Weird, creative, creepy? Sure, but original too. At first you think, okay, this is a woman with dandruff, so that is an interesting ad, but then, you step a little closer, you look a bit closer, and the dandruff is actually made of clear plastic "coupons" (for lack of a better word) you can user to get 10% off the "Clear" shampoo product that the ad is for. Clearly, this ad wants to stick in your mind, knowing where you got this piece of dandruff. It makes me wonder, who is the woman, and does she care that you are taking her dandruff? Some people are really obsessive about that kind of thing. Also, does someone have to go out every week, every day even and replace the "dandruff?" I can hear it now, "okay folks, let's see, Roger, you are on dandruff detail, Marcy, you are on..." Despite the weirdness, this is one of my favorite ads so far this year. Click here to view the full ad.

OK, it's not exactly an ad but I think the symbol that's being used for Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics is just awesome. It manages to use the Olympic torch and flame symbol and combine it with the Chicago skyline, which is outlined in the torch's flame very nicely.

Yeah, I might be a tad biased on this since I'm from Chicago but I still think it rocks.

Ok, this is one of my favorite commercials. "Are you agitating my dots...?" Classic. I knew a guy at my last job who would have done exactly what the guy with the cake did in this spot, and he even looked like him. Enough about dots. Sprint/Nextel is thinking about combining their account at one agency, which puts $1 Billion at stake. They are hoping that by consolidating their dots and connecting those dots with the dots of only one other agency, they will inspire the dots to be fresher, to get the dots to think in new ways and maybe create a bunch more little dots to run around and pick things up over the push-to-talk service (and boost sales). For your enjoyment, one more time, and because I love it so much:

Are you getting burned by your browser. If you don't think so, you should read about the fact that Internet Explorer was vulnerable for 284 days out of last year. Firefox is a great browser, which oddly is not what this ad shows. It simply states the Firefox is an alternative if you are getting burned by your browser. I love the PC burning slowly, being a geek, I guess I like melting stuff. Firefox's ad is simple and leave the point somewhat up to your imagination. It ends up having a surreal effect since it doesn't directly sell you anything. Quite the subtle attempt at marketing a free product. If you can't view the video below, click here.

This holiday season some vegetarian (you maybe) will invariably hear some remark from a meat-eater about how weird you are for not eating meat. Well, you won't be hearing that from me. I whole-heartedly agree with this ad from the beef people, which boldly proclaims, "We love vegetarians. More beef for us." Now, I know that the issue is sometimes the treatment of animals, or the artificial way in which beef is raised. Sometimes it is even a dietary intolerance for meat, but in any case, as this ad says, don't worry, there are plenty of us who will eat enough meat for you. This love of beef and message of unity among the world's diverse population of eaters makes a great ad because it appeals to meat-eaters and vegetarians by suggesting that hate is completely unneeded, which is oh so true. This holiday season, please remember your fellow humans and don't make remarks because of their stance of meat, there is enough of everything (meat or not) for all of us. Happy Holidays!

As kids, we all whined to our parents when they either changed their mind about going some place or put it off til later, so these commercials are a funny twist on that. A kid is playing video games and the father comes into the room and asks him if he's ready to go to Burger King. At first we think this is your typical "family goes to a restaurant" spot, but then the kid says "not right now." And then the mom comes in and both the mom and dad begin to pout and cry about going to Burger King and the kid says "don't start!" It's very clever, and it's one of those ads that parents and kids can really get a kick out of together.

There are actually two versions of this commercial. In one, the shorter one, the parents whine about going to Burger King and the kid says "I'm kinda busy here," and in "Manipulation", the parents start to cry and there's a sister involved too, who just shakes her head at how her parents are acting. Funny stuff.

Sure, I have a rather dark and twisted sense of humor, but that doesn't mean I don't have an appreciation for the cute and adorable things in life. For example, I love the Staples commercial below where an office worker uses a "copy cat" in place of a color copier in order to save money. Unfortunately, the copy cat's ability to perfectly copy an image leaves much to be desired. This is another one in a long line of Staples' "Easy Button" commercials, most of which I can take or leave, but this one stands out for me. First of all, the idea of a cat "paw painting" is very funny, and second, I love how the cat really seems to be taking his task seriously, focusing intently on his work and not letting the conversation between the two humans distract him.

Once in awhile advertisers will try to go the "weird just for the sake of weird" route, but unless it's done right, the idea just doesn't work. I think Skittles has hit on the perfect formula, however, and the commercials they've been putting out over the last year have been great both in execution and in their odd surrealism. This one features a man trading a bag of Skittles for a singing bunny, which seems like a good idea until he realizes the bunny never shuts up. He tries to return the bunny and get his Skittles back, but of course, he can't. Nothing is ever explained in this ad, you're just tossed into the story and left as confused as the poor guy in the ad. For another ad, that could be a detriment, but in this case, it works.

I almost didn't post about the new commercial for the Rozerem sleep aid drug because I felt absolutely dirty about the fact I thought a commercial from a pharmaceutical company was actually funny and clever. Usually, these commercials show random images of people doing things that have nothing to do with the drug while a voiceover tells you all the horrible side effects that can occur if you ingest it. The Rozerem commercial is different though, showing a man who has finally fallen asleep and conversing with Abraham Lincoln and a beaver in a dream. When I first saw the spot, I thought it had something to do with the month of February because that's when we celebrate Lincoln's birthday and Groundhog Day is in February, also. See, I thought the beaver was a groundhog. Now I know better. You can download and watch the ad here.

I've been meaning to mention this ad for some time, but the last time I was walking toward my computer to do some blogging I saw a squirrel outside, and, quite naturally, I had to chase after it. I chased it up into a tree and after several hours the fire department had to rescue me. I scratched up one firefighter pretty bad because I'm not comfortable around strangers.

Sorry, that was a weird bit of humor, but it's fitting because the Altoids Sours ad below is just as weird, and a bit disturbing, but call me crazy, I think it's great. It's an ad that just leaves you with mouth agape and going "Wha-huh?" There's no explanation for anything, what you see is what you get. That doesn't work all the time, but in this case it does, and it's certainly not an ad I'm going to forget anytime soon. Check it out:

Sometimes, an ad comes out that's just so understated in its humor, that it you end up remembering it better than ones that hammer you over the head with jokes. A good example of that is Ask.com's "Animals In Pants" ad.

In it, a research scientist is looking for a pot pie recipe on the web using Ask.com. He's using the site's "Binoculars" feature, which lets you preview a site before going to it. He loves it so much he says to his colleague, who's holding an orangutan in a pair of striped pants, "If you think about it, without tools we'd be just... you know..." to which a deep, kind of melancholy voice replies, "Animals in pants?"

It's the orangutan! But here's the kicker, and the subtle add-on that makes the add so much funnier to me: the scientist agrees with the orangutan, and we think the conversation is over, but then we hear the little guy say forlornly, "I'm hungry."

Awww. It's amazing how that one resignedly-delivered line makes me both laugh and feel sorry for this imaginary talking primate all at the same time. Will it get me to use Ask.com? Probably not. But at least I'm aware that it's there (and it's not called Ask Jeeves anymore). So at least they've achieved brand awareness. Now when I think of Ask, I won't think of a snooty butler, I'll think of a sad, hungry orangutan in pants. Nice going, Ask!

I stopped drinking soda of any kind a while ago -- something a nutritionist said about the caramel coloring contributing to diabetes freaked me out. But I did try Coke Zero when it came out about a year ago, and it's tastes pretty close to real Coca-Cola, at least moreso than Diet Coke. The folks at Coke think so, too, hence their new campaign: Coke-ness. The implication is that Coke Zero has a lot of Coke-ness to it, hence it's safe to call it a Coke.

The new ad that's been circulating on TV lately demonstrates this in a pretty funny way. One friend asks "What are you drinking?" and the other guy says "Coke". "But the can says Coke Zero," says the skeptical first friend. Then the Zero fan launches into a funny tirade about not believing everything you read, most funnily pointing to a menu saying "World Famous" and doubting it, saying "Like people from Katmandu are goin' crazy about these calzones." I just like the quick banter of the ad; by the time you're done laughing at the calzone line, for instance, another funny line is right behind it.

The last line of the ad is really funny, too, but I won't spoil it for you; just watch the ad here and see for yourself.

I don't know if this is a new ad, and it doesn't appear to be on the M&Ms Web site, but it's new to me, and I find it really funny. The ad features the yellow and red M&Ms (voiced by JK Simmons and Billy West, as always) as rowing slaves on a Viking ship. The problem is that they actually enjoy their work, which angers their overseer. The two candy-coated chocolates lead the other slaves in a rendition of "Row Row Row Your Boat," which is kind of funny, though not especially original. The real kicker, however, comes when the overseer looks around to see who started it and begins to ask, "I'd like to know where..." and Red finishes his sentence with "...you got the notion?" thus leading into another sing-along, this time to "Rock the Boat" by the Hues Corporation. I love the anti-authoritarian vibe of this commercial, and it's also just plain funny. Or peanut funny, as it were.

Somebody call Ron Popeil, because I just discovered a revolutionary new invention!

I'm not sure how many markets this ad runs in, but it makes me laugh every time I watch it. Now, on its surface, the ad isn't that impressive. It's just your typical commercial for a tool that will revolutionize the way you work, make life easier, replace your existing tools, blah blah blah. The MXZ Saw can pretty much cut through anything, and this commercial demonstrates it, showing the saw slicing through concrete blocks, steel, hard rubber, a padlock ... wait, a padlock? Yes, a padlock. The commercial is, essentially, a lesson in how to break into someone's home or automobile, complete with a handy little number at the end to order the tool you need to commit your break in. I figure as long as they're going after the often overlooked thief demographic they should go ahead and market their own brand of chloroform, too. People gotta make a living, you know.