Overall this year's commercials were OK, with not one single awe inspiring ad. You can evaluate the commercials in a number of ways. I think for most people the just look for entertainment value and don't think about the branding implications. (You can read the archive of my live-blogging here)

Best, Better, Good, Look P. Diddy!

My two favorite spots fall directly into the 'high impact, low branding' category. AmeriQuest ran two funny ads using their "Don't Judge too Quickly" tagline. Both of these ads are sure to be talked about tomorrow. The jury is still out on which one was better. But did either of the ads really sell AmeriQuest? Probably not.

Budweiser always has a number of spots split between their various brands, and this year was no exception. With their ad budget they can also air ads that don't sell their products. The 'Thank You Soldiers' ad had the most emotional impact of any of the commercials. The string of Bud Light commercials were all decent, but no out-of-the-park shots. The Bud Donkey Clydesdale inspiring new recruits was cute. The Bud ads do keep the brand name out there though.

Diet Pepsi/Pepsi had a series of ads as well all packed to some degree with stars. First off was P. Diddy and his D. Pepsi ride starting an instant trend. Next up was Cindy and Carson (that's Queer Eye Carson, not TRL Carson) checking out the hunk with a Diet Pepsi.

In some of the other blogs and comments I have read people liked the FedEd Kinkos ad. It was tongue-in-cheek, but not their best work.

CareerBuilder.com will get some mileage out the Monkey ads, and Heineken will be talked about becasue of Brad Pitt.

Napster? Let's throw some math at people. Oh wait there's an iPod, it must be an Apple ad.

McDonalds series on LincolnFry may go the way of AT&T's mLife.

Worst

So who wasted there time?

Optix contact lenses? Never heard of them, and probably won't again. Quiznos played an ad we've already seen before. Same with Taco Bell and Staples.

Then there is Ford who probably blew close to $8 million to show the same Mustang commercial 4 times (I wonder if they got a package deal).

Silestone which aired the countertop ad featuring Dennis Rodman seemed like a risk for a relatively small firm. Time will tell if the investment pays off.

Wrap Up

Yes there were other commercials, but nothing to write home about. I miss the old days. What's the best ad I've seen in the past six months? eBay's Toy Boat. I blogged about it when I first saw it on Lost.. You can watch it at eBay's The Power of All of Us web site. It's called 'Toy Boat' go watch it.