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I thought I had seen everything Mr. T has done, but this commercial is completely new to me. You should skip to the bottom of this post and watch it, then come back here for my analyzation. Okay, then.

So, the commercial starts off with a soccer game, and one player overplaying his injury a little too much. We cut to a scene of Mr. T driving a tank toward the soccer field. He smashes two cars along the way: did those cars have people in them? Mr. T does not care. Mr. T has bigger things on his mind: big, nutty chocolaty things.

Okay, I want anyone out there who makes commercials to listen up.

Times are tough these days now that so many people have Tivos and DVRs, so when you make a commercial, it has to be something truly groundbreaking, something so amazing that viewers actually want to stop and watch it.

If you need an example of what I'm talking about, check out the video at the end of this post, because VCast has created a commercial that speaks directly to our desires not only as consumers, but as human beings.

Courtesy of Boing Boing comes this local commercial for a flea market in Montgomery, Alabama (see it below). Yes, it's silly, lame, and goes on a little too long, but for a locally-produced ad, it's really not that bad. I'm not expecting high quality from local advertising, anyway.

The man in the video is the owner of Flea Market Montgomery, Sammy Stephens. In case the video isn't enough, I would like to remind you that his store is just like a mini ... mall. Stephens has already gained some notoriety, most notably on The Ellen Show when host Ellen DeGeneres asked him to appear because she found his commercial so funny.

Click ahead, crank up your computer speakers, and get down with what is most likely the greatest rap song ever written about a flea market.

It's clear the music in television commercials is no longer limited to mainstream music. In fact, more and more advertisers are using "alternative" and "underground" (or whatever you want to call it) music in their ads. In fact, it's a great way to get your music heard if you're a struggling new band, says Cyndi Lauper.

This helps to explain why Lauper signed on as a creative consultant for Alka Seltzer's Battle of the Bands contest. The contest is seeking bands to write their own version of the popular "Plop Plop Fizz Fizz" jingle. I don't know if reworking that particular jingle will launch any band to superstardom, but I think Lauper has a point about how commercials can help a band get exposure that's harder to come by these days with more and more clubs and smaller venues closing down for good.

Like most people, I spend my days trying to figure out how to be more like Keith Partridge. I've tried growing my hair out, learning how to sing, and have even tried unsuccessfully to get adopted by Shirley Jones. As it turns out, I've been going about this the wrong way. All one needs to be just like Keith is to enjoy a bowl of Kellogg's Rice Krispies in the morning. At least, that's what the commercial I placed below seems to indicate.

Last night I did the unthinkable. I actually stopped and watched a commercial on my Tivo. Correction: I stopped and actually hit rewind on my remote so I could watch a commercial. Why did I do this? Two words: Bruce Campbell. If you don't know that name, then you're obviously not a fan of that classic horror trilogy consisting of The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II, and Army of Darkness. Evil Dead II is the best one of the three, and I'm willing to fight anyone who says different. You might also know Bruce as the titular lead in the TV series The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., or from such series as Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules and Jack of All Trades. Bruce often works with his childhood friend Sam Raimi, and has appeared in all of Raimi's Spider-Man films. Raimi also directed the Evil Dead films and executive produced Xena, Hercules and Jack of All Trades.

I would love to see the young versions of Mary Tyler Moore and Marlo Thomas put in a cage together and have a battle of cute. I'm not exactly sure how that would work, I'm guessing they would just emit cuteness until one of them was overcome and their head exploded. This violates several laws of physics, but I'm convinced it would work because their cuteness is almost supernatural. What I can't explain is why I would express my admiration for an actress by imagining a scenario in which they might be violently killed. I really need to think these things through better.

Genndy Tartakovsky, the mind behind cartoons such as Dexter's Lab, Samurai Jack and Star Wars: Clone Wars has created this animated commercial for Nicorette. If you have trouble seeing the movie, right click on the link and "Save Target As." The animation has Tartakovsky's signature style, or I guess you could call it the "Cartoon Network" style. Either way, you have to appreciate the scientific accuracy of the ad: every one of us has tiny little screaming blobs inside our brain that get angry when we stop smoking. I've named all of mine after presidents.

The spot was created through The Orphanage, a video effects company that has also worked on the films Superman Returns and Sin City, among others.

[via Cartoon Brew]

Cartoon expert extraordinarie Amid Amidi mentioned a short film in his book Cartoon Modern called "A Date with Dizzy," a funny stab at the TV ad biz that featured animation from John and Faith Hubley. I had plans to try and find it online, but soon forgot about it until today when I saw Amid had posted it on Cartoon Brew. You can watch the ten-minute short after the jump, which features a TV ad fella trying to get Dizzy Gillespie and his quintet to perform a song for a commercial for "Instant Rope Ladder." It's rather amusing.

John Hubley himself worked at Disney painting layouts and backgrounds for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Bambi, Pinocchio, Fantasia and Dumbo before moving on to UPA where he developed the character of Mr. Magoo. He later founded his own studio with his wife, Faith, called Storyboard. The animation featured in this short were all created when Storyboard was based in Los Angeles (he later moved the studio to New York). The commissioned projects he did through Storyboard were done anonymously, as Hubley was blacklisted by the HUAC at this time for alleged Communist leanings.

If you're like me, and I know I am, you grew up watching Knight Rider on TV. Or, if you're a bit older, you probably listened to the old Knight Rider radio program featuring Orson Welles.* Anyway, if you enjoyed the adventures of Michael and his car pal KITT but always wished that KITT were much smaller and much, much slower, I invite you to check out an old toy commercial for the "Knight Rider Impossibles" race set. Between this, America's Got Talent, and reruns of Baywatch, I think your Hasselhoff quota should be met for the day. That's why I'm here, to make those things happen. Check out the video after the jump.

*(said radio program may not have actually existed)

It may eventually broadcast entire episodes online, but for right now NBC is content to just show the first hour of Today on the Web. Already the network streams ad-supported versions of Meet the Press and NBC Nightly News on the internet, but in order to cut back on the hassle of dealing with music rights issues (later segments of the show use copious amounts of music), NBC is starting off small. Like the other shows, the Webcast of Today will be supported by ads, which users will not be able to skip. There will also be some slight variations from the television broadcast, such as the absence of local news and weather.

[via Lost Remote]