'Funniest Commercials' proves sex and humor sell

This commercialism actually enhances holidays

Kevin Nealon plays host to "Funniest Commercials of the Year: 2007" Wednesday on TBS.

Many people complain about commercialism ruining Christmas, but that hasn't stopped TBS from turning the end of December into an ad man's holiday with its annual "Funniest Commercials of the Year" special.

Kevin Nealon once again plays host to this year's celebration at 8 p.m. Wednesday on TBS, and this time around he's more understated than last, when he basically turned it into a boondoggle of an excuse to jet himself and his wife off to Paris.

Nealon strolls New York City, home of the so-called "Mad Men" of Madison Avenue, and otherwise pretty much gets out of the way of the ads. They roll by in rapid-fire succession, and it would take either a real Grinch or a tenured Marxist to raise issue with this particular commercial television show using ads as content as well. Sure, they're hit and miss by definition, and many are overly familiar -- enough with the Bud Light, already -- but the main attraction of "Funniest Commercials" has always been the more daring and risque ads they get away with overseas.

In fact, if Nealon had gone anywhere this year it should have been Belgium, because for some reason the ad men and women of that country had a banner season.

As ever, sex sells, and if you think that ads here are racy and sexist, get a load of the commercials from countries where they don't have the Federal Communications Commission breathing down their necks worrying about "wardrobe malfunctions."

One Belgian ad features a blonde in a micro-miniskirt walking down the street -- and every guy walking with his wife in the other direction tries to discreetly get a lingering glance, as the wives inevitably scowl. The tag line: "Ladies, you better rely on yourself for the future." And it turns into a spot for a pension firm!

Yet otherwise Belgium's Madison Avenue shows ample inventiveness, as in a comical Schweppes spot dramatizing "the slightly more sophisticated bar fight."

U.S. ads are more likely to joke on the realities of censorship, like a Knorrs food commercial filled with bleeps suggesting, "'Frozen' doesn't have to be a bad word," and the Orbit spot in which everyone's mouth is so clean no one can utter a profanity.

Contrast that with the New Zealand car commercial in which a pickup truck again and again proves itself so powerful it keeps causing accidents, to which the owner keeps simply saying, "Bugger."

Even among the American ads there are discoveries to be made. Somehow I missed seeing the Dairy Queen commercial about a guy in an airplane stealing spoonfuls of another guy's Blizzard as he tries, unsuccessfully, to store his luggage in the overhead compartment.

And there are insights to be found among the familiarities. The key to the Kinko's ad about the guy organizing his slovenly creative team is that it comes on slow before the jokes begin to emerge. The leader addresses a couple of people matter-of-factly first before ironic replies right out of "Frasier" start flying.

"Sue, you're in charge of waffling."

"Are you sure?"

"Jerome, you'll talk a big game then do nothing."

"Let's do it."

"Rick, can you fold under pressure for me?"

"Like a lawn chair."

"And Ted, you just keep thinking everybody's out to get you."

"They are."

Now that's a well-written commercial.

The bad thing about "Funniest Commercials" is it feels compelled to arrive at an absolute best by putting the ads to a vote on TBS' veryfunnyads.com Web site. Without giving the winner away, let me just say that it leaves a distinctly unfunny smell lingering at the end.

Yet the best thing about "Funniest Commercials" is it once again relegates "Cavemen" to the world of advertising. It's where they've always belonged.

In the air

Remotely interesting: CBS airs the 30th annual "Kennedy Center Honors" special, this year celebrating Martin Scorsese, Brian Wilson, Diana Ross, Leon Fleisher and, now officially the most overrated entertainer in the world, Steve Martin, at 8 p.m. Wednesday on WBBM Channel 2.

The new "Heroes" novel, "Saving Charlie," by Aury Wallington, is released Wednesday at $24 from Del Ray books.

End of the dial: Chicago Public Radio's "This American Life" will receive an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for "Which of These Is not Like the Others?" WBBM Channel 2 investigative reporter Dave Savini and producer Michele Youngerman will likewise get one at a ceremony Jan. 16 for the series "Fly at Your own Risk."

WBEZ 91.5-FM airs the jazz special "Joy to the World 2007," with pianist Bob Thompson and vocalist Kendra Foster, at 9 a.m., rerun at 8 p.m. "New Orleans" Christmas draws on the music of Louis Armstrong and other Big Easy artists at noon, rerun at 9 p.m. … Soulfix performs on "Hambone's Blues Party" at 10 p.m. Thursday on WDCB 90.9-FM.