Judges Pick the Funniest TV Commercials
Ad veterans rate the funniest TV commercials that have aired in the US.
Aug. 8, 2009— -- In a 2003 IKEA commercial a young woman discards a red lamp on a street curb. Sitting next to a black trash bag in the rain, the lamp appears cold and lonely. Inside a nearby home, the woman lovingly touches her new lamp. A melancholy tune plays in the background, and the camera pans to the lamp as its neck sags and shade droops. Out of nowhere, a man with a Scandinavian accent pops in to say: "Many of you feel bad for this lamp. That is because you're crazy. It has no feelings. And the new one is much better."
The IKEA spot, created by ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Miami, was chosen as the funniest TV commercial among 37 viewed by six judges from the advertising industry and one in the comedy business. Market research and communication firm Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research, a unit of Omnicom Group, provided handheld meters that allowed the judges to record second-by-second reactions to the commercials, which dated from 1965.
The humor in "Lamp" was tied to emotions, pulling viewers in one direction, and then surprising them in the end, says Helayne Spivak, chief creative director of at New York's Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness, a unit of Publicis.
Click here to learn more about the funniest TV commercials at our partner site, Forbes.com.
Another popular ad among the judges started out looking somber but then took a whimsical twist. The 1996 Levi's spot featured a terribly ill hospital patient who starts singing the 1981 song "Tainted Love," by British rock band Soft Cell, when he hears the beeping of a heart monitor. Doctors chime in and revive the singing patient as his heart rate goes flat. "It actually starts out as being the complete opposite of funny," says George Dewey, executive creative director of McCann-Erickson, an Interpublic Group shop, in New York. "It's strange and then appealing because it's so original."
