The Best Commercials Ever Made.

It may be melodramatic.

And it may be emotionally indulgent.

But I love This Is Us.

Every few weeks, my friends, Ceilidh, Meg, and I binge a few episodes while bingeing on a buffet of bowled candy. We eat way too much while watching with Kate’s diet struggles, and between each episode, I curate a small “commercial break” composed of ripped vimeo files.

This practice began when I shared a Christmas commercial I had recently wrapped. It had a hint of saccharin itself, perfect for the This Is Us demo (it was eventually run during the show’s broadcast closer to the holiday season).

Not to claim this creation of mine belongs anywhere near these advertising legends below, or under the clickbait-y headline I assigned above but because it’s where this all began, we will begin there too.

From then on, my duty is to furnish each This Is Us get-together with some of the most interesting, artful, and well crafted short branded films the world has to offer. The choice of which spots to expose my friends to caused a new kind of appraisal about my film-making, my MO became to make films that’d I’d be stoked to share with them. It was less about being a quote-unquote “better director” and more about creating cool things, cool people would be interested in.

So here are the short films that not only inspire me but are enjoyed by the focus group I call my friends.

Directed by Seb Edwards, this spot simultaneously tells a story of an intimate human moment while giving a larger sense of scope and stakes through its artful impressionism. It shows me everything I want to see, all wrapped in one minute. It’s definitely in my top ten, it may even be fighting for first.

The follow up leaned more into the spectacle but beautiful in its own way. It’s great to see a brand doubling down on creativity after a success.

My friend Kevin rebuts the idea of millennial short attention spans with the correction that they are selective attention spans. This Kenzo film is the pudding to prove that. With all the noise out there, this broke through. It isn’t about shoving the product in the first few frames because the audience will likely keep scrolling regardless, it’s about making something amazing that will want to be watched. Something that gets shared via word of mouth. It doesn’t need to be a sponsored post, it can just be great.

And from the filmmaker's point of view, it is important to note that this hides its technical achievements. They are a means to the ends of immersion and not the focus themselves. We never want to feel like we’re seeing the work behind the spot, it’s meant to feel magical.

To stay on the dance spot train for a minute, I’ve always been a big Sam Brown fan. His music video work was never as well celebrated as his predecessors but I think he’s been more influential to more directors than even most that follow behind him understand. This may be my favorite spot by him, it’s a short burst of creativity cut to the perfect track with amazing work done by dancer Lil Buck and cinematographer Steve Annis.

Not enough people know this one. It’s such a gem. It mixes montage, message and narrative. It’s based on a character. It gives him an arc. It lets the location define his world. It breaks all the rules and wins because of it.

Effective, efficient, interesting storytelling. And at the end of this, no one wonders what the point was. It’s clear. It’s message resounds. The specificity of the story, the buried lede of who the main characters are, and then who they are to each other. The information is so slowly dolled out.

I heard that Spike Jonze saw the script for this Sony spot and passed on it. He didn’t see what it could be, and this is one of those ads that convinced me what the medium of commercials could be. You could project this on a wall at the MOMA and it’d feel right at home.

In a world where most “comedy” commercials amount to nothing more than a watered-down twitter joke three months after its last laugh, Tom Kuntz’s spots are designed to make good films. And by films, I mean that the script for this was just the seed of potential but the full manifestation had to exist on camera and then edited. Comedy can be more than dialogue communicated under flat lighting.

This may be the first commercial that I really noticed the art in. It was one of the first in line to air before movies. I saw it when I went to see Lars & The Real Girl. Halfway through my friend whispered to me, “I want to see this!” Only thirty seconds later it was, “Shit! They got me.”

But it was very much like the art that was inspiring me at the time. McGinley shot the stills side of the campaign, so that made sense. It was where art and commerce really began to blend in the culture for me.

Then I saw the follow-up…

Commercials can do this? Where do I sign up? I’m sure you can see the influence of these films on my work. It was only recently that I learned it was True Detective's Cary Fukunaga that directed this.

Horror subverted to comedy. Brilliant. And perfectly executed in every way.

One visual idea. Perfect in its simplicity.

There is always something intriguing about an ad that got pulled. This one being cut isn’t so surprising though. What is unlikely is that we got to see it at all. Rumor is this was meant to stay buried until someone uploaded to Jonathan Glazer’s reel and you just can’t the cat back in the bag.

Another commercial that was never officially released but somehow found its way online (in two versions with different bed tracks). The Gap wasted this fine example of Spike Jonze firing on all cylinders.

Full disclosure — I didn’t realize how many spots I had shown Ceilidh and Meg throughout the last couple of seasons. And how long this was getting. So I’m going to push pause here. Get back to work and come back with more soon.

Consider this part one. More in a series coming soon. Hopefully, this has shown you new ways of thinking about ads. The variety of what they can be, how they can do it and how great they can be to actually just enjoy.

Also… if you have any great recommendations, please forward them to me.
My email is brooks@brooksreynolds.com