• by P.J. Bednarski , Staff Writer @pjbtweet, October 17, 2014

Back in the days when there was polite cocktail chatter, a surefire way to please anybody involved in the advertising business was to say, “Well, they say the most creative things on TV are the commercials,” which had a way of pleasing ad execs and shutting them up at the same time because they didn’t want anyone to push that theory further than it could go on its own.

Still, the Internet and viral ads have seemed to prove the point. Some very good video is selling something, and doing it so well, it’s almost possible to forget the rest.

Unruly, which is in the business of tracking ads that are shared, periodically puts together a snack pack of good ones, including, in this latest installment BBC Music’s fabulous take on the Beach Boys standard, “God Only Knows,” done in about the same style as the BBC’s 1997 video in which a couple dozen musicians, from David Bowie to Tom Jones to Joan Armatrading to Emmylou Harris, sang Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day.” That video went viral before anybody in the world knew to call it that. It was, back then, just called a “sensation,” I think.

The latest installment  features a huge number of singers, from Brian Wilson himself, to Kylie Minogue, Florence Welch, Stevie Wonder, Pharrell Williams and a lot more. I sent it to a pal instantly. And so will you. Unruly includes several other ads in its list of hot newcomers, all of them the kinds of video you sort of feel smarter for having seen.

Likewise, Unruly’s countdown of the most shared ads from last month are also perfectly reflective of a new environment--almost an advertising call-and-response--in which advertisers nearly instantly respond to another brand’s new commercial, with a retort.

Nobody in September did that better than Ikea. A half million people shared Ikea’s wicked parody of Apple iPhone commercials with its, Experience The Power Of The Bookbook which extols the marvel of Ikea’s new catalog, with the same far-too-important voice and attitude Apple uses.The ad’s from BBH-Asia-Pacific and it imagines the catalog--a book--is a revolutionary design.

To browse, “Right to left to move forward,” a voice over says as he thumbs a page.  “Left to right to move backward... Notice something else? That’s right. No lag. Each crystal clear page loads instantaneously.”

Later in the commercial, when another hand comes into frame seeming to be going for the book, Ikea explains its password protection plan. “It’s voice-activated,” says our announcer, who then exclaims to the intruding hand, “Excuse me! This is mine.”

I’m engaged!

Oh, if it all was so good. Well, it isn’t.

This is a time women and women’s issues are centerstage, and when even the most benign tweaking is just not done. So how in the world did the Sprint Simply Unlimited Plan commercial, from Figliulo & Partners, get made? Or approved? Four women, including Judy Greer, squeal over a new Sprint plan for the iPhone 6. I mean squeal. With such piercing squeals glass in the commercial shatters. At home, what happens is “mute buttons are activated, remote control tuners press any button to get away.”

The YouTube comments about this ad are devastating, hateful, obscene--and all things considered, understated.

pj@mediapost.com