Here are some of my favorite recent ads from the world of television.

- Nextel’s commercial that shows two corporate guys in suits dancing to funky music on a tape player. A colleague interrupts them angrily, demanding to know the status of the company’s shipments; the guys stop dancing, get the info via their technology, and resume dancing as soon as they’ve placated their colleague.

- The sock puppet for Pets.com. The sock puppet was the most popular purchase
from this ill-fated Web site, which went out of business quickly because consumers weren’t interested in buying pet food and supplies over the Internet. (The makers of the site obviously didn’t research their market)

- The talking sheep from Serta. The mattress company wants to advertise the fact that its mattresses are so comfortable that people no longer need to count sheep. This is a great creative hook to peak the interest of consumers;. The company also decided to sell sheep merchandise in addition to its mattresses because consumers responded favorably to the adorable “mascots.”