How does Ireland’s largest bookmaker, Paddy Power, promote its new iPhone app?

With tongue planted firmly in cheek, a barrage of great one-word copy and a dash of homoeroticism. Losing your life’s savings on the go has never been so cool!

The latest ad for Harley-Davidson is nice, albeit a bit annoying in the audio department. The real news is it represents the first public effort by agency Victor & Spoils after Harley shockingly got fired by their previous agency, long-time partner Carmichael Lynch. And if you hadn’t heard, Victors & Spoils is an agency featuring some amazing talent (including top talent from Crispin Porter + Bogusky) that caused a tense wave in the industry because it works off of crowdsourcing principles. This ad was conceptualized by a “passionate amateur.”

Decent stuff. But it pales to classic Carmichael work. The one below, in particular, is still one of my favorite ads of all time.

In what has been old hat (delightful, delightful old hat), Skittles and agency TBWA\Chiat\Day continue to crank out good, dumb fun.

Because they’re so random, varied and stupid, the spots don’t seem to lose steam like the Old Spice The Man Your Man Could Smell Like spots, which focus on a single character in new situations.

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Super Bowl XLV came and went, and the overall story (beyond Christina Aguilera screwing up the national anthem) is that the ads stunk. Lacking any real inspiration or powerful concepts, the ads seemed to fall back on typical Super Bowl mainstays: Slapstick humor (shots to the groin, etc.), celebrities (Justin Bieber and Ozzy Osbourne for Best Buy, Kim Kardashian for Sketchers, Richard Lewis and Roseanne Barr for Snickers), babies (hello E*Trade), and cute animals (hello E*Trade again).

Even worse, there were multiple head-shake moments induced by the likes of Pepsi Max, Doritos, Mercedes and everyone’s favorite Super Bowl whipping boy, GoDaddy. Unlike last year, when Google pulled through with their simple and engaging Parisian Love, there wasn’t any ad that struck hard and stayed with you.

So which spot does this blog choose as the ad winner? With lukewarm applause, it would have to be the logical, safe Volkswagen spot. Although it uses a couple crutches to walk (cute kids, pop culture icons), the concept is just simple and smile-inducing enough to cross-over to multiple audiences. Nice job, Deutsch.

The funniest spot nod goes to CareerBuilder, who once again exploit monkeys to torment our young everyman just trying to make an honest buck. Props to Erik W for spotting the Nebraska plates.

Yet another Coca-Cola smile-maker that warms living rooms across America with that classic Coke cheer:

Though a bit somber and heavy-handed, I was impressed by the copywriting and engaging tone of this spot. The true pride and grit of Detroit is simply seething throughout and it shows. And though some will question the selection of Eminem… would you have rather had Kid Rock?

Riding the post-Betty White wave, Snickers again turns to previously obscure celebrities. The spot would’ve been my choice for Best Of Super Bowl XLV if the scene with Roseanne Barr was real.

The NFL dials in some pop culture faves to perfectly capture how deeply ingrained America’s love for football really is.

Metaphors come full circle in this spot for CarMax. Unfortunately, it was the only CarMax ad during the Super Bowl that was worth a damn.

The latest Old Spice ad is finally released! This, after a short pre-launch campaign that granted one lucky Old Spicer Super Fan status. As a Super Fan winner, 16 year old Chris Gatewood got full access to the new ad 24 hours before it hit the net. Oh, and some Super Bowl tickets.

Is it awesome? Yes. Mind-blowing? Debatable. Looks like there is finally a subtle feeling of diminishing returns on the whole campaign, but it’s still better than 98% of the ads out there. Discuss.

Energizer introduces a series of entertaining animated vignettes highlighting their “ability to last longer.” Why the quotations? The videos cite nice figures, such as “lasts 65% longer”, or “20 hours longer”. But the videos aren’t comparing Energizer batteries to the competition (as you would assume), but to Energizer’s own line of batteries. The beauty of fine print, ladies and gentleman! Oh well. Fun stuff that is probably TBWA’s first campaign for Energizer since they won the global biz.

Nettbuss creates an artsy, almost poetic ad for Norway’s Nettbuss that is as engaging as it is confusing. I mean, this is a bus ad right? You’ll ask the same question, but there’s no doubt this ad resonates. Warning: About .5 seconds worth of exposed breast may be seen.

Great stuff by Los & Co. Via Creativity Online.

Toyota works with Saatchi and Saatchi LA to promote the upcoming Prius models in this stop-motion spot. Yep, not model, but models. This plurality has introduced an interesting problem but potentially fun marketing challenge: Finding out what to call the plural version of the Prius. Prien? Prii? I say call it Priuses and be done with it, but again I’m not a very creative person nor do I have patience for such trivial things.

Via Motionographer.

Get love (and apparently braids too) when you drink H2Oh! in this spot by BBDO Argentina.