:15:14 -0800

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.

josephtate — Sat, 24 Aug 2002 12:35:11 -0800

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.

WolfDaddy — Tue, 09 Jul 2002 15:51:12 -0800

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?

theplayethic — Fri, 05 Apr 2002 06:41:35 -0800

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?

preguicoso — Thu, 21 Jun 2001 10:29:29 -0800

"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...

Cavatica — Fri, 23 Mar 2001 09:08:08 -0800

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?

Brilliantcrank — Tue, 30 Jan 2001 07:54:26 -0800

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.

physics — Tue, 15 Aug 2000 14:30:27 -0800

"Ahhhhh the atmosphere" should get at least a giggle out of you. Commercials at their best.

dan_of_brainlog — Sat, 22 Jul 2000 14:41:36 -0800

IBM's Linux commercial. Part of their Avery Brooks "serious software" ad campaign, which I like a lot, I have to say.

mathowie — Fri, 11 Feb 2000 11:27:49 -0800

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.