GEARS OF WAR "MAD WORLD" > The sound and fury that so often typifies violent video games is stripped away with surprisingly

emotive results in this spot for the apocalyptic Xbox 360 offering. Instead of grinding metal, whizzing bullets and exploding ordinances the soundtrack features only Gary Jules' melancholic cover of Tears for Fears' classic "Mad World," which, coupled with life-like effects from Digital Domain, captures the game's gloominess and nihilism in one grand stroke. This testament to the power of music may leave you with the urge to blow your nose rather than blow shit up.

Agency: McCann Worldgroup, SF
ECDs: Rob Bagot, John McNeil
CDs: Scott Duchon, Geoff Edwards
Copywriter: Mat Bunnell
Art Director: Nate Able
Producer: Hannah Murray
Production Company: Anonymous Content
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Creative Consultant: David Fincher
Visual Effects Company: Digital Domain
SVP of Production/EP: Ed Ulbrich
Visual Effects Supervisor: Eric Barba
Editor: Russ Glasgow
Music: "Mad World" - Gary Jules

Irn Bru "Phenomenal Christmas" > Leave it to the Scots to take the piss out of a beloved holiday children's classic. Perhaps homage, but more likely a cheeky parody, "Phenomenal Christmas" initially seems like another unctuous seasonal soft drink shill, but gradually reveals itself to be a hilarious send-up of the animated short The Snowman with its signature song, "Walking in the Air". With the animation and choir-boy intonation down pat, the boy and his snowman friend take flight, but wholesome adventure soon devolves into immature conflict when the indignant child refuses to share his Irn Bru.

Agency: The Leith Agency
Creatives: Mark Davies, Michael Kinlan
Head of TV: Les Watts
Agency Producer: Kate Hope
Production Company: Sherbet, London
Director: Robin Shaw
Producer: Jayne Bevitt
Picture Post-Production: Sherbet
Sound Post-Production: Candle

Guinness "Sky" > Guinness, known for its long-form adverts, recruited Stink director Nacho Gayan to helm another epic, this time for the African market. A fatherly narrator recounts the story of a young dreamer who attains his goal of working as a pilot in rural Africa. After a long, hard day of living the dream, the humble pilot must return to earth - physically and spiritually - for a cold one at the local watering hole. Gayan deftly mixes the emotional grandeur and sweeping vistas one would associate with a feature like The English Patient with a simple yet subtle storytelling style.

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, London
Creative Director: Kate Stanners
Head of Copy: Paul Domenet
Head of Art: Brian Connolly
Head of TV: Andy Gulliman
Agency Producer: Toby Clifton
Production Company: Stink
Director: Nacho Gayan
Executive Producer: Daniel Bergmann
Producer: Molly Pope
DP: Jan Velicky
Post-Production: MPC, London
Editor: Gabriela Soria
Production Service Company: Stillking

Motorola "Red" > Director Jonathan Glazer follows up the spectacle of Sony "Paint" with an abstract spot for Mother and Motorola. We see the image of two naked, intertwined Rodinesque figures spinning frenetically. Seeming at times to meld and morph into disfigured aberrations, the image is stark, fast moving, beautiful and even frustrating to decipher. "Red" feels like a return to art school basics for its appreciation of the human form and is capped off with an appropriately mysterious, albeit blunt, plea from Motorola: "There's a phone designed to help eliminate AIDS in Africa. Please buy it."

Agency: Mother, London
Creatives: Stephen Butler, Kim Gehrig
Agency Producers: Angela Eleini, Juliet Pearson, Zoe Bell
Production Company: Academy Films
Director: Jonathan Glazer
Producer: Simon Cooper
DP: Dan Landin
Editorial: Paul Watts, The Quarry
Post-Production: Tom Debenham and Dominic Parker, One Of Us
Producer: Rachel Penfold
Sound Design/Music: Peter Raeburn, Soundtree

Motley Bird "Lovebirds" > Fans of Psyop's "Crow" for MHD will enjoy this sensual yet invigorating encounter between a bird and a suspiciously erogenous flower. Though its metaphor is hardly subtle (the word "vaginal" immediately comes to mind), the slowly evolving color palette hints at increasingly intense stimulation as the deep pink-colored bird's beak penetrates the innards of a blooming flower. Motley Bird is an energy drink company and "Lovebirds" conveys the kind of gradual, pleasurable sensitivity one doesn't normally associate with a caffeine high. Agency: Third Skin
Production Company: Psyop
CDs: Marie Hyon and Marco Spier
Executive Producer: Justin Booth-Clibborn
Producer: Lucia Grillo
Designer: Mato Bilic
Flame: Eben Mears(Lead), Jamie Aguirre
Technical Directors: Damon Ciarelli, Pakorn Bupphavesa, ToddAkita
Animators: Kitty Lin, Josh Harvey, Boris Ustaev
Modeler: Paul Liaw
Music: Drazen Bosnjak, Q Department
Vocalist: Samantha Hyon