Sony "Balls"

Ten spots from 10 years sounds like the impossible task, doesn't it? Well, let us tell you, it is. Still, we sifted through an age's worth of work to pick the ones we feel are the best, most memorable, most influential and indicative of the first chapter of the new millennium. So here they are, presented in chronological order and as this week's Top Spots: Budweiser "Wassup", Fox Sports "India/China/Turkey", Ikea "Lamp", Honda "Cog", Honda "Grrr", Sony "Balls", Ecko "Air Force One, Dove "Evolution", Cadbury "Gorilla" and Halo 3 "Diorama".

Budweiser "Wassup" (2000)
The Super Bowl is famed for spawning the most ridiculous, hilarious, populist and sometimes puerile advertising. And people just love it. But in 2000, Super Bowl XXXIV Budweiser, a hearty contributor to the Super Bowl cannon, struck cultural pay dirt when they took Charles Stone III's funny little web film and made a blockbuster out of it. There is scarcely a single person who pays even remote attention to the cultural zeitgeist that doesn't know exactly how to respond to cries of "wasssssuuuuup!", or any of its spinoff mantras for that matter ("waaaassssaaabi" anyone?) The purity of the idea and the willingness of Budweiser and DDB to know when to leave awesome enough alone (the characters in the spot are played by Stone and his real-life friends, all of whom starred in Stone's original short film), make this one of the most memorable spots of the decade. The concept was revisited in 2008 in honor of the Obama campaign, albeit a bit more dour and of-the-times, and garnered a special commendation at the 2009 Cannes festival.

Fox Sports "India", "China", "Turkey" (2001)
If tasked to create a time capsule from the last decade, and we were allowed to choose one piece of work to represent comedy, we would choose Fox Sports' campaign "India", "China" and "Turkey". Bold? Yes. There have certainly been some incredible exhibits of comedic genius in subsequent years (Tom Kuntz's Skittles work, anyone?) but not only is this work hilarious, and Grand Prix-winning, but it also represents at once the pinnacle and end of a comedic zeitgeist. It was conceived by Cliff Freeman & Partners (sadly, now defunct) at the height of its creative reign. It was directed by Traktor, the kung-fu masters of comedy, while their ascendency and dominance was heading into orbit. And, most importantly, it represents a kind of comedy that now belongs to a by-gone era. Once North America came to grips with the fact that there are people in this world that might want to hurt innocents, the collective sense of humor changed. The appetite for brash creative that revolves around men diving from cliffs in to dirt, bashing each other with ginormous clubs or being leveled by falling trees disappeared for a good long time. Funny violence was out; socially awkward, self-conscious funny was in. Unless that violence involved the male genitals, of course.

Ikea "Lamp" (2002)
As a rule, advertisers tend to be nice to their potential consumers. Not Ikea, which with "Lamp", from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, baited viewers with an unexpectedly touching tale of a cast-off desk lamp before calling anyone who felt a lick of sympathy for an inanimate object crazy. Spike Jonze's incredibly human directing touch created a believable tenderness between a woman and her new Ikea lighting, elicited pure empathy for a lonely, discarded object, left to suffer curbside in the rain, and then shattered it all with one brilliant stroke of casting that abruptly and brusquely brought us all back to reality. So popular was this spot that it shockingly usurped Cannes Grand-Prix favorite Honda "Cog" for the top prize at the 2003 festival.

Honda "Cog" (2003)
There's a wonderful irony that an ad about effortlessness and dependability took 600-plus takes, but the painstaking, handmade precision of Honda's "Cog" is part of what made it so sublime. Costing a reported 1 million GBP and taking six months, the two-minute ad was a testament to Honda's trust in Wieden+Kennedy, London and the then-relatively unknown Antoine Bardou Jacquet. They were rewarded with an extraordinary creative purple patch that carried on with "Grrr" and "Impossible Dream". Eschewing automotive advertising clichés, the dismantling of a car to show its clinical preciseness was avant-garde, a thrilling kids' fantasy come to life. Watching "Cog" was charged fun: a one-off art stunt with a will it work/won't it work frisson. The only spanner in the works, in fact, were the accusations of art-world plagiarism, which saw it lose out in Cannes for the Grand Prix to Ikea's loveable "Lamp".

Honda "Grrr" (2004)
Diesel engines, as we all know, suck. Or, sucked. Honda "Grrr" changed all that in 2004, a wickedly fun, original piece of animation with that maddeningly catchy jingle. Amidst the sheet metal porn, Wieden+Kennedy, London dared to not even show a car, choosing instead to embrace a preconception and flip it on its head using irreverent CG characters and the velvet tones of Honda's VO stalwart Garrison Keillor. Hate is a strong word, but in the context of a catalyst for change it was a powerfully brilliant, honest message. Stylistically, "Grrr" was grown-up and funny animation - a rare thing - and catapulted the style into the big leagues as live-action competition. It was unanimously acclaimed by critics and consumers alike: Honda Accord diesel sales rose from 518 units in 2003 to a staggering 21,766 units in 2004 and "Grrr" won, as an aside, literally every possible award.