Betting and gambling companies have been responsible for some of the best and funniest sports related ads hitting our television and the internet over recent years. Here are some of our favourites.

[Read more →]

We have all laughed or been motivated by many a sporting ad over the years, with most focussing around soccer or football. However, with the US Open set to start on Monday it is time to look back at some of the best tennis ads in recent times.

[Read more →]

Modern technology has turned commercials, one of the foundations of the American television viewing experience, into a shadow of their former selves. Ads are now easily avoided thanks to the plethora of viewing options that allow the view to skip over ads altogether, limiting the cultural resonance of even the best campaigns.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t good commercials out there. While many Americans can watch their Netflix-streamed seasons of Mad Men and Breaking Bad sans commercials, sports fans remain a captive audience for Madison Avenue to broadside with uber-cool ads, because sports are still best enjoyed live. The incentive to do commercials big and flashy is higher than ever before.

There are a slew of quality sports-themed ads on television right now, hawking products from insurance to the new edition of the FIFA video game franchise (but no Betfair Football or other betting ads as this is the US). Here are some of the best.

[Read more →]

Football advertising has seen it’s share of great and not so great ad campaigns over the years – but when done right, football ads have the capacity to unite, engage and build common ground with football fans worldwide. No other sports gives you the sort of global access that football can, and as a result, a football ad (be it Betfair or Nike) can reach far more people than your run-of-the-mill product ad spot.

Here’s a look at some of the best football ads:

[Read more →]

Back in August, Sam Katz, the incumbent mayor of Winnepeg accidentally kicked a teen in the head during a charity soccer match between some adult city workers and a team of kids from the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba. The video went viral and achieved semifame on the internet among Canadians. Now a clip from that video has shown up in a hilarious mock ad supposedly paid for by an unknown group called “FOPATKITFOC” or, “the Friends of People Against the Kicking in the Face of Children.” Nice.

Robert Mackey at the New York Times blog calls it the “mock Canadian attack ad of the year”.
Check out the original video of the facekick, complete with audio:
[Read more →]

In the Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode “Paddy’s Pub: Home of the Original Kitten Mittens”, the gang tries to come up with various marketable products in an attempt to build the Paddy’s Pub brand.

Frank comes up with a gun that shoots alcohol directly into your mouth, Mac comes up with the dick-towel (http://www.dicktowel.com/), and Charlie comes up with the now world-famous ‘Kitten Mittons’. An excellent episode about advertising and marketing. Best episode yet. Check out the complete, uncensored Dick Towel video after the jump:
[Read more →]

When I was a kid, there was this freaky weirdo in my class who used to wipe his nose on his sleeve. We used to call him names like “greensleeves” and “slimer” and “asshole”. Little did we know that he was using the “proper” method of sneezing and coughing. Boy, do I feel stupid now. I bet he invented this thing.
[Read more →]

I would imagine that after attaching such a strange contraption to your face while on a plane, one would actually find it more difficult to nap, mostly because of the uncomfortable mumblings from your fellow passengers and all the painful taserings from federal air marshals.
[Read more →]

This is the new McDonald’s commercial that’s generating all the interest online. It’s called “Come As You Are”.

In it, a teenage boy sits in a McDonald’s, wistfully looking at his class picture and caressing it with his finger while talking to the obvious object of his affection on the phone. As his father approaches, he quickly hangs up and then listens to his dad tell him how much of a ladies’ man he was at his son’s age. The eventual reveal is that the son goes to an all boys school, so the object of his affection on the other end of the phone was another boy. That’s a twist ending worthy of M. Night Shyamalan.
[Read more →]

The Problem: Budweiser’s sales were down 9% last year and are down another 9% this year. The brand’s been losing customer loyalty consistently over the past 5-10 years, as can be seen in their ranking among national product brands – which slipped from 16th in 2003 to 220th in 2010.

The Reason: The major beer drinking age demographic, 21-34 year olds, consists of ironic hipsters and testosterone-challenged “progressives” who are switching to microbrews, wine, and abominations like Smirnoff Ice in droves. In fact, microbreweries specifically have more than doubled their production since 2004.

What Budweiser is doing about it: Good advertising…
[Read more →]