Top 5 Spike Jonze Produced Commercials

Spike Jonze has come along way from his skateboard video days. He literally has done it all from music videos for top artists (Beastie Boys, REM, Fatboy Slim, Tenacious D and more) to top major big screen releases - Adaptation, Being John Malkovich, Three Kings and Jackass 1&2. Not many though know that he's done a whole host of commercials as well. (IMDb Profile)

Every single ad has that distinctive Spike Jonze style to them, a certain uneasiness to it. I could just put this out as a "everyone's a winner" but this is award season so there does have to be a #1, so lets get right into it and start off with the ads that didn't quite make it, but need a mention.

Honorable Mentions
Miller Auditions - Penguin (Other Miller Audition Ads): The Animal Audition ads were a clever and funny way for Miller to take a pot shot at Budweiser by using their animals to audition for a parts in a Miller ad. All are superbly done.

Levi's Commercial - Tainted Love: Typical Jonze black humor to it, but it just doesn't have that killer edge.

#5 Adidas

The only Jonze Ad on the list that's had any airtime in South Africa. To me it feels like Spike's taken certain elements from Being John Malkovitch. But hey, I've been wrong before.

Visualy it's a masterpiece but sadly this little number loses on annoyance. [YouTube Link]

Music: Composed by Squeak E. Clean and featuring Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (via). [Download mp3]

#4 GAP - Pardon Our Dust

The tagline read: "Pardon our dust, the all-new GAP is coming." It only ran for a couple of months in a few cities around the States, those with GAP stores going through renovation (link). It's a real pity because it's a classic which deserved to be drilled into those lucky city resident's skulls, rerun after rerun.

It would have earned a better spot on our list if the motorbiker did more than just ride up the escalator. There, I said it. [YouTube Link]

#3 Buddy Lee Dungarees - Hall Of Mirrors

Buddy Lee Dungarees commercials played off the Buddy Movie roles. Think Bad Boys, with Lawrence swapped out with the Buddy Lee Mascot Baby.

There were a number of Buddy Lee commercials, but none of them stood out as much as the Hall of Mirrors. It wouldnt have made it to #3 if it never had "the X factor", X = Y and Y = Fookin Hilarious. You do the math. [YouTube Link]
Other Buddy Lee Ads:
Be Like Buddy Lee
80 ft Woman

#2 Nike Y2K Jogger

Remember the Y2K scare? Yeah, a crock o' shit that was. I remember filling the bath in case the world ran dry when clock struck the witching hour and eating enough three bean salads for days after to give the Hindenburg flight.

In this Jonze creation the ad plays off of what most feared. It involves a jogger who wakes up on New Years Day 2000 and goes for a casual run amongst absolute chaos, with the tag line firmly drilled home - Just Do It.

Visually this Ad is a treat and fully deserves it's position at #2. Just watch it. [YouTube Link]

#1: Ikea Lamp

It's the ad that almost made the Ikea Brand cool again. It went on to win the best TV commercial for four straight years at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival notably tearing the famous Honda Cog commercial a new one. Well not really, they came second a year or two.

A tragic tale of a Ikea lamp that gets discarded and thrown out on the street with the trash. Filmed in a way that you start to feel for the little thing as it has to endure the harsh conditions it's never had too, the bitter cold and rain. You're hoping all will end up great for the 112B model, but theres a strange unnerving twist, funny even. I would say "almost Shyamalan like" but I know I'd be beaten with an ugly stick, so I won't.

I don't think anyone will disagree with Jonze's Ikea Directed Commercial grabbing the big #1. [YouTube Link]

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It's taken just over a month for this slacker to put this all together so please, if you like it Digg it, Muti it, del.icio.us'ize it or what ever you web socialites do these days.

Update:
Awesome, in the past 2 days this post has had visitors from Gorillamask, USAToday Popcandy, and a number of other blogs as well. All making this the most popular post on Chump to date by far. As Hank said in the comments, well worth the month it took to get it together. Update: Add IMDb to the that list as well.