The purpose of humans is "Monkey see monkey do" ... which is why I love the new Budweiser commercials ... copes of the milk commercial ... that show we are dumber and more predicatable than monkeys. Commercials all say, "Be like me .. I did it so you can do ... it made me happier ... thinner ... richer ... yada."

I was going to respond with a bit of wry, perhaps, even slightly twisted humor (I’ll reserve the twisted shark bit for some kind of brainstorming forum that Marc may add to this wonderful site at some later time), but seriously…dolphins, porpoises, whales and sharks also have been used very effectively. Humans just love seeing them. Something in our psyche is touched by them. Sharks are a particularly interesting case in that you don't always have to see them in the spot. Just the suggestion that they are around or "out there", or simply a dorsal fin or two, is enough to evoke powerful human emotions…sometimes even a touch of humor. Interesting stuff.

I think it depends on the product, audience, and time. I agree that babies and animals are attention-getting; however, would you want to use a baby for an alcohol commercial?

So here is the question are the ads for ad people or people...I loved the Subs but most people didnt...though I want to meet the account rep that sold that in... Babies make nuts...dont get me wrong I love babies but baby talking babies in commercials make me gag...though I like the concept of used babies...jaded creative.

i loooooooved the Quiznos ads. It's the first time I've ever gone to a company's website after watching a commercial, scouring the web for info about it and emailing it to all of my friends. i'd get so excited everytime it came on tv, because they were just so weird, i couldn't help but be drawn to them. seth stevenson wrote a great review of it on slate.com - you can search the archives.

Great stories Chibi.

Very funny and true. My CD has this personal effort to put puppies in every storyboard we are doing, and always rejected by our clients since doggies are restricted in this so-called Moslem country (sigh). Another thing that I have learned that migth works : 1. Make a beauty ad looks like a household ad ordo it the other way around. help to make an unexpected pay off ending (i guess) 2. Invertebrates can be ok sometimes. I like this green tea ad from Thai who won gold at Cannes. they use 3d animated worm who climbed up to the top of a tea tree, because the best tea leave is on the top, only to find that it has gone, taken by the brand (which only use the best tea leaves). Great idea, very funny execution :)

Well it is a joke but it also works.

haha! This is even stuff they've told us in class here. I've always hoped the joking manner in which it was said really made it joke. Guess not.

and I was thinking of going to the Quiz for lunch...

...(barfed over shoes)

Oh I did date a guy once who would say in a deep sort of cutsie voice "doggies" when a comercial with a dog came on or "kibbies" for cats...or whatever animal as well...he also did it forl "old lady" or "babies"then he would chortle a bit. An otherwise attractive and intelligent person would have a forest gump moment in response to this type of advertising.

Marc you forgot they all have to be singing and dancing and in heaven.

At BBDO I learned the above, and:

Use fat, doofy guys who do something stupid and make a funny look afterwards, or get a frown from their wife.

Use a celebrity and put them in an unexpected situation

Use a fat guy who runs into a celebrity in an unexpected situation and does something stupid. His wife stares at him, and then his baby has a conversation with his dog.

I smell some stand-up material

Ok what about the ambiguous nature of the dead? rats? used in the animated--re-animated "WE LOVE THE SUBS" music video comercials for Quiznos. My nephew had nightmares about them. Yet I went to Quinznos on purpose. Because anyone who would use a dead animal to sell a sub is a mastermind in my book. The ads were pulled. While I was at Quiznos the one and only time I was there. I ordered a vegitarian sub. A woman with a thick frame, over size glasses, and a robust woman asked me..."Do you want to know why I am a vegitarina?" This is wherer my companion says I went wrong. I said why? She told me how her sister grew a third breast not in the center like Chandlers nipple but underneath along the ribcage like cat. It was from beef hormones in Iowa where she was from. She continued telling how all three lactated profusely. Then I imagined little kittens nursing on massive mammories, crawling and pawing and mewing.