We asked top creatives from the industry for their three favorite ads from the past 30 years, one per decade. Here are Jeff Goodby's picks.

1980s:
JOHN HANCOCK
"Real life. Real Answers"
Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos

First off, I have to apologize to the people who did the really obvious, more deserving work I've forgotten here. But off the top of my head, here goes.

No one writing about the '80s could skip the Apple "1984" commercial. It changed the way we've approached not just the Super Bowl but all big-event advertising. It also showed that you could use a fairly obscure story from a book only English majors had read to make spectacular advertising. But although it was influential, it only ran once. (I know people use that as an argument for just how influential it was, but whatever.)

At the risk of seeming like a Chiat/Day fan (I am), I must also mention the "I Love L.A." spot for Nike from the 1984 Olympics. I've always thought it was the inspiration for a whole generation of great Nike ads featuring athletes doing more than just playing their sports. Athletes were acting, being funny. Again, however, while the spot was influential, I think others went to school on it to do things that were at least as interesting later.

No, the best commercial of the '80s, I think, must come from the John Hancock "Real life. Real answers" campaign. Those spots broke the slick, glib form of commercial films and somehow seemed to find big, meaningful silences in the 30-second form. Every word in them was perfectly chosen, and the casting was unforgettable. I'd say the directing was really terrific too, but it might go to Pytka's head.





1990s:
BUDWEISER
"Whassup?"
DDB

This was when great Nike ads were in abundance, and it's hard to think of this decade without them filling your consciousness. "Frozen Moments" and "Bo Knows" come to mind, but there are so many. Wieden + Kennedy seemed to do something every weekend that made you jealous.

I also can't help but mention Hal Riney's Bartles & Jaymes spots. (I know they started in the '80s, but they ran until 1992, it says here.) You have to admit, you remember the first time you saw one and wondered what it all meant. Here's what it meant: The world's biggest winery was making believe it was just two guys who sent away for a mail-order MBA, and you kinda believed it. It set the bar really high for irony after that.

But the best commercial of the '90s became famous a month after the '90s were over. It's the Bud "Whassup?" spot, which first ran in December '99 but caught on a month later thanks to the Super Bowl. You know you said the word several times in the week thereafter. It's no coincidence that the guys in this spot made a great Obama commercial. This ad included characters we'd never seen on the Super Bowl before, a collection of incredibly hip presences. You could feel the fun they had making it, under director Charles Stone III.






2000s:
APPLE
"Get a Mac"
TBWA\Chiat\Day

I had a hard time with those other decades, but not with this one.

I must say, the Levi's "Odyssey" commercial took my breath away when I first saw it at Cannes in 2002. However.

The current Apple "Get a Mac" ads have blown it out of the water when it comes to longevity, bitingness and entertainment. Have you ever changed the channel when one of those things comes on? I don't think so.

Thanks for listening. I will sit up in the middle of the night thinking of those I've missed.