Here’s a round-up of the videos I featured on the Twitter feed this last week.

Trumpet – Simplifying Summer – Togs or Undies?: Trumpet, an Australian ice cream company explores the moment when “togs” (speedos) switch from being a swimsuit to underwear in everyday life.

Discovery Channel – I Love the World: A fun, well-done ad that simultaneously makes you smile in fascination and joy at the world we live in and want to watch more Discovery Channel.

National Australia Bank – Climb Every Mountain: A man faces challenges and pursues his dreams while everyone around him sings an inspirational, semi-operatic score.

Nike – Defy: A beautiful, visually poetic piece of athletes going airborne.

Apple – Think Different: This is one of my favorite ads of all time. On the surface it has nothing to do with computers, but it works on a deeper level to connect emotionally with the viewer and to tie that emotional connection to Apple. The “Think Different” campaign is considered to be the marketing campaign that helped save Apple and restored it’s reputation in the late 90’s.

This last week I focused on advertisements for candy. It seems to me that candy commercials have, of late, become more and more quirky, odd, and random. I don’t know if they’re trying to reach for a different, perhaps slightly older and more ironic market (maybe assuming that younger kids are going to eat candy regardless); or if they’re trying to create commercials that become a little more buzz-worthy and viral online. Either way, there has been some strange and creative ads coming out recently. Here are a few of them.

Skittles – Touch: A slightly tragic ad of a man who has the power to turn everything he touches to Skittles.

Starburst – Berries and Cream: Oh the “Little Lad Dance” – brilliant and odd. If you want to learn how to do it, click here.

Skittles – Long Beard: This one is so weird and slightly disturbing – and yet it still makes me laugh.

Skittles – Singing Rabbit: Another somewhat tragic story from Skittles. This time it’s about the wisdom in trading your Skittles for a singing rabbit.

Snickers – Get Some Nuts!: How can you go wrong with Mr. T in a tank barking lines like, “If I ever catch you actin’ like a crazy fool again, you’re gonna meet my friend Pain!”? You can’t.

Last week I featured four Sony Bravia ads and an ad for Guinness (which was somewhat related). The Sony Bravia “Colour Like No Other” campaign has been absolutely remarkable. From the first in the series, “Balls”, the campaign has set itself apart by creating visually captivating ads that don’t rely on computer-generated special effects. In fact several of them have making-of featurettes that show off all that went into pulling off the incredible visuals.

Sony Bravia – Balls: This ad has won numerous awards and I’m stoked to have found the longer version to show you here. I think I’ve watched it dozens of times, but every single time I get sucked into the beautiful interplay between the music and the visuals. It’s amazing to watch 250,000 bouncy balls flying down the streets of San Francisco. If you’re interested the making-of can be found here.

Sony Bravia – Paint: It’s like a fireworks show with paint. It manages to follow up the “Balls” ad while remaining completely it’s own entity (not an easy feat). The making-of can be found here.

Sony Bravia – Bunnies: This is a remarkable and well-executed use of stop-motion animation. When I first saw this ad, I thought that parts, if not most, of the animation was computer generated and then placed into stop-motion footage because I thought, “No way they were able to do this in reality”. But after watching the making-of teaser, I realized the only major thing they messed with in post was to remove the braces holding the jumping bunnies in the air.

Sony Bravia – Pyramid: This is one that hasn’t appeared on the European Bravia site (which is where the others were featured) and from what I’ve read, might be exclusively for the Egypt market. Either way, it’s still fun and continues the feel of the campaign well.

Guinness – Tipping Point: From the same director who created the Sony Bravia “Balls” ad, comes this fantastic ad featuring a large, village-wide domino-effect chain reaction.

Here’s a couple more that I featured at the beginning of this week (and then I left town and slacked on putting up any more for the week). They continue in the Rube Goldberg Machine-esque theme of the Guinness ad.

Honda – Cog: A brilliantly amazing ad that took 605 takes to get right.

Brylcreem – Effortless: I’m in awe of the timing, skill, and choreography that went into producing this ad. You can watch them make it here.

This last week, I continued the music video theme with a selection of videos from director, Spike Jonze. He’s another great music video director featured in the Directors Label DVD collection. In fact, all five of these videos can be found on his Directors Label DVD. Enjoy.

Beastie Boys – Sabotage: Such a fun video. It’s a great take-off/homage to the old cop shows of the 70’s and 80’s.

Wax – California: A mesmerizing slow-motion single-shot of a man running through the streets on fire.

Weezer – Buddy Holly: The first single off of Weezer’s self-titled “blue” album, this clever video seamlessly combines footage of the band and the TV show “Happy Days” to wonderful effect.

Bjork – It’s Oh So Quiet: I love the fun and whimsy in this video. There’s a wonderful play between the quiet, soft verses and the loud, musical dance-number chorus that only gets better when you add the video to it.

Fatboy Slim – Weapon of Choice: Who’s idea was it to feature Christopher Walken solo in a dance number for an entire music video? Brilliant.