2011 Superbowl Ads

The Superbowl was this past weekend, and although Green Bay brought home the gold, there's a wealth of laughs in the Superbowl commercials.

These 30 second to a minute spots sell for at least US$ 3 million, but regulars like Doritos, Budweiser and E-Trade come back every year with bigger and better ads aimed at your funny bone, and commercial time during the big game has become the Holy Grail of comedic and marketing genius.

My favourite this year is Volkswagen's Darth Vader commercial.

Spoiler alert! The idea is simple: kid dressed as Darth Vader tries out 'the force' but can't seem to work his jedi powers. Dad comes home in the new Volkswagen Passat, and just for kicks, humours the kid, who can't believe that he just used his mind to power the Passat. It's great; very very funny.

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Herding Cats

Ikea is probably the world's most renowned furniture chain. Affordable, attractive, flat-packed home furnishings for every man, woman, child and er... cat?

Apparently so.

Ikea's crazy new ad features 100 cats let loose in their Wembley store. The agile little fellas jump and crawl around the Swedish store's displays and the camera crew somehow managed to catch the felines' golden moments traversing the Ikea showroom terrain.

Move over, Keyboard Cat, Ikea cats are the new viral video champ.

Watch the behind-the-scenes and the actual ad here:

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Boom De Ah Da

Probably one of my favourite commercials in recent years. Not only does this Discovery Channel have a super catchy jingle (Boom de ah da, boom de ah da, boom de ah da, boom de ah da), it's also got the educational channel's presenters and stars singing along and about what they love. Mike Rowe, the host of Dirty Jobs, crawls in a sewer while singing: "I love real dirty things", and Man Vs. Wild's Bear Grylls does his part with: "I love arachnids", while holding up a big, scary-looking tarantula.

Funny, heart-warming, personal and 100% Discovery Channel.

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Betty White's comeback

Betty White has always been our favourite Golden Girl, and at 78, she's making a comeback, starting with this outrageous Superbowl ad for Snickers.

Here's how it works (spoiler alert):

A bunch of fellas are playing football in the park, and they're all really into it. It's a big serious game. And then there's Betty White. The poor old lady can barely move. She gets a pep talk and a Snickers bar (of course) and transforms into an energetic man, really to score some winning touchdowns. Then comes the tagline: "You're not you when you're hungry".

Now if that ain't true, I don't know what is.

Watch it here:

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