Isaiah Mustafa in Old Spice's latest ad, Questions

Former football star Isaiah Mustafa stars in his second Old Spice ad that once again blurs the line between what is actually happening in the ad, and what is just a computer generated special effect. It’s another impressive ad that looks impossible, and yet still appears like it was done using good, old-fashioned props and visual tricks, rather than full on digital images.

Check out the video below. My only complaint? It clearly should have ended with the line, “I’m on a motorcycle.”

David Duchovny - 'Californication'

This has been driving me nuts. Every time I hear the most recent ad for Metro (the Canadian grocery store chain) I could have sworn it was David Duchovny doing the voiceover. I did a Google search but couldn’t find a thing to suggest it was him (and really, why would it be him?), but apparently I’m not the only one who is confused.

IMDb says it’s him, but of course, that doesn’t mean much…

(2009) TV commercial: Metro (Grocery Chain) (Voice)

And then I found this article from the Globe and Mail which basically says Metro has been forced into silence.

A call to the actor’s publicist was met with Hollywood-style stony silence. We’ve heard that whoever did the voiceover has a contract forbidding Metro from posting the video online.

My vote? It’s totally him.

P.S. Californication is the best show ever.

Some company has been plastering Toronto with ads featuring the earth-shattering, highly compelling intro “er” and the edge of a letter. So far, it’s anyone’s guess which company is behind it, but I don’t care. The problem for me is that teaser ads should, well… tease. Nothing about this ad tempts me to find out what the “er” stands for, or why I should care.

Bored subway riders are bound to feel relieved or something when the current dumb ads are replaced with the final versions, but the effectiveness of that campaign is going to rely solely on the results. Will anyone really be more impressed by the final ads because of this weak introduction?

For me at least, this just proves again that the art of great advertising is a rare thing, especially in Canada or the U.S. I can’t remember the last time I was really blown away by an ad campaign, but I’m waiting. Go ahead, er, impress me?

Like most Canadians, who can’t see the American ads during the show, I end up searching the web for all of the ads that played. Apparently this year AOL nabbed all of the ads, and there was a lot of crap in there, but I picked out five of the totally best, and funniest, ads.

Here they are, in no particular order – more after the jump…

Bridgestone: Squirrel

FedEx: Pigeons

Tide: Stain

Iron Man Trailer

Honourable Mention:
Pepsi: Justin Timberlake

In Peter Goddard’s piece he point to some clever ads, like the WSIB’s injured workers, or the Apple Versus Mac spots, as being highlights from the year.

Apple Macintosh Computers Mac-vs.-PC spots. Hipster Mac and squares-ville PC have been going at it all year with the cool, better-looking Mac always emerging the winner. The animated Christmas spot continues the trend. Goofy old PC, ever the klutz, actually changes a line in the tune “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” to “he sees when you’re in sleep mode.” I liked this spot so much I went right out and bought a PC. He’s my kind of nerd.

The thing is, I don’t even think these ads are that clever. They’re really just the best of the year, which doesn’t say much when this was such a crappy year for ads. I’ll admit that I liked those Mac and PC ads when they started, but they wore very thin and my problem all along has been that they show the usual insane pretense: Mac users think PC users are idiots. (Why don’t they show an ad about a gamer trying to run the latest hot title on a Mac? What’s that? It’s not available for Mac? Shocking.)

Anyway, I’d love to hear what people think are actually the best ads of 2007. Being a movie fanatic I loved Blockbuster’s “movie-quote” family – might be one of my faves, but I’m not sure I’d say it’s the best of the year.

For anyone wondering the song is called “Time For the Holidays” and it’s by a band from Toronto called Cancel Winter.

You can download the song or watch the video over at the Joe.ca website, and don’t forget to check out the band’s MySpace page for their other music, including a cool song called “The Silence”.

(As you can tell from the image, they’re also having their CD release party this next Friday, December 21 at the El Mocambo.)

P.S. While we’re on the topic of great ad songs from the Joe campaigns, be sure to check out Rhonda Stakich on the Joe.ca site too. “Dream Tonight” and “Mixed Up” are so catchy, and you can find her on MySpace too.