After watching The Gruen Transfer on the ABC tonight, I hit the website and a thread asked “what ads do you think epitomise the best of the advertising art form?” Now, I’m an online guy, so it seems a little wrong for me to focus purely on TV, but I’m going to, because I do love the format. It’s powerful, it’s on a big screen dominating your living room visually and the audio can still be heard whilst you’re in the bathroom, because it’s been increased by 20dB by the broadcaster.

So, here’s part one of my favourite TVCs. I’m going to focus on one thing that I do love - meat, and Australian produce of course.

Falling in Lamb

Clever. The use of the cinema trailer format is indeed clever, and the first time I’ve seen this, for this type of ad. How do you engage and make meat interesting? Make it in a love story of course. Genius!

Dinner with Tom Cruise

Naomi Watts turns down dinner with Tom. What’s funny to think is that when this was shot, Naomi probably would dream of dinner with Tom and certainly wouldn’t turn it down. Today, she’s probably had several dining experiences with Tom, and could conceivably turn down dinner with Tom to have it with Mum. It’s memorable and says two things to me - spending time with the family is a good thing, and if you’re going to do it, sit down to some quality Australian produce, lamb and of course, a couple of bottles of Penfolds Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon, or some Coopers Sparkling. Oh, I meant to say South Australian produce.

Serve Lamb on Australia Day

A cracker. I remember when I saw this I laughed. And did I laugh and I asked my friends, especially ones into AFL, “Have you seen the new lamb ad with Sam Kekovich?”. We Australians like to poke fun at ourselves, and this is what this ad does. Reminds us that eating tofu and alfalfa together is a pretty flat combination and wearing your pants showing your boxers is “Un-Australian”. Three years in the running now, we’ll be expecting number four to be released in the week preceeding Australia Day. And again, when was the last time an ad made you laugh?

Next up on my favourite TVCs - beer.