Best Spots are selected by Adweek editors from commercials breaking on broadcast and cable television. Call Nancy Sobel at (212) 536-6453 to submit reels or to order this month's collection.
The Best Spots section is compiled by Mark Lang.
AMERICA'S HEALTH NETWORK
Three guys on why a pug has been misbehaving: Skipper needs to be 'fixed,' says one. 'Boil some water. Snippety-snip.' The mutt hasn't been seen since. A better solution: Call the veterinarian on the America's Health Network for advice.
Title Dog
Agency: DDB Needham, New York
Executive CD: Mike Rogers
Art director: Michael Furlong
Copywriter: Ken Shuldman
Agency producer Robert Parker
Production company Bedford Falls
Director: Ray Lawrence
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AMERITECH
In this tongue-in-cheek spot, the telco equates its 30-day return policy with renting a baby. The rental parents find the kid cute and sweet--until he helps destroy their car. The baby is returned within the month, and, hey, the same deal applies for wireless phones.
Title: Baby
Agency Cliff Freeman & Partners, N.Y.
Exec. CD Arthur Bijur
Art director Taras Wayner
Copywriter: Kevin Roddy
ency producer: Nick Felder
Prod. co. Johns + Gorman Films
Director Jeff Gorman
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BMW
As a hawk swoops in for the kill, a dove spots a Beamer convertible and lands in the passenger seat. The driver puts the pedal to metal. The smaller bird is saved by the 'ultimate freedom machine.'
Title: Dove
Agency: Fallon McElligott,03Minneapolis
Creative group head: Bruce Bildsten
Art director: Dean Hanson
Copywriter: Mike Gibbs
Agency producer Rob van de Weteringe Buys
Production co.: Blink Productions
Director: John Downer
Editor: Sam Sneade, Sneade Editorial
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BORGESS HEALTH ALLIANCE
With microscopic pictures of moving cells and flowing arteries, the spot reels off some grim statistics: Heart disease kills more women than breast, lung and ovarian cancers. The tagline: 'It's time to re-examine the myths in women's healthcare.'
Title: Cardio
Agency TraverRohrback, Kalamazoo, Mich.
Creative director Joe Clipner
Art director: Scott Osborne
ACD/copywriter: Bill Hahn
Art director/prod. Tracey Ellenberg
Prod. co. Tony Kaye & Partners
Director: Jonathan Barnbrook
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BUDWEISER
Loaded down with four jumbo cups of Bud, a lone fan at a baseball game watches a home run hurtling at him. Cries of 'drop the beer' echo through the stadium, but our hero can do no such thing. The baseball hits him in the head, and he's last seen being wheeled into a hospital, still clutching the suds.
Title Left Field
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, S.F.
Creative directors: Jeff Goodby, Rich Silverstein
Art director: Todd Grant
Copywriter: Steve Dildarian
Agency producer: Taryn Holland
Production co. Radical Media
Director: Frank Todaro
Editor: Tom Muldoon, Nomad Editorial
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COORS
When an older fellow picks up a cowboy's guitar, the young whippersnapper derisively asks, 'You play?' Yup. The first man is Les Paul, guitar legend, and he teaches the dude a thing or two.
Title Guitar Player
Agency: Foote, Cone & Belding, S.F.
Exec. CD/copywriter: Paul Wolfe
Group CD, art director Claude Jacques
Agency producer: Rob Thomas
Production co.: Propaganda Films
Director: Andy Morahan
Editor Roger Harrison/Cutaways
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DIRECTV
Hairy men gather in front of a friend's TV set to watch the big game. Testosterone is in the air, but Heidi is on the tube. Uh oh. The friend subscribes to the wrong satellite television service.
Title Heidi
Agency: Campbell-Ewald, L.A.
CD, copywriter: Lance Mald
Art director: Mike Conboy
Agency producer Betty Meadows
Production company: HSI
Director: Tom DeCerchio
Editor Rye Dahlman/Rye Films
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ESPN
Then there were eight: In this Fargo send-up, two border guards, a Canadian and an American, investigate the death of a hockey player. The prime suspects: the surviving teams in the chase for the NHL's Stanley Cup.
Title: Murder City
Agency: Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative directors: Jerry Cronin, Vince Engel
Art director: Rob Palmer
Copywriter: Jeff Bitsack
Agency producer: Cherie Appleby
Production co. Food Chain Films
Director Marc Greenfield
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THE GAP
Actors Lukas Haas (keyboards) and Dave Arquette (trumpet) improvise in this sparse ad for The Gap's easy-fit jeans. The tagline: 'It's definitely easy.'
Title: David and Lukas 2
Agency: In-house
Sr. VP marketing: Michael McCadden
Creative director: Lisa Prisco
Art director: Carl Byrd
Agency producer: Leigh Donaldson
Production co. Palomar Pictures
Directors Mark Seliger, Fred Woodward
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GLADE
Dripping leaves, rippling streams, blooming flowers and happy kids fill this colorful spot. The ad pitches a variety of air-freshening products and ends with the line 'Created by nature, captured by Glade.'
Title Captured by Glade
Agency Foote, Cone & Belding, Chicago
Exec. CD Geoff Thompson
Client CD, copy Chuck Rudnick
Art director: Lauren Watson
Exec. producer Laura Glenn
Production company A&R Group
Director: Michael Cuesta Jr.
Editor Cara Meiselman, The Looking Glass
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LIFESAVERS
The rain forest is alive with Lifesavers' tropical-fruit candies dancing to a Caribbean beat. A frenzy of color, the ad serves up candies in exotic flavors, like pina colada, banana and mango melon.
Title: Ooh La La
Agency Foote, Cone & Belding, N.Y.
Group CD, art director Sam Gulisano
Copywriter Phil Guthrie
Agency producer: Phyllis Landi
Production company Santiago Inc.
Director Santiago Suarez
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LITTLE CAESARS
After successfully cloning a sheep, scientists celebrate with a pizza. But the pizza box is placed on the clone button, and, before long, sheep are flying through the air with the greatest of ease.
Title Cloning
Agency Cliff Freeman & Partners, N.Y.
Chief creative officer Cliff Freeman
Exec. CD Arthur Bijur
Art directors, copywriters Roger Camp, Michelle Roufa
Agency prod. Maresa Wickham
Prod. co.: Johns + Gorman Films
Director Jeff Gorman
Editor Livio Sanchez/Mad River Post
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LYCOS
A Himalayan sherpa guides viewers through this ad for Lycos, an Internet search engine. A happy guy, the sherpa calls himself the 'big yak daddy.'
Title Sherpa
Agency Bozell, N.Y.
Chief creative officer Jay Schulberg
CD, copy Rodney Underwood
ACD, art director Mike Thomas
Agency prod. Jean-Claude Kaufmann
Production company Cucoloris Director Danny Ducovny
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MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
In a series of quick cuts, the spot shows how difficult it is to be a big-league catcher--a player who takes foul tips off the mask; calls pitchouts, pickoffs and pop-ups; and tags runners coming in spikes first. Don't tell Mike Piazza that 'baseball isn't a contact sport.'
Title: Mike
Agency: Lowe & Partners/SMS, N.Y.
Chairman, chief creative officer: Lee Garfinkel
Creative group head, art director Alan Chalfin
Creative group head, copywriter Scott Grayson
Agency producer Anita Smith
Production co. Crossroads Films
Director: Jason Smith
Editor Doug Walker, Filmcore
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NEW YORK LOTTERY-TAKE 5
Putting to win, a golfer concentrates on holing a 20-footer. But the ball stops three feet short. 'Close enough' the announcer yells, as the golfer celebrates his 'victory.' Two numbers win in New York's Take 5 lottery game.
Title: Golf
Agency: DDB Needham, New York
Exec. CD: Mike Rogers
Creative director: John Staffen
Art director Gary Rozanski
Copywriter: Thom Baginski
Agency producer: Eric Hermann
Production co.: A Band Apart
Director: Charles Wittenmaier
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NEXTEL WIRELESS
Leaving his local calling zone, Bob phones Pete on the wireless. Too late. Roaming charges, in the form of a guy with a money-sucking machine, stop Bob cold, leaving him broke. The point: Nextel has no roaming charges.
Title: Checkpoint
Agency: Mullen, Wenham, Mass.
CD/copy Edward Boches
CD/art Amy Watt
Art director Carol Fox
Copywriter Tom Cook
Agency producer: Sarah Monaco
Production co. Reactor Films
Director Steve Chase
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RACK ROOM SHOES
At a rural gas station, two Thelma & Louise types meet a couple of hidebound truckers who don't know when to shut up. In the end, one woman walks over to the 18-wheeler and, with her 3-inch high heel, punctures the rig's front tire.
Title: Trucker
Agency: Headquarters, Charlotte
CD/art director: John Boone
Copywriter: Ron Huey
Agency prod. Nancy Dickerson Sanders
Production co.: Steifel & Co.
Director: Peter Kagan
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RELIASTAR
Some hardy souls takes a polar-bear plunge into an ice-covered lake. Don't be afraid to take risks is the message from the financial-services company.
Title: The Plunge
Agency: Clarity Coverdale Fury, Minneapolis
CD/art director: Jac Coverdale
Copywriter: Jerry Fury
Agency producers Chris Wong, Jenee Schmidt
Production co. Red Motel Pictures
Director: Jeth Weinerich
Editor: Charley Schwartz, Fischer Edit
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SATURN
On a cold morning in March, Saturn workers gather at the plant to watch, on video monitors, the cars they've built arrive in Japan. As the Saturns roll off the ship, we learn that the hardships were all worth it.
Title: Monitors
Agency: Hal Riney & Partners, S.F.
CDs: Dave O'Hare, Steve Sweitzer
Art director: Kevin Kehoe
Copywriter: Mimi Cook
Agency prod.: Victoria Waldock
Production co.: Dektor/Higgins
Director: Leslie Dektor
Editor: Keith Salmon/Lost Planet
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SPRITE
Grant Hill's agent tries to get his client some extra work. We see Hill acting in a soap opera, hawking his new book ('Polite Like Me') and singing. But the NBA star wants none of it; instead, he offers the agent a Sprite--and the light bulb goes on.
Title: Agent
Agency: Lowe & Partners/SMS, N.Y.
Chairman, chief creative officer: Lee Garfinkel
Creative group head: C.J. Waldman
Creative group head: Todd Godwin
Art director: Jason Gaboriau
Copywriter: Steve Doppelt
Agency Producer: Laurie Leokum
Production company HKM
Director: Michael Patrick Jann
Editor: Ian Mackenzie, Ian Mackenzie Editorial
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TACO BELL
Shaq is suffering from TNS, the neck-bending result of eating too many tacos. GM Jerry West, Laker teammates and Shaq's agent are worried, but now, Shaq, a notoriously bad free-throw shooter, can't miss from the line. Tacos to go, please.
Title: Shaq Taco Neck
Agency: Bozell, Costa Mesa, Calif.
Chief creative officer: Harvey Hoffenberg
Creative director: Jon Parkinson
Art directors, copywriters: Chris Brown, Yvonne DeSanti
Head of production: Scott Seltzer Producer
Bob Belton: Production co. GMS Productions
Director: John Landis
Editor Livio Sanchez/Mad River Post
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TWIX
A man unknowingly drops his Twix on the sidewalk. A Boy Scout returns it to him. 'You deserve a reward, son,' says the man to the smiling kid. But no reward is forthcoming. The tagline: 'Two for me. None for you.'
Title: Good Scout
Agency: DMB&B, St. Louis
Group CD: Carole Christie
Creative director: Ron Crooks
Art director: Diane Pittman
ACD, copy: Gordon Robertson
Agency producer: Pat Collins
Prod. co. Backyard Productions
Director: Rob Pritts
Editor: Bob Mori, Red Car
Copyright ASM Communications, Inc. (1997) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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