Awesome Commercials

It’s time for holiday commercials to start rolling out, and UK store John Lewis is back with another heartfelt ad for 2014. If this story of a boy and his penguin doesn’t give you the feels, you’re dead inside. And no, that’s not Coldplay.

This classic 1970s commercial for Rainier Beer features a woman named Marlene, who describes their light brew in soft and dulcet tones. But all bets are off when her husband Bob asks her to bring him one.

IKEA Singapore pays tribute to Stanley Kubrick’s classic horror film The Shining, following a child on his tricycle as he winds his way through the store. This confirms what we already knew – shopping at IKEA can be the stuff of nightmares.

In this kinetic art by artist Fabian Oefner, a Ferrari California T was placed in a wind tunnel. Then various colors of ultraviolet paint were splattered onto the car, with the spectacle shot under UV light.

This amusing commercial for Finland’s ZYX cough drops uses the gravelly and guttural voice of a death metal vocalist to prove its point. This is so much better than those old Ricola ads.

Philips shows how long it took for incandescent and fluorescent bulbs to be rendered obsolete by multicolored and programmable LED bulbs such as its Hue series, with the help of what can only be a family of vampires.

The North Face Korea punked customers when they turned one of its stores’ dressing room into a fairly elaborate trap. Then they enticed shoppers with a dare. Nothing like consumerism to get you moving.

To promote their collision avoidance tech, Volkswagen fitted bumper cars at a theme park with ultrasonic sensors and automatic braking to prevent them from hitting each other. They got the point across, but also wrecked the fun.

We’re not too sure that a simple Snickers bar possesses the magical powers suggested here, but watching the maladroit Mr. Bean trying to be a stealthy ninja is well worth the price of admission.

YouTuber Marcopepito shares this banned BBC Sport ad for the 2012 Six Nations Championship, a rugby tournament involving Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Italy, France and of course England. Whoever banned this is a curmudgeon.

An unseen predator struggles to keep up with the McLaren 650s GT3 in this cruel tease of an ad. This is one of the rare opportunities that we’ll ever get to see and hear it flexin’, so turn the volume up.

Actor Jeff Goldblum and co-star Awesome Wig present a hilariously offbeat commercial to promote General Electric’s high-tech Link LED lightbulbs. Directed by the madcap comedy duo of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim.

A valet-in-training at the Casino di San Remo thought he was assigned to handle the vehicles of a luxurious gala’s attendees, but the night was actually all set up for him. Captions available. Watch the behind the scenes here.

Matthew McConaughey has continued to channel his dark and introspective “time is a flat circle” side in those recent Lincoln commercials. So leave it to Ellen DeGeneres to lighten the mood a bit as Matt encounters a bull in his new MKC.

Sennheiser chose to promote its new Urbanite headphones using the tried and tested Old Spice route. Watch as a German dressed as a pair of headphones pampers a huge and hairy ear. Join the Urbanite giveaway here.

For many pedestrians, the don’t walk sign is merely a suggestion. Carmaker Smart found a way to make people stop. It set up motion capture booths where people danced, and turned them into eye-catching signs. Making of here.