My Search For The Rare Great TV Ad Reveals A Few Finds

With my well documented hatred of most advertising because it's stupid, here's another effort at positive reinforcement, which I do from time to time, to tell advertisers how it's done.

A screen shot from an excellent Bell's Whiskey
ad in South Africa  

I still have not found the logic behind most television ads, which operate on the premise that if you irritate the viewer, they will buy your product.

Maybe I'm just weird because I'm the opposite. A well-done, engaging ad might encourage me to buy, otherwise, not so much.

So, in the interest of being helpful to the ad agencies, here's a few good ones, most of them found in an occasion series of articles about advertising at vice.com

First, we have this heartwarming one from Bell's Whiskey in South Africa, called "The Reader.":




Here's a great newer ad for the new citizenM Hotel in Times Square (yes, it's lower case "c" on "citizen" just to be different.

Like the ad. It's a great stop-motion feature with two towel swans. It plays up the cliches of luxury, romantic hotels. And it's a got a great punch line:





And here's a four year old commercial for Volkswagon, that reminds me of the song "Little Old Lady From Pasadena." It's pretty funny, and the song playing in the background makes it that much tackier, which I love:




Next we have this clever Russian ad from a few years back about a guy searching for an insurance company, and finding customer service at one company to be a bit lacking:





Often, public service annoucements are the best ads. This is no exception. It's from Reporters Without Borders. an organization that advocates for full, unfettered press freedom worldwide. They get their message across wonderfully with this ad. The music in the background makes the video even more perfect: