The 10 Best Commercials of 2011

Many people groaned last winter when it became clear that Super Bowl XLV would be packed bumper to bumper with automotive ads. It's not a category that's exactly wowed with its creativity in recent years. It was a pleasant surprise, then, when many of the car spots proved not only tolerable but wonderful. Now, with the year almost passed, it's become clear that two of those ads in particular—Chrysler's "Born of Fire" by Wieden + Kennedy and Volkswagen's "The Force" by Deutsch—weren't just among that evening's best spots. They turned out to be among the year's best. Those two ads are joined by a third car commercial, Nissan Leaf's "Gas Powered Everything" by TBWA\Chiat\Day, in Adweek's ranking of The 10 Best Commercials of 2011, presented here. Those auto spots were all expertly conceived and executed, with great atmospherics, details, and flourishes. And interestingly, they're all so different—an environmental appeal in a bleak alternate universe; a rugged defense of Motor City's heritage and pride, featuring a powerful celebrity cameo; and a kid in a Darth Vader mask just trying to exert a little mind control around the house. Together, they represent the best automotive advertising has to offer. Elsewhere, the list celebrates work across a wide variety of products, themes, styles, and geographies. You've got candy bars and zombies, cats with thumbs, and film-directing bears. You've also got two spots focused on the environment, and two explicitly about the humanizing power of technology—fundamental concerns in an age when our lives, and the world, can feel like they're spinning out of control. Congratulations to all the agencies and clients on the list, and the creative-services companies that helped bring their visions to life. Now, go make something even better. 10) SNICKERS • Focus Group Agency: BBDO, New York • Director: Jim Jenkins, O Positive Editing: Number 6 • Effects: FramestoreA triumph of macabre humor, this Snickers spot from BBDO imagined the world's most savage focus group—four sharks who've been invited to a little human taste-testing session. "OK, so which one tasted better?" asks the wonderfully peppy focus-group leader, as she points to posterboard photos of a man and woman. The sharks hilariously choose the guy because, before they ate him, he had just eaten a Snickers Peanut Butter Squared bar, presumably making his flesh delectably rich and tasty. (The woman had eaten boring old peanut-butter cups.) The concept, sick and twisted, is brilliant. But the genius is in the details—the little gestures like the lead shark's flipper movements as he searches for words to explain himself; the stunning CGI and voice work; the deadpan, cartoony merging of the monstrous and the mundane. The ending is a winner, too, as one shark declares, a bit sheepishly, that he'd "love another taste." A new human is trotted out for gustatory pleasure of the conference-room predators, one of whom requests that the guy "eat both squares, please!" One of 2011's tastiest confections. Full credits here 9) NISSAN LEAF • Gas Powered Everything Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day, Los Angeles • Director: Dante Ariola, MJZ • Editing: Mackenzie Cutler • Effects: The MillWhat if everything ran on gas? Then again, what if everything didn't? Those disparate visions provided the setup and payoff for this bleak, dystopian Nissan Leaf spot by TBWA\ Chiat\Day, which imagined a world in which all our devices, from clock radios to cell phones to dentist drills, guzzle gasoline like cars and spit out choking, noxious fumes. A spare piano score and the endless, dreary putt-putting of little motors provide the soundtrack for some remarkable visuals—a coffee maker yanked to life by a starter rope, a laptop replenished at a gas-filled watercooler, an office full of quietly smoking computers—all depressingly lit in flat green hues. Our antihero, a drone whose glum resignation subtly implicates the viewer in the stained legacy of oil-powered transport, eventually spies an all-electric Leaf across the street—while guiltily filling up his own Chevy Volt (a gasoline-electric hybrid) at a gas station. Roused slightly from his torpor, he nonetheless remains paralyzed and unsmiling as watches the Leaf drive off—a sober ending to one of the year's most darkly memorable spots. Full credits here 8) CRAVENDALE • Cats With Thumbs Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, London • Director: Ulf Johansson, Smith and Jones Films • Editing: The Whitehouse • Effects: MPCWhy do cats stare when you're pouring milk? The answer seems obvious. They're cats. They love milk. But this irresistible spot by Wieden + Kennedy for British dairy Cravendale wondered if the cute little kitties might not have a more nefarious agenda. After a lifetime of waiting on their owner's generosity, perhaps they want to take matters into their own paws. Maybe they're ready to band together and raid your milk supply. They would need just one thing, and this spot humorously gives it to them—opposable thumbs. Suddenly, the polydactyl felines are seen picking up balls, filing their nails, flipping through books, and doing a little needlepoint. But they're just biding their time and honing their sinister plot. Sure enough, soon they're snapping their fingers, West Side Story style, and preparing to gang up on the selfish, cereal-eating human and steal his milk. Cats are always big in ads, but this spot chased off all rivals this year. And we may get a sequel. As one of the spot's feline stars wrote on Twitter this fall: "Know this: you have not heard the last from me." Full credits here 7) DEEP SILVER • Dead Island Trailer Agency: Deep Silver Planegg, Munich, Germany • Director: Stuart Aitken, Axis Animation • Editing: Stuart Aitken (Axis), Anton Borkel (Deep Silver) • Effects: Axis AnimationGhastly and heartbreaking, this trailer by Scotland's Axis Animation for the zombie video game Dead Island built up an astonishing emotional intensity with a simple visual trick—running the footage backwards. We open on a slow pullback from a young girl lying dead in the grass. Suddenly, she is yanked skyward, falling in reverse toward a shattered window—and crashing back into a hotel room scene of unspeakable horror. Blood is flying; rotting creatures are everywhere. A mournful piano plays, intercut with desperate gasps and sounds of running. Amid the terrifying confusion, we begin to understand that the girl and her parents have been attacked by zombies while on vacation. The action continues in reverse to the moment of the attack, when the father still has time to save his little girl from the fate we've already witnessed. Reverse footage has been used in ads before. But paired with horror, it's a revelation. The visual disorientation and unnatural body movements—a ballet of the damned—provoke a sense of dread that feels wholly new, even for such a well-worn genre. And the girl's resurrection, which we know is an illusion, perfectly mirrors the false hope in the early rattlings of a waking zombie. Utterly harrowing yet undeniably beautiful—the year's best gaming spot. Warning: Spot is graphic and may be disturbing to some viewers. Full credits here 6) CANAL+ • The Bear Agency: BETC Euro RSCG, Paris • Director: Matthijs Van Heijningen, Soixante Quinze • Editing: Jono Griffiths Effects: Mikros ImageBears have long been among the best-loved creatures in advertising. But this hilarious French commercial for the Canal+ movie channel by BETC Euro RSCG—the third animal spot in our top 10—found a wonderful new role for one furry friend in particular. He's not just the exploited talent. He's the director! The spot opens on a movie set, as the bear—aka "Paul Bearman"—is seen interrupting a violent medieval battle scene to give advice to his actors and crew. The ad proceeds as a mockumentary, with Bearman explaining his passion for cinema. Turns out he's the typical Hollywood director—a bit of a diva, a complete control freak, but a real renaissance bear when it comes to his craft, micro-managing everything from the special effects to the music. This only odd thing is, he looks a bit thin, with a weird, upholstered look to his belly. The ending—perhaps the best of any spot this year—wonderfully explains that he's a taxidermied bear who's been lying prostrate in someone's living room for years, falling in love with the movies from night after night of watching Canal+. "Pourquoi pas moi?" he says. He may not make it in Hollywood, but for now, he's conquered advertising. Full credits here 5) TALKTALK • Homes Within Homes Agency: CHI & Partners, London • Director: Adam Berg, Stink Editing: Trim Editing • Effects: GlassworksThis adorable, exquisitely crafted TalkTalk spot from CHI & Partners in the U.K. told the story of little figurines come to life, isolated in miniature homes across a vast human living room and yearning to be together. A doll, a superhero, an Eskimo family in a snow globe, a cuckoo in a clock, a station master in a train set—they can all see each other, but they can't communicate ... until they get hooked up with TalkTalk's broadband and phone service. Their shared delight at finally, magically connecting is set to the joyous crescendo of "Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers, casting a glow upon the brand as a sponsor of enchantment. The agency considered using 3-D animation, but achieved a much richer look with handcrafted characters painstakingly filmed in stop motion. (Each second of animation took a staggering eight hours to shoot.) Few spots this year came anywhere close to the melancholy-turned-heartwarming grandeur of this one, with its brilliantly realized, childlike narrative managing to wrap the coldness of technology in an enduring human warmth. Full credits here 4) GOOGLE CHROME • Dear Sophie Agency: Google Creative Lab • Agency: Bartle Bogle Hegarty, New York • Editing: Lost Planet • Effects: Black HoleUsing the simplest of visuals, Google has become one of advertising's most compelling storytellers. "Parisian Love," a sweeping story of romance told entirely through dynamic screen shots of Google searches, was a surprise hit on the 2010 Super Bowl. In 2011, the company expanded on that model for an inventive, infectious campaign for its Chrome browser under the line, "The Web is what you make of it." As the "Search Stories" campaign did in 2010, the Chrome spots stitched together remarkably affecting narratives entirely from screen shots, subject lines, keystrokes, and clicks—this time moving beyond the search bar to showcase Google products like Gmail, YouTube, and Google Maps. Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber lent star power to the campaign with ads showing how they built their empires online. But the campaign's crowning achievement was "Dear Sophie," a humbler execution, set to a simple piano score, that showed a young father using Google tools to fill a digital scrapbook with notes, images, and videos of his young daughter, which he intends to share with her "someday." The spot invariably leaves viewers choked up, and casts Google, often seen as a tyrant, as a facilitator of love. Data never felt so human. Full credits here 3) CHRYSLER • Born of Fire Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore. • Director: Samuel Bayer, Serial Pictures • Editing: Joint • Effects: MethodThis two-minute Chrysler 200 spot from Wieden + Kennedy, which broke on the Super Bowl in February, won the 2011 Emmy Award for best commercial. It's easy to see why. The year's toughest, proudest, most defiant advertisement, it offered a gritty defense of a city, an industry, and a way of life, single-handedly bringing some of the old swagger back to Detroit and attacking those who would doubt the city's heritage and conviction—or its ability to produce a worldclass luxury vehicle. "What does a town that's been to hell and back know about the finer things in life? Well, I'll tell ya. More than most," says the voiceover, so hardboiled it could have been forged in a factory. Eminem's Oscar-winning "Lose Yourself" begins thumping, as the homegrown rapper appears behind the wheel of a 200. Passing several Detroit landmarks, he stops and walks into the Fox Theatre. Backed by a choir, he points at the camera and says, "This is the Motor City. This is what we do." A tour de force and one of the high points of Super Bowl XLV, the ad wraps on the year's best tagline: "Imported from Detroit." Full credits here 2) CHIPOTLE • Back to the Start Agency: Chipotle and CAA • Director: Johnny Kelly, Nexus • Models: Bob @ Artem • Music: Willie NelsonChipotle served up the most stirring and thought-provoking environmental spot of 2011 with this stop-motion gem from CAA and Nexus director Johnny Kelly, with a major assist from Willie Nelson. Having pioneered the use of organic, locally grown ingredients in fast food (and launched a foundation to support sustainable farming), Chipotle wanted to communicate its green philosophy in an artful and poignant way. The resulting spot tells the story of a farmer who builds his small operation into a giant industrial machine—penning in his animals, fattening them with chemicals, chopping them up in slaughter machines, and polluting nearby rivers in the process. Eventually he has a crisis of conscience, and reverts to his old way of doing things—releasing the animals to roam and graze, adding wind turbines to his fields, and giving his organic, free-range meat to a visiting Chipotle van. The visuals are breathtaking. But what makes the spot truly transcendent is the music—a commissioned cover of Coldplay's "The Scientist" by Willie Nelson. The song is lyrically perfect, emotionally rousing, and sung gorgeously by the 78-year-old country legend. Overall, the spot is a marvel of craft, visually and musically. And it answers its own call, with all proceeds from the sale of Nelson's song on iTunes going to the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation. Full credits here 1) VOLKSWAGEN • The Force Agency: Deutsch, Los Angeles • Director: Lance Acord, Park Pictures • Editing: Union • Effects: CO3 Resistance is futile. At 7:33 p.m. ET on Sunday, Feb. 6, 2011, Volkswagen unleashed one of the great crowd-pleasing TV ads of all time on Fox's broadcast of Super Bowl XLV. "The Force," from Deutsch/ LA, ingeniously conceived and perfectly executed, more than lived up to its name. It took two familiar ad themes—kids and Star Wars—and merged them to create that most rare species: a true global (who knows, maybe intergalactic) pop-culture phenomenon. Backed by the imposing sounds of "The Imperial March," a child in a Darth Vader suit roams his suburban home, attempting to bend inanimate objects (and the family dog) to his will with Jedi mind tricks. He fails utterly—until Dad gets home in his Volkswagen Passat. The kid races out to the driveway and focuses all of his metaphysical energy on the midsize sedan. It roars to life obediently—thanks to Dad activating the remote starter from the house. The boy steps back, thunderstruck by his own supernatural powers. The spot's metrics are astounding: 44 million views on YouTube, a reported 6.8 billion impressions worldwide, more than $100 million in earned media—all from such a simple execution. The spot, while visually strong, isn't a wonder of craft or technique. It's a triumph of fun, unadorned storytelling, which clearly goes a long way. Few ads in history have been as charming, as clever, as perfectly paced, or as well loved as this. Simply the best of 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HugFW8rLZ8 Full credits here What's your pick for the best commercial of 2011? The 10 Best Commercials of 2011: Full Credits Back to the beginning of the feature. 10. SNICKERS • Focus Group Agency: BBDO, New York Chief Creative Officer: David Lubars Sr. CD/Copywriter: Peter Kain Sr. CD/Art Director: Gianfranco Arena Executive Producer: Amy Wertheimer Production Company: O Positive Director: Jim Jenkins Director of Photography: Mott Hopfel Edit House: Number 6 Editor: Jason MacDonald VFX House: Framestore 9. NISSAN • Gas Powered Everything Advertising Agency: TBWA, Los A Chief Creative Officers: Rob Schwartz, Jack Neary Group Creative Directors: Chris Adams, Margaret Keene Creative Directors: Tito Melega, Allen Oke, Mark Mason Associate Creative Directors: Glenn Sanders, Dylan Schwartz, Jonathan Smith, Chris Lynch, Jeff Kemhadjian Art Directors: Bill Hornstein, Alex Haglund, Rodger Eyre, Vlad Ivangorodsky Copywriters: Dylan Meagher, Marcin Markiewicz, Ron Schlessinger Music: Black Iris 8. CRAVENDALE • Cats With Thumbs Client Creative Director: Sam Heath Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, London Creative Director: Chris Groom Creative: Hollie Sayers Creative: Freddie Powell Agency Producer: Lucy Russell Planner: Theo Izzard Brown Media Planning: Carat Production Company: Smith and Jones Films Director: Ulf Johansson Production Company Producer: Philippa Smith Offline Editor: The Whitehouse Editor: Russell Icke Post Production: MPC Lead Flame/VFX Supervisor: Kamen Markov Assist Flame: Richard McKeand Assist Nuke: Ryan Hadfield Assist Nuke: Heather Goodenough Assist Nuke: Neil Griffiths Matte Painter: Charlotte Tyson Telecine: Jean Clement Soret Post Producer: Josh King Sound Studio: Wave London Engineer: Jack Sedgwick Music: Tonic Music Composer: Multiverse 7. DEEP SILVER • Dead Island Trailer Agency: Deep Silver Planegg, Munich, Germany Director: Stuart Aitken, Axis Animation Editing: Stu Aitken (Axis), Anton Borkel (Deep Silver) Effects: Axis Animation —Axis Credits Director: Stu Aitken Producer: Andrew Pearce Sound Design & Music: Savalas Lead Animator: Bruce Sutherland Lead 3d Artist: Sergio Caires Storyboard artist: Jon Beeston Concept artist: Eduardo Pena Concept artist: Kjetil Nystuen Concept artist, Matte painter: Gareth Hector 3d Scanning: Infinite realities Facial capture: Dimensional Imaging Motion Capture: Audiomotion Character Modelling: Ten24 Character modeling: Kirill Boutourlin Texture artist: Roxanne Silverwood 3D artist: Ewan Wright 3D artist: Roland Walker 3D artist: Drew Robertson 3D artist: Finlay Sutton 3D artist: Ronnie Chan 3D artist: Abigail Barr 3D artist: Graham McKenna 3D artist: Steven Barbour 3D artist: Andrej Aleksic 3D artist/TD: Nick Pliatsikas 3D artist/VFX: Kalman Ruszkai Rigging: Daniele Antinolfi Rigging: Alessandro Portincasa Rigging: Federico Favaro Animation: Jack Preston Animation: Rik Goddard Animation: Andrea Romito Cloth Simulation: Dobril Dobrev VFX Artist: Jayden Patterson 2d Animator: Scott Morriss —Deep Silver Credits Concept: Anton Borkel & Malte Wagener Creative Director: Anton Borkel Producer: Malte Wagener Q&A: Philipp Foly (creative), Christian Löhlein (art) & Daniel Oberlerchner (technical) Brand Managers: Vincent Kummer, Malte Wagener —Talent Credits Daughter : Lise Beeston Father: Drew Horsley Mother: Hannah Summers Motion Capture Performer: Dominic Richards Motion Capture Performer: Rachel Donovan Motion Capture Performer: Cecily Fay Motion Capture Performer: Oliver Hollis 6. CANAL+ • The Bear Agency: BETC Euro RSCG, Paris Agency Management: Raphaël De Andréis, Alexandre George, Guillaume Espinet, Sébastien Jauffret Global Creative Director: Stéphane Xiberras Art Director: Eric Astorgue Assistant Art Director: Julien Schmitt Copywriter: Jean-Christophe Royer Strategic Planning: Clarisse Lacarau Traffic: Loren Hecker TV Producer: Isabelle Ménard, David Green Sound Production: Gum Production Company: Soixante Quinze Director: Matthijs Van Heijningen Special Effects: Mikros Image Music: Éric Cervera (Near Deaf Experience) Client Management: Maxime Saada, Samantha Etienne, Béatrice Roux, Mathieu Mazuel, Périne Long 5. TALKTALK • Homes Within Homes Agency: CHI & Partners, London Executive Creative Director: Warren Moore Creatives: Matt Collier, Wayne Robinson Producer: David Jones Planner: Sarah Clark Account Handlers: Susie Shing & Olivia MacLachlan Media agency: mCHI Media planner: David Jackson Production company: Stink Director: Adam Berg Production company producer: Ben Croker Editor: Paul Hardcastle (Trim Editing) Post-production: Glassworks Audio post-production: Sam Ashwell @ 750mph Telecine: MPC Colorist: Mark Gethin 4. GOOGLE CHROME • Dear Sophie Agency: Google Creative Lab Executive Creative Director: Calle Sjoenell Agency: Bartle Bogle Hegarty, New York Executive Creative Director: Pelle Sjoenell Executive Creative Director: Robert Wong Associate Creative Director: Jesse Juriga Art Director: Steve Peck Art Director: Caprice Yu Copywriter: Jeff Johnson Creative Consultant: Henry Joost Creative Consultant: Ariel Schulman Head of Broadcast: Lisa Setten Senior Producer: Melissa Bemis Project Manager: Jessica Beavers Editorial: Lost Planet Editor: Chris Huth Assistant Editor: Tiffaney McCannon End Tag Graphic: Buck Online Facility: Black Hole Online Editor: Tim Farrell VFX Company: Black Hole VFX Artist: Andre Sam VFX Artist: Reginald Butler Producer: Tim Vierling Audio Facility: Plush Audio Engineer: Rob Fielack Music Supervisor: Search Party Music Executive Producer: Stephanie Diaz-Matos Artist: Ingrid Michaelson 3. CHRYSLER • Born of Fire Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore. Creative Directors: Aaron Allen, Joe Staples Copywriters: Joe Staples, Mark Fitzloff, Kevin Jones, Greg Rutter, Dan Kroeger Art Director: Jimm Lasser Producer: Bob Wendt Account Team: Thomas Harvey, Lani Reichenbach, Randy Ortiz, Kelly Quinn, Justin Yates Executive Creative Directors: Mark Fitzloff, Susan Hoffman Agency Executive Producer: Ben Grylewicz —Production Production Company: Serial Pictures Director: Samuel Bayer Executive Producer: Violaine Etienne Line Producer: Martha English Director of Photography: Samuel Bayer —Editorial Editorial Company: Joint Editor: Tommy Harden Post Producer: Jennifer Patterson Post Executive Producer: Patty Brebner —VFX VFX Company: Method VFX Executive Producer: Robert Owens Flame Artist: Claus Hansen VFX Producer: Ashley Zastrow Titles/Graphics: A52 —Music + Sound Design Music+Sound Company: Que Chevere Music/Sync2Picture/Shady Records Composers: Choir Arrangement by Luis Resto, "Lose Yourself" composed by Marshall Mathers, Jeff Bass, Luis Resto. "Crimson Grail" composed by Rhys Chatham Sound Designer: Luis Resto Songs: "Crimson Grail," Rhys Chatham; "Lose Yourself," Marshall Mathers, Jeff Bass, Luis Resto. Producer: 2 Minute Choir Church/Lose Yourself Music Bed; Co-Produced By Luis Resto/Olivier Francois, "Lose Yourself" Replay Co-Produced By Marshall Mathers/Luis Resto —Mix Mix Company: Eleven Mixer: Jeff Payne Producer: DJ Fox-Engstrom 2. CHIPOTLE • Back to the Start Agency: Chipotle and CAA Production Company: Nexus Nexus Director: Johnny Kelly Nexus Exec Producers: Cedric Gairard, Chris O'Reilly, Charlotte Bavasso Nexus Producer: Liz Chan Nexus Production Managers: Claire Thompson, Alistair Pratten Director of Photography: Matt Day Camera Assistant: Max Halstead Model Assistant: Joe James Electrician: Aldo Camileri Model Rigger: Gary Faulkner Character Animator: Gary Cureton Set Animator: Matthew Cooper Compositors: Alasdair Brotherston, John Taylor Production Designer: Graham Staughton 3D Previs Lead: Mark Davies 3D Modeling: Wayne Kresil Art Department: Gordon Allen, Ben Côté, Joe Kirton Studio Manager: Elizabeth Day Models: Bob @ Artem Music Supervision: David Leinheardt at Duotone Audio Music Producers: Justin Stanley and Doyle Bramhall Content Manager: Liz Graves Artist: Willie Nelson Sound Design: Barnaby Templer @ Fonic 1. VOLKSWAGEN • The Force Agency: Deutsch, Los Angeles EVP, Group Creative Director/ Copywriter: Eric Springer EVP, Group Creative Director/ Art Director: Michael Kadin Senior Copywriter: David Povill Senior Art Director: Ryan McLaughlin Art Director: Craig Melchiano EVP, Director of Integrated Production: Vic Palumbo SVP, Director of Broadcast Production: Victoria Guenier Producer: Jim Haight Associate Producer: Brooke Yaussi Client: Volkswagen of America VP of Marketing: Tim Ellis General Manager of Brand Marketing: Brian Thomas Production Company: Park Pictures, Los Angeles Director, Director of Photography: Lance Acord Executive Producer: Mary Ann Marino Editorial: Union Editor: Jim Haygood Assistant Editor: Dylan Firshein Executive Producer: Michael Raimondi Post: CO3 Telecine Artist: Stefan Sonnenfeld Producer: Megan Dahlman Music/Composers: Track "The Imperial March" (Star Wars), John Williams/London Symphony Original Composers Sound Design: Endless Noise, Los Angeles Music Producer: Mary Catherine Finney Arranger, Sound Designer: Jeff Elmassian Audio Post Company: Lime Studios Sound Engineer: Mark Meyhaus

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The 10 Best Commercials of 2011

The year's most impeccable craft and storytelling in advertising

Tim Nudd

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