Monday, December 8, 2008

TIME's Top 10 TV Ads of 2008

Click here to watch/read

TIME has released the Top 10 Everything of 2008. Lists include albums, buzzwords, campaign moments, gadgets, books, movies, photos, and even TV ads. Right up my alley.

I'm not very fond of these lists. For one, they're ordered from 1-10. I think they should go from 10-1 to build anticipation and excitement for the #1 item. And silly TIME.com lists each item on its own separate page. Very annoying to click through. Finally, the lists I've seen aren't that great. No Dark Knight in top movies and Love Lockdown as song of the year!? Yuck. Unfortunately, the TV ad list also fails to impress.

#10. It's 3 a.m.
Not worthy. Hillary, pick up the damn phone already.

#9. Guitar Hero's dream band
Not worthy. Just because you can assemble multiple celebrities doesn't mean you should throw them all in the same spot while imitating Risky Business.

#8. Obama's infomercial
Worthy, but only for the epicness of the spot. This half hour ad was a huge purchase for the Obama campaign, which obviously saw successful results on election day.

#7. Visa's Olympic tearjerker
Worthy. I really liked this commercial. It was moving, and didn't end in the classic "USA wins" kind of way.

#6. Old Spice's meta-humor
Not worthy. Not funny.

#5. Scorsese to direct AT&T
Worthy, but maybe for a movie theater where this would have aired (not TV.)

#4. I'm a PC

Worthy, but not for #4. I would include these commercials simply for their attempt to combat Apple's dominance.

#3. Fate, according to Nike

Worthy! For #1! Loved loved loved this ad. Everything was perfectly done, especially the music.

#2. Fed Ex's horror flick
Not worthy. Funny, but not Top 10 funny.

#1. T-Mobile's NBA series
Not worthy. It was good, yeah. But it was all one idea: retired Barkley can't stop calling current b-ball phenom Dwayne Wade. The convos were predictable and not all that laughable.

Overall, it seems like they tuned in during prime time one night and randomly picked ten commercials they saw. Kind of sad. Also, I feel much better about posting Youtube videos in posts now. I used to fear that it was a cheap act to embed videos from an external source due to the unpredictability of the host as well as other factors... but if TIME can do it, I think my ass is covered. Atleast I try to give you guys the best quality; some of the videos on their list looked like they were shots taken of TV screens, a very unprofessional display.

2 comments:

Justice said...

I disagree with you on quite a few of them. If you have a top ten list, I'd love to see it. I think at least 7 of them are worthy to some extent.

10. Not necessarily hilarious or interesting or anything, but incredibly recognizable. I can't even really recall another election-related commercial from this year. Deserving if only for that reason.

9. I think it's a pretty good commercial. Most video game commercials are bland and boring. This one at least takes something from the game and relates it to a bigger concept. Plus, it shows four people playing the different instruments, which is new to the GH series.

8. Probably seen it before, but it's not up on youtube anymore.

7. Good commercial, I agree.

6. I agree in the sense that this commercial sucks, but Old Spice commercials are generally pretty good. Out of the past two years or so, this is easily the worst commercial they have made.

5. I'm pretty sure I've seen this commercial before, but I'm not sure where (I don't go to the movies much). Not sure of my opinion on this.

4. Apple dominates? That's news to me. The only thing Apple really dominates is the mp3 player industry, although they are starting to make a dent in the computer industry. Good commercials though, from both sides.

3. I do very much agree with you on that. Worthy of number one. It's like a short film.

2. Eh, I'm not crazy about it. Definitely not top 2.

1. This is where I disagree most. These are some of the funniest commercials for me. Note that it's not one commercial. It's the entire series. Originally the series is about how Wade is trying to get into Chuck's "Five." So the irony in it is that once he gets in, Barkley is terribly annoying. Furthermore, I don't see how any of it is predictable. You predicted that Barkley was going to say, "And that's why I don't eat shrimp!"? That's pretty incredible to me. Fantastic ESP right there. Anyway, great commercials, and the newest one with Yao tops the others, in my opinion.

Then again, I'm a basketball fan and that's pretty typical Barkley if you've ever seen him.

sdrawkcabton88 said...

Hey, CANADAISALIE. Thanks for reading and commenting.

I think our main differences may be in what kind of Top 10 list Time was trying to put out. I had more of an idea that the list should have been "the best" as in good production, witty content, good brand recognition, etc. (Then again, these factors might just be MY definition of best.)

If this list was just "most popular" or "having the most impact" then I suppose some of the commercials in the list deserve to be in there, like 10, 9, and 4.

By the way, my reference to Apple's domination was in the sense of their advertising. They have always been the "cool" brand, and Microsoft tried to take away some of their cool with their ads this year.

As for the T-Mobile spots, maybe I was a little harsh. But "I'm going through a tunnel."? Even people without my exceptional ESP abilities could have seen that one coming.

I don't follow basketball all that much, maybe that's why I didn't get it/like it.

I considered making a 2008 top ten list, but I just started this blog in August and havn't been keen on all of the commercials year round. This year I'll make one... maybe even a half year list.

Thanks again for your time!

PS~ Why do you hate Canada so much? lol