• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer @MediaPostOTL, November 30, 2011

Santa is no spring chicken, so he suffers aches and pains during the hectic Christmas season. His secret weapon is Aleve, thanks to a homeowner who witnessed Santa’s back pain when carrying gifts. "Kris's Day" begins at the North Pole, the day before Christmas. Santa is physically struggling to keep up with the toy turnout, and let’s not mention the agony of sliding down countless chimneys. One man, a little old to be waiting up for Santa, sees the dilemma and places a bottle of Aleve next to Santa’s cookies. Problem solved. The spot ends with Santa busily working, pain-free, on next year’s crop of goodies. Watch it here. Energy BBDO created the campaign.

HTC launched a TV spot promoting its ReZound phone, which uses Beats by Dre technology. So slap in some headphones, crank up your music and you’ll never notice the “Inception”-esque apocalypse happening around you. Best part: the explosions in the ad are real and created by the same people who worked on the movie “Inception.” A man emerges from a subway, pops in his headphones and rocks out as lightposts shatter, buildings implode and cars flip. Our music fan walks on unfazed, even when he pauses to answer a phone call and a manhole cover explodes before his eyes. That’s some technology. See the ad here, created by Deutsch LA.

At first I thought I was trapped inside a Salvador Dali painting; turns out, it was an ad for ironing. Brand New School London and DDB London created a TV spot for the Philips PerfectCare iron. The ad recently launched in Australia and Western Europe, and takes viewers on a journey through rough and smooth terrains. In reality, the terrain is delicate while fabrics are rough – and both can be ironed equally on one setting. See it here.

Vonage launched a pair of TV spots illustrating how most cable and phone bundles rob the average consumer. But if you break your bundle and switch to Vonage for your home phone, you’ll save money. A newborn baby comes home in "Bundle of Joy." Mom, using the worst segue ever, tells her husband they need to drop their cable/phone bundle because it’s too costly. Better still, she says the longer they keep the bundle, the harder it will be to get rid of it. Sleep-deprived and deliriously happy dad thinks she's talking about the baby. See it here. "Thieves" is funny. A husband and wife are talking on the phone, complaining about being robbed by their costly cable/phone bundle. The woman is home, helping burglars steal household items while the husband lets a man steal his wallet and hands the money he withdrew at an ATM directly to a robber. And they shake on it. Watch the ad here. TBWA/Chiat/Day New York created the campaign.

A loud noise in the middle of the night rouses a man, who thinks he’s being burglarized. He grabs a golf club, opens a closed door, raises the club and screams loudly. Two boys, presumably his son and a friend, scream back, as does the woman in a horror film the two are watching on an HP computer. The spot ends with a zombie suddenly appearing on the computer screen, causing the three men to scream again. See the ad here, created by twofifteenmccann, directed by Markus Walker of Anonymous Content and edited by Stewart Reeves of Arcade Edit.

An iPod Touch is entertaining , so users should “Share the fun.” The latest TV spot for Apple’s iPod Touch features a catchy tune, Toungue Tied by GROUPLOVE, friends playing games, texting, tweeting and chatting via FaceTime. In other words, a pretty good day. See the ad here, created by TBWA\Media Arts Lab.

Augmented reality graphics take center stage in a 15-second spot for Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Soldier from Ubisoft. There’s a nighttime battle with the lone illumination emerging from soldiers’ heat-seeking weapons that light up fires and hiding enemies. The ad, seen here, was created in-house and directed by Psyop. 

A man wakes up suddenly in the middle of the night. Unlike the guy from the earlier HP ad, this man’s a retired ice-cream-shop owner who dreamed of something big. Does it involve peanut butter was my first question. It’s actually just a hand-scooped Oreo cookie ice cream sandwich from Carl’s Jr. The brand, along with its sister company Hardee’s, have a lot going on lately. They’re selling cheddar biscuits, hand-breaded buffalo chicken tenders and now this. I’m losing track. What happened to their burgers? See the latest ad here, created by David&Goliath.

Random iPad app of the week: Scorch, an app by Avid Technology, lets musicians of all levels transform their iPads into an interactive music stand, score library and sheet music store. Users can learn songs and adapt them to particular instruments by transposing a score, changing instruments, or converting to and from guitar tab. Using the keyboard display, musicians can see the whole or certain parts of a score, played out. The app costs $1.99 in the App Store.