The Five Most Influential Commercials of All Time: Madison Avenue's Home Runs

Commercials--they annoy us because they come, one right after the other, and they delay our return to the program which we love--be it "Law and Order," "Grey's Anatomy," or "American Idol." But every once in awhile there's that advertisement that comes out that is special for some reason. The odd ad that connects with us on an emotional level that goes far beyond the product that is the focus of the ad.

One example, indeed, came out in 1971, when a group of hilltop singers cut a commercial that would have the world singing for the three or four decades to follow. "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing," indeed, was powerful. It not only got people to buying Coke, but spawned a hit song by the Seekers, an Australian group, in 1972. That commercial has been remade for years. The message of this particular jingle connected with consumers in the time of a horrid war. In the midst of all the bloodshed, the writer was attempting to teach the world to sing, and to think about love and peace and harmony among the brotherhood/sisterhood of man. Its message rings true today.

There is another ad that provokes an emotional response out of me. It's the 1969 (?) Kodak ad, "Turn Around." This commercial is very effective when it comes to selling cameras because it gets people thinking about memories. Taking pictures is all about preserving memories. In this ad we follow the girl in all stages of her life, beginning at babyhood, then progressing to toddlerhood, then eventually we see her as a grown woman with a husband and a child of her own. "Turn around and you're three," Ed Ames sings, until he finally gets to the part where he sings, "Turn around and you're grown...with a child of your own."

This tugs at the heart strings. The idea of the commercial is to plant as a seed the idea that time races by so quickly, and unless you stop to smell the roses, unless you have your camera handy, those moments will slip by and be gone forever. People become emotionally touched by the ad, they buy into this idea, and race off to a Revco's or a Cunningham's drug store (one of the chains in Michigan back in that day) to purchase a Kodak camera.