The best commercials ever to come from Holland

"Even Apeldoorn bellen." Or as it's known to Americans: "Just call us." Probably a collection of the most clever commercials ever from Holland. They're made for an insurance company, Centraal Beheer, and feature people getting into the most ridiculous, but technically plausible situations. The answer to their situation is always simple, Just call us. The formula is incredibly simple, but unlike DIRECTV's ads, doesn't get old because it's applied very, very well.

I'm gonna feature three well-known ads here: Two that have been translated into English, the third one's my personal favourite. The first one is probably the most familiar with everyone. The commercial features Adam and Eve in paradise. Although this Adam sounds like he'd rather have Steve.

Sixty Second Movie: The Laughing my ads off Infomercial!

We all love infomercials. At least we all love to hate infomercials. That inspired me to make a Sixty Second Movie about my blog in an over-the-top cliché way. Enjoy!

Don't mess with old ladies who look like Danny Trejo

The Superbowl is a wonderful time of the year. Or so I'm told. I'm European so I have no connection with it whatsoever. I couldn't explain the rules of American football if I tried. I am interested in the ads however. It sparked my interest when I heard American people say they watch the Superbowl solely for the commercials. This made me check out some Superbowl ads and I quickly found my favourite. A Doritos ad from 2012 featuring the most bad ass grandma ever.

Duracell: Just like the battery, the ads last long

Why Duracell started to use pink rabbits to promote their products may be never known, but what is known is that they lasted. The bunnies became an icon, even though they started out a little creepy. Back in 1983, they didn't have all the fancy CGI technology we have nowadays. They still used actual toy rabbits.

It almost reminds me of the Japanese pasta army. All staring into the abyss, mindlessly hitting that drum. The good part is that you can see these bunnies run out of energy one by one. All except one. The one fueled by Duracell. The little drummer bunny keeps going for up to six times longer. I just hope there's an off switch.

Would you trust this face?

There's nothing worse than commercials trying to be funny but completely missing. Sometimes they can end up being unintentionally funny, but other times it makes you feel uncomfortable. Such is the case of this ad. Strato is a webhosting company that originates in Germany and is mostly popular in Europe. Stay with me Americans, you'll get a laugh out of this. Because for some reason Strato expects us to trust this face:

You find yourself repeating the same formula over and over, don't repeat the same formula over and over

I personally love stuff that is funny because of the fact that it makes no sense. It's risky for a company to use this kind because you run the risk of being misconstrued. Besides that, there is always the chance of getting predictable. As random as they are, this is still what DIRECTV's  'Get rid of cable' does. The first one you watch is the best, after that they deteriorate fast.

The one with Charlie Sheen is probably the best, so we'll start with that.

Six Word Story - Evian's Babies

Rollerskating babies?

This water works wonders

How Mr T went from a hero to an absolute failure trying to be funny

I love Mr T. I really do. The man has passed sixty years of age, but will always be remember as the BAMF B.A. Baracus from The A-Team. He also had a great role in Rocky III as Clubber Lang. So where do you go from there? In Mr T's case, downhill. The next show he was in was T and T, which didn't come anywhere close to The A-Team. After that, it's further downhill than the Grand Canyon with voice acting in kid's shows.

BUT THEN. He started doing what made me write this blogpost about the fallen hero. He did an infomercial. I don't know what the 'T' in Mr. T means*, but I'm pretty sure it's not Turbo.

*I actually do know, it's Tureaud

Harry Piekema: A true Dutch advertising hero who will be remembered

I'm Dutch, but because I blog in English most of my audience are from other countries. This doesn't stop me from writing about the greatest hero in Dutch advertising ever. A name probably no one will know, but I'm here to educate you: Harry Piekema.

Harry was a funny guy who played a supermarket manager for over ten years. About a week ago, he announced his retirement from the role. The entire country was in mourning. He was the face that made commercials bearable. As soon as you saw his face, you would immediately think of Albert Heijn, the connection was unbreakable.

FORTY minutes of Apple vs. Microsoft advertising?

I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC. Just hearing (or reading in this case) those words immediately puts people into this famous and funny commercial. Even though it's a generalization of PCs and Macs throughout, it got laughs from a lot of people. The setting is always the same: Apple-style minimalistic white background, formal looking representation of PC, casual looking representation of Mac. Mac is awesome, PC is formal, boring and too obsessed with work.

A formula for a commercial is good when it can be used a lot in different ways, while still remaining interesting. I acknowledge this particular formula is good, although I'm not checking if it remains interesting after 113 videos. Yes. Apple made over a hundred videos featuring the same two characters, albeit portrayed by different people. In America, they were obviously played by John Hodgman and Justin Long. The British ads feature David Mitchell and Robert Webb. In Japan they also opted for a comedy duo, known as: The Rahmens.

Six Word Story - Vigorsol's Squirrel

Everyone will die,

Unless squirrels fart

Merry Christmas!

It's a shame I didn't do this blogpost before christmas, in the period we call 'advent'. I could've made a great pun with ADvent. Sorta redeemed myself with doing so anyway, which is good.

Because companies often want to make a certain Christmassy feeling come across, the Christmas commercials aren't known to be funny. Exhibit A: an old Miller Brewing Co. Christmas ad.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWN. BORING.

Six Word Story - Hansaplast's 'My mom said I could!'

Maman a dit 

que je peux!

Ps. Look at me writing a Six Word Story in French

PPs. I also know the French is wrong, it's supposed to be "Maman a dit que je pouvais" but that's not what the kid says

Six Word Story - Heineken's Walk in Closet

SHOES! SHOES! SHOES!

BEER! BEER! BEER!

Six Word Story - Guiness's Backwards Evolution

This fish knew

it gets better

How Budweiser is related to Obama and a man head butting a crotch

Those connections must seem really weird to you. I can tell you now, it won't make much more sense when I explain them. Let's just get into the commercial first.

Most people from Europe, like me, will know the exclamation 'Whassaaaaaaaaaaaaap' from Scary Movie. I'm guessing most Americans know it from the actual source, this Budweiser commercial:

Budweiser released this iconic commercial in 1999 and it ran until 2002. The humour is what made this commercial effective to Budweiser. They barely even name the brand, except from the final screen, obviously. 'Whassap' itself got linked to the brand and fueled by popular culture the phrase stayed.

Six Word Story - Honda's Chain Reaction

Defying logic,
Revealing only a car

The post your post could smell like

Look at your blog, now back to mine, look at your posts, now back to mine. Your blog isn't mine, it could be, but that wouldn't always be a good thing. Most of you have already caught on, I'm diving into the Old Spice commercials today.

I thought of two opening paragraphs for this post, it was either going to be the above, or: 'SUPER INTERESTING AMAZING BLOG POST WILL AMUSE YOU FOR HOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUURS. P-P-P-P-P-P-POWER.' I think I made the right choice.

Old Spice is a brand of male grooming products that was founded in 1934. Before they started making these awesomely funny commercials, Old Spice had an image of only being used by old men. They basically made grandpa's grooming products. The brand was due for a make over, but how do you give such an old-fashioned brand a modern image? This is how:

When this was released, it completely pulled Old Spice out of their image. A lot of people probably won't even know that it previously had such a wrinkly image.

Arguably the most famous fake gorilla

In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins has probably created a car crash once or twice because of people air drumming along to the world famous drum break. Writing about it now, I can hear it in my head going: 'DUDUN DUDUN DUDUN DUDUN DUN DUN'.

Cadbury, a company known for their candy and chocolate, launched their now famous ad featuring a drumming gorilla in 2007. Obviously, it was an actor in a suit. Fun fact: this is the unknown man inside the famous gorilla. 

It's a funny ad because it perfectly captures the way people feel when that famous drum break comes on. In this case the ad was very effective, reversing the decline Cadbury saw in their profits.

Because the drumming gorilla was so incredibly well recieved, Cadbury did the logical thing and made a second video.