Commercials finding new audience online

In this age of TiVo, some pundits are predicting the demise of the iconic30-second TV commercial.
Well, don’t believe it.
The television ad, like the proverbial cockroach-after-nuclear meltdown, isunkillable. It is a curious pop culture dynamic, this fascination with TVspots, exemplified by that yearly celebration known as Super Bowl Sunday.
And as if to prove it, TBS airs its fourth annual “Funniest Commercials ofthe Year: 2007” at 8 p.m. Wednesday.
People will watch an hourlong show about commercials, interrupted only by… commercials. TBS reports that 5 million viewers tuned in to last year’sshow – not bad for cable – and it’s a good bet that just as many or morewill watch this year’s installment.
Judging by this year’s Top 10 commercials – as voted on by fans atveryfunny ads.com – it was not a vintage year for TV spots, though. We won’tgive them away here, but we will say this: Five of the 10 most popular wereforeign TV ads.
In that case, doesn’t that lend weight to the theory that American TVcommercials are waning?
Not at all. It’s just that the best ads this year were online, not on TV.This was the year when viral advertising came into maturity. Check that: Maybenot “maturity,” since many of the spots were sophomoric and of questionable”not safe for work” taste.
But virals were by far the most buzzworthy, the kind you just had to sharewith the dude in the next cubicle. Here are a few that top the list:
* Columbia Records hyped Bob Dylan’s latest greatest-hits collection byallowing users to write their own messages on cards that a young Dylan isholding up from a scene in the documentary, “Don’t Look Back.” Then, userscould e-mail said personalized message to friends, whose inbox would flash:”Bob Dylan has sent you a message.”
* Who would’ve thought a pitch for a blender would be a YouTube sensation?Well, Blendtec’s “Will It Blend?” videos, featuring a geeky guy in a lab coatusing a blender to grind up such items as an iPhone or golf balls, was aretro-type hit.
* To publicize “The Simpsons Movie,” a user could make his own avatar usingbody characteristics from the show. Plus, who didn’t want a ringtone of Homercrowing, “So long, losers.”