Guitar Hero's dream band

It's a freaking all-star team of athletes plugging the new Guitar Hero video game. Swimmer Michael Phelps, slugger (and Madonna toy) Alex Rodriguez, skater Tony Hawk and baller Kobe Bryant slide out in their skivvies and dance around to Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll" a la Tom Cruise in Risky Business. Highlight: a helmeted Tony Hawk rolls out on a skateboard, toy drum set hanging awkwardly from his torso. Lowlight: Michael Phelps, who proves to be as camera-allergic as ever. (Stay in the water, Phelps!) Sadly, a steamy Heidi Klum version of this spot — she rocks out in black lingerie — never made it onto television.

Reference : Time's Top 10 TV Ads by Gilbert Cruz

Old Spice's meta-humor

This spot lives and dies on Neil Patrick Harris' perfectly smug face. With great faux solemnity, the actor — who as a child starred in Doogie Howser, M.D. — opens the door and says, "Chronic body odor ruins lives." This line alone would be an effective ad. But Harris then goes on to stroll the halls of an odd hospital, full of hot doctors sloppily making out in full view (Grey's Anatomy dig, anyone?). The joke reaches a crescendo when he enters an operating room, holds up his hands for a pair of nonexistent gloves and slaps a stethoscope bulb down on his patient's face. "I used to be a doctor for pretend," he says. Perhaps, but his charisma is very real.

Reference : Time's Top 10 TV Ads by Gilbert Cruz

Scorsese to direct AT&T

How can you not love Scorsese and his fast-talking, heavy-eyebrowed Noo Yawkese? Barging in on a goodnight phone call whose plot he says is "pedestrian," Scorsese directs a darker, more exciting life for the mother tucking in her child. "You're trapped in a loveless marriage. You should be drinking something out of a bottle," he tells Mom. "You have a bottle around?" The golden moment comes when he invents a criminal life for the kid's out-of-town father. A life that will lead the child to murder.

Scorsese: "Can you say vengeance?"

Adorable Five Year-Old Boy: (Long pause) "Vengeance."

Reference : Time's Top 10 TV Ads by Gilbert Cruz

Fate, according to Nike

Can you believe that David Fincher, director of dark, violent fare such as Seven, Zodiac, and Fight Club is behind this rousing, rhythmic, well-lit commercial? Following two football players — the Pittsburgh Steelers' Troy Polamalu and the San Diego Chargers' LaDainian Tomlinson — from the womb to their bone-crushing encounter at midfield, this Nike spot was photographed by Emmanuel Lubezki (the virtuoso cinematographer behind Children of Men) and features a remixed Ennio Morricone piece from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Cinematic cachet aside, the spot tells an entertaining, joyous story in just about 60 seconds. And no dead bodies, either!

Reference : Time's Top 10 TV Ads by Gilbert Cruz

Fed Ex's horror flick

It's a genius idea in these energy-deficient times: carrier pigeons as mail couriers. Smart thinking. But "what about the big stuff?," asks the boss. This is where the ad turns into a mini-disaster flick. Giant pigeons drop packages on the populace below, peck at trucks, and shed windshield-size feathers. It's a witty commercial, made all the better for the directors' decision to stay away from the obvious bird crap joke.

Reference : Time's Top 10 TV Ads by Gilbert Cruz

I'm a PC

PCs have just about had it. Mocked relentlessly as stodgy and passé in those John Hodgman/Justin Long Mac ads, PCs are fighting back! Significantly funnier (and possibly cheaper) than the much anticipated, ultimately flat Bill Gates/Jerry Seinfeld ads, this spot finds real people of all sorts to give PCs a plug. Naturally, Gates is in there somewhere, but he's got nothing on the dude in the shark tank ("I'm a PC. And I'm kinda scared") or the incredibly random gentleman at the end, who just wants us to know that he's a PC and he sells fish. We're sold on this commercial.

Reference : Time's Top 10 TV Ads by Gilbert Cruz

T-Mobile's NBA series

Basketball's Dwyane Wade and Charles Barkley prove themselves to be one of the better comedy duos to grace the small screen in recent years with their series of T-Mobile ads. In this Super Bowl spot, Miami Heat star Wade finally gains entry to Barkley's "Fave Five" after several commercials' worth of trying to curry favor with the Hall of Famer. And boy does Wade come to regret it. The retired Barkley has apparently become one of the idle rich, with nothing to do but call Wade over and over again to ask such urgent questions as, "You like popsicles?" Barkley is wonderfully self-effacing (look at his fridge!) and Wade does exasperated like a pro.

Reference : Time's Top 10 TV Ads By Gilbert Cruz