If you want to sell a cheap Android tablet then what better way than to blur the lines between your product and the market-leading Apple iPad. Hell, you could even mock Steve Jobs for having died!

This is an advert for the Action Pad from AXN, a Taiwanese company. The product is an Android tablet, and the company thought it would be suitable to use a Steve Jobs lookalike with wings as their frontman.

This commercial proves two things: the iPad is considered the greatest tablet computer, hence the need to mimic it; advertising companies will stoop to the lowest levels in order to shift a product.

I wouldn’t buy one of these things just on the strength of this ad. It’s unnecessarily crass and basically mocks Steve Jobs’ presenting style and mannerisms. Shameful.

This video shows the 2012 Super Bowl commercial for Honda starring Matthew Broderick as Ferris Bueller. It’s quite good, but doesn’t live up to the considerable hype heaped upon it.

Last week saw a 10-second teaser appear which had the InterWebs furiously speculating over whether Ferris Bueller’s Day Off 2 was going to be announced during the 2012 Super Bowl. It isn’t.

Instead, Honda has paid Broderick a small fortune to reprise his role from that film for a commercial for its CR-V. It’s called Matthew’s Day Off and this is it in its entirety.

I can’t help thinking Honda has erred by leaking the full commercial ahead of game day. Perhaps a longer teaser, but the whole thing? That kind of misses the point a little, doesn’t it?

This video may only be 10-seconds-long, but it has caused a sensation on social networks. Could we be about to see Ferris Bueller’s Day Off 2 announced? It isn’t likely. Instead, it’s probably just a teaser for a Super Bowl ad.

I guess it’s possible there will be a new Ferris Bueller movie, but I really can’t see it being so. Why would they tease it in this way? And if it had been shot already we’d know about it.

No. All this will be is Broderick reprising his role as Ferris Bueller for an ad of some kind. Which is fine. If they have thrown a budget at it and concocted a good story then that’ll do me.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off 2 would be crap anyway. John Hughes is no longer with us, and Broderick is 50-years-old.

Watching the sun rise or the sun set is a truly awe-inspiring experience. It’s visually stunning, and it also helps to ground you, and make you realize you’re just another animal on a planet that is rotating in space.

But what if you were able to artificially cause the sun to rise?

That is exactly what Tropicana did in London recently as part of a new viral advertising campaign. Tropicana is an American brand of fruit juice, and the sun was clearly meant to represent the color of its orange juice product.

This looks awesome, as in it really could be mistaken for the sun, at least after a cursory glance. And then you’d get closer and realize it’s just something hanging in Trafalgar Square.

This video is a teaser for the Super Bowl advert from Volkswagen. That’s right, even adverts are getting viral teasers weeks ahead of time now. Thankfully it’s brilliant, so no one will mind.

You may remember last year’s Super Bowl adverts, or at least some of them. One of the most memorable was from car company Volkswagen, who showed us a little kid playing Darth Vader from Star Wars.

The 2012 Super Bowl is on Feb. 4, and Volkswagen is preparing us for a new ad with this teaser. It’s called The Bark Side and features a variety of dogs barking out the tune to Star Wars. How awesome is that?

It makes me wonder what VW has planned for the actual ad to be aired during the Super Bowl. The company is going to have to go some to beat this one. I’m guessing we’ll be seeing more of the dogs.

Australia Day is upon us, which means two things: a day off and another lamb-filled address from Sam Kekovich. For close to a decade the former football star has been encouraging us to remember Australian values and eat lamb on January 26.

This time around Kekovich is blaming the rise of pop culture for a lapse in Australian values. After watching the way the country fawned over the Kardashian sisters and Liz Hurley, I think he might be on to something.

To suggest he can propel “Barbie Girl” to the top of the charts again may be a step too far though, don’t you think?

Every year Doritos holds it’s annual “Crash the Super Bowl” contest. Independent film makers submit their entries and the winner gets shown on national TV during the Super Bowl. This time, the prize is $1 million and a chance to work with The Lonely Island comedy group.

I’ve checked out all the entries from this year, and this rejected one seems to be funnier than the top 5 on the official website. No wonder it’s gone viral with over 1.5 million views.

My favorite part of this ad has to be the list of ingredients:

Staff of Anubis
Philosopher Stone
Rubber Hammer
Rubber Nails
Moon Rock Salt
Archimedes Screw
Harpsichord
Parachute
Blank
Bag of Holding
Cloud Mist
Elven joy
Lucky Penny
Love Song
Erlenmeyer Flask
Marcoscope
Sense of Wonder
Blankety Blanks
Temporal Glitch
Haiku
Nods
Sweeps
Beeps
Deeps
Sneeps
Reeps
Winks
Memories
Fireballs
Congratulations
Laughter
Lightening
Star Dust
Rings of a Tree
Mother’s Approval
Mountain Air
Cheesiness
Inspiring Footage
Smiles
Secret Ingredient
Smell of Morning
Love

Salt

I have no clue what the Japanese were on about here, or indeed what they were on when they made this ad. I’m not sure it effectively sells noodles, but who cares? Like so much of this country’s pop culture, it’s loads of fun.

This is the commercial for Dermablend by L’Oreal. It features Zombie Boy, who is apparently a fashion model (I’ve never heard of him) with tattoos covering his whole body. And it is a stroke of genius.

Am I the only one who doesn’t think ‘Zombie Boy’ is some kind of genius? Sure, he struck lucky and made it as a model thanks to his tattoos, but that’s hardly a skill now, is it. If anything the tattoo artist deserves the credit.

What if ‘Zombie Boy’ hadn’t made it as a model? He would never be able to work in a normal job, unless he covered his whole body with the Dermablend Leg and Body Cover and Tattoo Primer he’s advertising. Oh wait, it all fits.

Having said all that the commercial is very clever. It shows what the product being advertised can do, and does so in a way that ensured the video would go viral online. Clever L’Oreal.

We all know drink driving is dumb, but spreading the word through advertising generally comes off as patronizing or preachy. Trust the Kiwis to get it right with this clever new commercial.

This New Zealand ad is perfectly measured with realism, thoughtfulness, and just the right amount of humor. Foreigners may need to listen hard to wrap their heads around those thick Kiwi accents, but it’s worth it. I intend to drop “I’ve been internalizing a really complicated situation in my head” into many a conversation.

In just five days this ad clocked more than seven million views on YouTube. Now that’s what I call getting the message across.

We all know it’s bad for us, at least when eaten in abundance, but that doesn’t stop us enjoying our love affair with McDonald’s. And some of the items on the menu are particularly tasty and sought after.

What the frack am I on about? The McRib, of course. Which is a McDonald’s menu item that only makes an appearance once every blue moon. Except in Germany where it’s permanently available.

In the U.S. these occasional appearances mean the McRib has gained a cultlike status, with people talking about it in reverential tones while it’s not available. And then it appears once again and people go mad for it.

The McRib is coming back once again, with McDonald’s stores across the U.S. stocking it from Nov. 14. And the good news? It’s not even as bad as a Big Mac in terms of calories and fat content. I’ll have two.

Air New Zealand has out-weirded itself with its latest bizarre advertisement. Where else would you see David Hasselhoff starring alongside some Siamese twin sheep?

It starts with the Kiwi sheep, known as Mason and Jason, enjoying Air New Zealand’s new Cuddle Class, and somehow ends with one of the rams riding a sky pony alongside The Hoff. It’s a leap to say the least, but we’re used to this kind of bizarreness from Air New Zealand.

Again I find myself wondering whether the company’s marketing team is made up of geniuses or folks completely off their rockers. What’s your vote?

Talk about lucking out. Lessons learned from the Trojan condom company.

Why is it that my immediate thought after watching this is: “Sad but true”? Haha.

I am sure plenty of you have already seen this commercial, but I actually hadn’t and was almost about to think ‘good on him’ until I saw the end of the commercial.

Haha. I wonder if any family has ever done this to a prospective groom. I am sure it has happened to someone out there. I wonder if he got away for the same reason…

Always keep your condoms in the ute, men.

Instructional video on how to make a man walk away with a drink or drinks he doesn’t remember ordering.

The male mind is a fascinating place.

It can focus single-mindedly on highly technical tasks and instantly switch to finding the right direction to go from and upside down map.

So it would seem the simplest of tasks for a male mind to engage in a much-loved subject such as getting the next round of drinks from the bar…

Now don’t you wonder what his mates back at the table had to say?

I’d like to see the next guy try to do better…

There are good television advertisements that win Golden Lions and other prestigious honors. There are bad television advertisements that annoy us, or bore us senseless. And then there are television advertisements like this one for Ojai Taxidermy that are just so bad that they’re brilliant.

Local commercials are limited by their small budgets, but Chuck Testa doesn’t let that stop him from turning out something awesome. He commits completely to this ludicrous piece of advertising, and that’s the biggest part of its charm.

I’m not sure this ad would make me use his services, but I won’t forget his business in a hurry!

The next time you get stuck at airport security, just take a calming breath because it might not be what you think it is…

I love Australia.

With all the headlines about security, it is worth taking a look back in time to how the Aussies did it.

In this hilarious commercial, Underdaks continued their line of funny ads for men’s jocks.

I remember when I first came to Australia and was a bit gobsmacked at what their commercials were like (not to mention their actual television programs).

Now I watch something like this and thinks it’s rather tame in comparison…

You’ll never think of Skittles the same way again.

The thing you have to keep in mind when it comes to The Gruen Transfer is that it is an Australian show. For there to be things they can’t show you, it means it got very naughty.

Stepping back, it’s a very interesting world we are living in when brands can basically be hijacked by anyone with the technology and the wish.

I am only a smidge surprised that Skittles hasn’t had this removed. After all, I suppose the scandal really is worth it to them as a business.

And you thought outlawing swearing in Australia was funny.

Fashion moves pretty quickly with one season’s hottest look becoming the next’s most tragic. Westfield Stratford City shopping center celebrates the trend’s of the last century in this clever ad.

It takes the new London mall just 100 seconds to give us this fashion blast from the past. Of course most of this apparel won’t be available at the mall, but with the current taste for all things retro you should be able to indulge in a few pieces inspired by the past.

Funnily enough though, this advertisement doesn’t make me want to shop. However it does make me want to dance!

Ordinarily the ads that bring a tear to my eye feature baby animals, old people in love, or sick smokers reminding us of the risks of their bad habit. I can’t remember the last time an advertisement for a restaurant chain tugged at my heart strings, but I suppose there’s a first time for everything. This commercial for Chipotle Mexican Grill really hits the spot.

I think Willie Nelson’s version of Coldplay’s “The Scientist” may be the biggest reason this ad’s brought me undone. This is such a moving song, and Willie’s roughened vocals take it to a new level.

Add in those cute animated piggies, who really deserve better than becoming cubes, and it’s a recipe for waterworks!

The Wunder Boner is a great name. A little misplaced and liable to make people think it’s something designed for the bedroom, sure, but great nonetheless.

As funny as this commercial is, and it is pretty hilarious, it doesn’t detract from the fact that the Wunder Boner is actually a really clever device. Simple yes, but ingenious with it.

Personally I haven’t been fishing for years, and when I did I always threw the little buggers back into the water. So the Wunder Boner would be of no use to me. But for those who eat what they catch it would save a lot of time and hassle.

Oh, and it provides opportunity for innuendo aplenty, which is the most important thing of all.