TV commercials
As always, it was a close race. Which commercial would be chosen the year's worst, enshrined into the MSNBC.com Hall of Fame along with Digger the Dermatophyte, the woman plugging a boat leak with Tampax, and HeadOn? (Apply directly to your forehead!) There were plenty of strong contenders for the "worst" honor, whereas your choices for "best" ad were kind of all over the place.
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On Tuesday, I offered up links to a batch of your favorite TV commercials (couldn't get to them all, but tried to find the most frequently mentioned ads). Now it's time to let the really bad ads have their due. Consider yourself warned: Watch these commercials at your own risk.
These aren't the only ads in contention, so feel free to mention other ads, or comment on these, in the comments. And then give thanks for TiVo and the blessed fast-forward button.
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We're down to the last week of the TV commercial contest. I'll announce the results on Tuesday, Aug. 28. But as a refresher, here's as many clips as I could find of some of the front-runners in the "best ad" category. (I'll add the "worst ad" links later this week.)
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Our summer TV commercial contest is winding down. I'll announce the winner -- and the big loser -- on Tuesday, Aug. 28. But before we get there, let's discuss one of the hot-button topics relating to TV commercials: Ads for personal products, from hygiene items to medications to birth control and more.
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We've been discussing the good, the bad, and the ugly TV commercials for most of the summer. It's turned out to be quite easy this year to find some purely awful ads, but a lot tougher to find good ones that we can get a consensus on.
We'll see what happens in our new polls. I've pored over past posts and comments and selected 13 frequently mentioned good ads, and 13 bad ones. If you don't see your favorite or least favorite commercials mentioned, that doesn't mean they can't still win -- please post them in the blog comments, I may have forgotten a top contender.
Vote here for the BEST commercial.
Vote here for the WORST commercial.
Obviously 2007 isn't yet over, but shoot for ads that have aired this calendar year (and which haven't won the contest before). It's OK if the ad is one of a series that's been around for a while...so many people mentioned Mac vs. PC that I included that series, because Apple keeps making new versions. For some ads, I mention a very specific commercial, for others, I mention a concept -- it depended on whether a certain ad seemed to catch viewers' notice or the entire series did.
As happens almost every year, there's one ad that really splits the audience. Half the viewers seem to love it, half can't stand it. The Geico Cavemen have split your vote in the past, but this year it's the text-messaging kid in the "IDK, my BFF Jill" ad. You'll see that commercial in both polls, so vote as you like.
The poll will not be the final determination of who wins -- online polls are incredibly easy to fix for any bored Web surfer with a few minutes to spare. But I'm hoping it will help narrow down the competitors. Vote away!
I love regional commercials. Many of them are amateurish, which either lends to the charm, or lends to the laughter. And since so much of our nation has become homogenized, with the same big-box stores and chain restaurants from San Jose to Syracuse, it's almost shocking to watch an ad for a store or business you've never even heard of.
In my home state of Minnesota, one of the most memorable regional ads was for a chain of home-improvement stores called Menards. CONTINUED >>
I've been busy with the TV critics' summer press tour, but yes, the TV commercial contest is still on. We've received plenty of nominees for worst ads (can anyone beat the creepy Sour Skittles milking man?), but are still kind of hunting around for a GOOD ad. Add any nominations in the comments.
Our past winners have been the Citibank identity theft ads, the HP "Frames" ad, and the talking cows for Real California Cheese. The HP ad was a marvel of technology and photography, but the other two winners both won, in part, because they hit viewers right on the funny bone. CONTINUED >>
When I left for the TV critics' summer press tour, I had high hopes of interspersing TV commercial-contest posts with my updates about the new fall shows. Ha. Yeah. We plan, God laughs. As you may have noticed, that's just not happening. The tour is pretty all-consuming, and I'd hate to skip a panel on an old favorite show, or what could be the hot new show of the fall.
So I'll start this post and what's called an open thread, meaning all topics about TV commercials are pretty much fair game here (decency rules apply, duh). You can revisit one of the topics we've already discussed, bring up a new topic, or just share your nominations for best/worst ads this year. CONTINUED >>
Let's take a one-day break from hashing over current commercials and go back in time. YouTube is wonderful for many things, but one of them is that it acts as a little time machine, allowing you to go back into your past and revisit videos you have completely forgotten about, from old movie clips to news events to yes, even vintage commercials.
Obviously, none of these Ye Olde Ads are eligible for our contest, but they're sure a lot of fun to watch, even if you don't remember seeing them the first time around. CONTINUED >>
Ugh, the creepy commercial discussion was so creepy it kind of disturbed me. I think we need a cleansing breath. How about moving on to that oh-so-rare find, commercials we actually like? Why there's... And of course... And don't forget... No, seriously, there have to be some, right?
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