Celebrate the sponsored moments of your life with EW's 50 Best Commercials of All Time.
"Sometimes they give you an Excedrin headache; other times, they really satisfy. Either way, one thing's for sure: TV commercials, they're a part of your life. The average viewer is force-fed about 24,000 in just one year, according to the media report TV Dimensions '97.
After sampling hundreds of noteworthy promos, from the dawn of TV to the present, we managed to winnow the list down to a hearty handful of national spots. (Local and international ads had to be excluded from consideration because they were not available to all of our readers.) Effectiveness in selling product wasn't taken into consideration (if it had been a requirement, many of our favorites would never have made the list). The winners were selected strictly on aesthetic grounds.
And now — dare we say it? — a word from our sponsors."
