Posts tagged "commercial"

American advertising execs thought they were being clever when they came up with the ubiquitous Got Milk? campaign that's put a thick leche mustache on one too many celebrities. But their counterparts on the other side of the pond have one upped them with a hilarious TV commercial for the Cravendale dairy company that's been running on teles across the U.K.

Narrated by "Rocky Horror Picture Show" star Tim Curry, the spot features a posse of felines that suddenly sprout opposable thumbs and gang up on an unsuspecting, milk-pouring man. We don't want to give away too much -- watch the video below -- but there may be a sinister-looking kitty delicately filing her claws in one scene.

The Packers may be getting all the press after the big game yesterday, but do you know who was the real super star of the Super Bowl? Dogs! That's right, two of the top three commercials from the event featured funny pooches. And they weren't just dogs doing doggie-dog things. The two ads that are tied for the No. 1 spot on the 2011 USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter featured pups acting like -- you guessed it -- people.

The Doritos ad (above) shows a dopey guy standing inside the house with a bag of Doritos, teasing a cute -- yet hungry -- pug outside. As you might expect, the joke is on the human when the pug hilariously crashes through the door to get the chip.

While Paris Hilton is credited with bringing chihuahuas to the red carpet, it was Gidget who brought lilliputian pups to the mainstream. Best known for her gender bending role as a suave male chihuahua in the Taco Bell ad campaign, Gidget passed away Tuesday night at the age of 15.

"She made so many people happy," Gidget's trainer, Sue Chipperton told People.com. "Gidget always knew where the camera was."

Taco Bell's dog-centric commercials first aired in 1997 debuting the catchphrase "¡Yo quiero Taco Bell!" Further slogans "Drop the chalupa!" and "Viva Gorditas!" soon followed. Gidget shared the spotlight for some time with another chihuahua, Dinky, who played her female love interest, but as with most Hollywood stories, Gidget snatched the spotlight for herself.

After Taco Bell retired the commercials in 2000, Gidget went on to play Bruiser's mom in "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, and Blonde" (check her out at 9:05 in this clip) along with a cameo in a Geico commercial.

In proper sendoff tradition, we take a look at Gidget's finest screen moments.

Thanks to the advent of Tivo, we rarely sit through commercials anymore. But the other day, we were watching syndicated reruns of The Office when the sight of a cubicle quick-triggered our thumbs to the play button.

Sneakily enough, it was not Dunder Mifflin but an ad for Vitamin Water, with the office in question belonging to their rival company Water Incorporated: CEO'd by Mother Nature and run by a menagerie of woodland creatures. It's like The Office meets Country Bear Jamboree!

The premise is that a new all-natural Vitamin Water product is cutting into Water Inc.'s market share. But all we really care about is an elk Xeroxing his bum and an agitated rabbit (aka Frank Tonhazy, Head of Finance) demanding his 34th paternity leave of the year.




As if the commercials weren't cute enough, we wandered over to the website, which boasts profiles and videos of the animal employees (such as bear turned office manager Ned Specter), company bulletins ("Pest Control will be in the building next Friday. All insects and arachnids are instructed to take the day off.") and staff chatter ("Squeekz43: Whoever left the trap out, nice try--I only eat Gruyere.").

Note: This is not a paid product endorsement. We just really like the ad campaign.