This isn’t going to be a long a post because it’s potentially controversial. These are the best advertisements of all-time – in our humble opinion. We’ve spoken before about BAD PRODUCT PLACEMENT AT THE MOVIES but this is a chance for us to not hate on the advertisers. We’re reluctant to shine a light on the topic as just by way of talking about the advert, positive or negative, the advert has worked. The product is on the lips of the consumer and this makes me feel weak. But ignoring all that crap, let’s just appreciate the art form. 1-2 minutes to tell a story. A joke, a trick, most times to tell you how amazing a product is but in the following examples, moments of pure genius that are a pleasure to watch. They do not necessarily make me want to invest, they just make me want to watch more of this kind of thing. So I’m going to show you the advert from YouTube, tell you all about why I like it and how it made me all warm inside:


But first, a word from our sponsors…


THE BEST ADVERTISEMENTS OF ALL-TIME

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION

This all stems from becoming a student in Manchester and frequently visiting the old Odeon cinema on Oxford Street (the bottom of Oxford Road, which becomes a “street” if you didn’t know already…). These idents would be shown before every movie. In a period when me and my girlfriend (now wife) would go and watch any old crap at 10am in the morning to recover from a hangover instead of sitting through a lecture, these images and sounds were like medicine for the soul:

 

COSY CARS AND A KILLER SOUNDTRACK

Pretty, light and fluffy. It probably took this advert to realise just how good the soundtrack to The Sound of Music is. And how flawless her voice is:

I loved this and still do. Timed to perfection but it’s computer animated – isn’t it…?

COLOUR!

What better way to talk about high definition televisions than with some visual beauty! The challenge is to find something that will look good on any old TV set, so it’s all about the bright colours, the wide pan shots and the slow-mo…

Same as above, but is the clown really necessary? Sick bastards…

FANCY A PINT?

Once voted the greatest of all-time, it’s 20 years old now. Has it been beaten?

NIKE FOOTBALL

Did you know it was Terry Gilliam behind the camera for this famous Nike advert? No neither did we…

This is ambitious to say the least, but there is such skill at which it pans from one scene to the next. The execution in the transformation as each new player is introduced, the Hulk even coming to life as children’s ideas and dreams are realised with a ball at their feet really does capture the beautiful game at it’s best…

But is anything more beautiful than when the Brazilians are at the peak of their powers? Never has waiting at the airport been this much fun:

COMEDY

One of my biggest gripes in life is when poor comedy becomes mainstream. It’s a tough topic actually because ANYTHING becoming mainstream usually means the beginning of the end. We kind of like being one of a few to be in on the in-joke and there’s also the balance of your heroes selling their soul to the devil.

See here what Bill Hicks had to say about the matter.

But despite all these dangers, it is still possible to do it well:

 

For more of this kind of stuff, can I recommend this following article about Stop-Motion animation? Try it, you might like it: https://thejournalix.com/dearth-stop-motion-animation/