What: This 1983 Leo Burnett ad for McDonald’s, in which a seasonally disaffected camper writes a letter home:
Why: McDonald’s tops the leaderboard in the “Commercials That Might Actually Get Me To Try A Product I Can’t Stand” Tournament, with Jordan and Bird’s “Nothin But Net” and this visual earworm featuring the “Cha Cha Slide”, but nothing will ever beat this “Camp Granada”-like visit to the imaginary Camp Nippersink. Seven-year-olds are cute, yellow raincoats are cute, puddles are cute, and the “Quack Quack Waddle Waddle” game they play is what you see when you look up “cute” on dictionary.com.
Impact: Millions of chest colds caused by repeated iterations of “We are Nippersinkers/We’re in luck/If it rains all week/Just pretend you’re a duck!” in downpours across the world.
Personal Connection: Growing up in Seattle, you learn to enjoy yourself in the rain, so a puddle-jumping game hit the bullseye with me. But even more elemental was this interchange:
Gap-Toothed Girl: “Hey guys! Ever play Quack Quack Waddle Waddle?”
Pigtailed Girl: “Never heard of it!”
Gap-Toothed Girl: “Gimme a french fry and I’ll tell ya!”
Never has my career as a game designer been summarized so succinctly.
Other Contenders: the Cadbury gorilla coming in the air tonight; ESPN Mobile’s star-studded “Sports Heaven”, which almost got me to sign up for a doomed cellphone plan; the “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” campaign; the Honda Accord’s Rube Goldbergesque “Cog”; the sexiest car wash ever, courtesy of the Hong Kong body wash brand Feeling.