Keep your hands off my mama, keep your hands off my Doritos.
Some commercials are more than just commercials. Some commercials will live for years on Youtube, in tweets, in pop culture references, and in inside jokes.
This is why, last month, TBS showed the ten funniest commercials of 2010, as voted by the viewers of Very Funny Ads.
The host was Isaiah Mustafa, known for his role as the “man your man could be” in the Old Spice commercial, which was ranked third of the year.
Here are a few of the highlights.
One of the best was a commercial for Huggies’ Little Movers with a cute toddler, wearing a diaper that looks like jeans, who swaggers around the playground cockily. Although I doubt the utility of denim diapers, it is an ‘awww’-inspiring image. The advertisement was ranked as number six.
Number ten was a commercial for the Kia Soul car, in which three hamsters sing that “you can go with this”—a cardboard box—“or you can go with that”—a bright lime green Kia Soul. Evocative of “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” it was worth a chuckle.
Number five, an original advertisement for the Young Director Award website, featured a mother driving in a car with her daughter in the back seat when she is pulled over for speeding. The stereotypical police officer asks the girl whether mommy is in a bit of a hurry, and she mouths, “that’s not my mommy,” and shows him a sign that reads: ‘HELP.’ As the policeman pulls the woman out of the car, the daughter smiles: she is born to create drama.
Voted first was a commercial for Drench bottled water, made in the United Kingdom. A few guys have made a sort of rat maze for their pet goldfish, Mr. Memory. Whenever the goldfish becomes tired, they add more Drench water into the maze.
All in all, the commercials were nothing special. Although some were innovative, none of them made me laugh out loud, and they did not have the long-lasting quality that is necessary for the true top commercials.
I have to wonder about the judgment of the voters of Very Funny Ads, where most of the highly-viewed commercials feature either bikini-clad women or bodily functions.
Perhaps the level of humor could be best epitomized by that of Mustafa’s jokes: “That last spot came from Denmark. Well, we’re not in Denmark, which is unfortunate, because I could really go for a Danish.”