Advertising: TV Commercial Roundup

• Sounds like Blockbuster has replaced Alec Baldwin with Albert Brooks for their TV commercial voice-over. Presumably because he was calling renters at home, chastising them for their overdue videos. "Once again, I have made an ass of myself trying to get to a phone to remind you that your movie is four days late. I am going to fly out there to Des Moines to straighten you out, you rude little pig. You do not have the common decency of a human being to return 'Oceans 11', or 'Oceans 12', or whatever it is. You have humiliated me for the last time." (Credit Robb with the Oceans joke.) Anyway, this switch is ironic because Baldwin actually replaced Brooks on "Glengarry Glen Ross".
  
• That American Express commercial with Martin Scorsese, Sheryl Crowe, Andre Agassi, Alicia Keys, Ellen DeGeneres and Carrot Top - is that the best they could come up? The non-actors sound so dead, the whole thing drags, and who thought Ellen's "punchline" was remotely funny?
  
• I don't like that Ask.com "chicks with swords" ad either. The guy is creepy. And the whole concept is hinky. Did they think, "let's appeal to straight guys by showing half-naked women, and gay guys by doing a musical number"?
  
• Here's a web news item on a commercial campaign that Ask.com ran in the UK. It's interesting only for the little monkey reading the news. She has a terrible voice (and says "Brit-ain" in an odd way) but she's got something.
  
• Here's a great ad - for British mobile phone company Talk Talk.
  
• Another good one - VW ad with hand shadows.
  
• And by the way, Wilco sold out and are allowing VW to use their songs. (CMJ story.)
  
• iPhone commercial from Conan O'Brien.