Best of Ads, Worst of Ads(in 2007)

Wall Street Journal ^ | 12/27/07 | SUZANNE VRANICA

[mylife]

Best of Ads, Worst of Ads In Pitching Products This Past Year, Gorilla Worked, but Guerrilla Didn't By SUZANNE VRANICA December 27, 2007; Page B1

Green is the new black.

Madison Avenue tried to curry favor with consumers this year by coloring products and brands with an environmental tint. A long list of companies such as General Electric Co., Chevron Corp. and Home Depot Inc. all jumped on the eco-friendly bandwagon. One Toyota Motor Corp. ad featured a Prius being created from straw, twigs and other natural elements. The gasoline-electric hybrid car is built up and then fades back into nature. [Cast your vote for the Best and Worst Ads] See clips and examples of the best and worst ads and cast your vote.

Despite the energy spent on eco-friendly marketing messages very few stood out, but being green wasn't the only way ad makers tried to grab some attention in 2007. Thanks in part to ad-skipping devices, they littered the Web with viral videos, added smells to print ads and even found ways to have pitches appear in unsuspecting places such as on TV screens on gas pumps.

[AU72]

I LOL at the “Gotta get away?” SW Airline commercial where 1 of 2 guys playing virtual baseball is told to throw a pitch and throws his control into the flat screen tv.

[reagan_fanatic]

“Hi! Billy Mays here for Ovaltine!”

I'll bet he's an s.o.b. whenever he's in a hospital or a library.

[puroresu]

There was a great McDonald’s commercial in Japan. A guy goes to a big aquarium and is viewng the fish. He has a McDonald’s bag and takes out a fry and eats it. The fish see it and start swimming in formation, as the Blue Danube waltz plays. They’re trying to impress him enough that he’ll toss them some fries. At the end of their performance, he reaches in the bag to get the fries but accidentally exposes a fish filet sandwich and the fish flee in horror.

Japanese commercials are great!

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

LOL! One of my fave Tom Waits songs!

[Antoninus]

Personally, I love these...

"Jack Link's Beef Jerky presents, messin' with sasquatch..."

[Antoninus]

I also like the "Just for Men" commercials with Keith Hernandez and Walt Clyde Frasier.

"No play for Mr. Gray..."

[FishTale]

"Nothing will beat the Verizon Wireless Razr commercial with Jim making his razr a puppet over the top of a cubical talking to Gary."

I have to go with the three young teenage girls watching the one girl's new pony she got for Christmas eating the dog house. Very good commercial.

[KosmicKitty]

Can’t compete with that one great commercial from a competitor (Cialis?) with the lovey-dovey couple taking in the beauty of the ocean coast... and the towering lighthouse.

Are thoset the ones where the couple are always sitting in two different bathtubs, outside somewhere, holding hands??

What is the point of that - I've never seen bathtubs outside unless someone is remodeling & then the tubs are always scooped up within a few hours by some guys driving around in pickup trucks looking for scrap metal to recycle!

[Inspectorette]

Worst: Mucinex. A big greenish-yellow glob of talking mucus??!!

[mylife]

IKEA

Tidy up

[helen crump]

I can’t stand any of the Viagra or similar product ads. Same goes for Gieco Cavemen. Newest one I don’t like is some cleaning woman who goes into offices and yanks shirts off men to wash them and then stands on a mountain in the end holding some flag and saying something, can’t remember what. There’s also one about some cold remedy where a guy pulls a cloth out of someones ear that says mucus and then a different guy pulls out a lot of cloths saying things like mucous, headache... That is a dumb one along with the Ricola ones.
But I do like anything Hallmark does, or Oreo, anything truly funny, or that represents the best in people.

[Mrs.Liberty]

My favorite one for this year is that one for some carpet cleaner, I think.

The mom is sitting in the living room, and from the other room, she hears her son say "Mom, come look at Spot's new trick".

So the mom looks, and the dog is wiping his behind on the carpet.

[netmilsmom]

Oh that is a good one.

“Does he bite?”

[LIConFem]

Commercials are the reason God created the "Mute" button.

But what drives me bonkers are the commercials that turn on closed-captioning in Spanish. Makes me want to beat someone senseless.

[mylife]

What an amazing line up

[LIConFem]

Saw that one. Thought it was Michael Moore hawking his newest film.

[bootless]

I love how quickly she says “Yes.” after “Does he bite?” Just perfect!

[dalereed]

“Worst TV ads of 2007: any, and I meam ANY ads with “This is Billy Mays for floor wax, toilet cleaner, epoxy putty, vegetable slicers, wall nails...”

That screaming bastard has to be the worst!

No matter how good it might sound I wouldn’t have anything he promotes if they paid me to take it.

[mylife]

Who is this guy? How did he become the word on anything?

[mylife]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SabRvYb0eE&feature=related