Top Ads of the Decade

AdWeekMedia has released their top choices for best commercials of the decade. Nominees include iconic spots like the Nike "Freestyle" and the Budweiser "Wassup" ads. Part of the Best of the 2000s feature, AdWeekMedia will be selecting the best marketing, advertising and media performances over the last ten years. While the winners will be announced in December still, you can go vote for your favorite commercial (as well as a slew of other categories) at Bestofthe2000s.com.

Naturally, some of the nominees include commercials from some of the biggest names in the food industry - Coke, Pepsi, Skittles, Cadbury and so on. From the list, I've chosen my own personal top 3 food and beverage related ads (funny though that all my choices ended up being for beverages). What do you guys think? Is there another food-realted ad nominated that deserves to be in the top 3 or are there any other food-related ads that you think got snubbed from the list of nominations?





As an honorable mention, I wanted to include this Coke ad in the top 3 but I figured that I stick to one ad per advertiser. Just goes to show how awesome some of the Coke ads were these past ten years.


See all nominees for Commercial of the Decade (Non-Superbowl) here.
See all nominees for Superbowl Spot of the Decade here.

Meet the Top Chef Cheftestants

The date is set! Bravo has finally announced that Top Chef Season 5 will be premiering this November 12th. I'm sure everyone has been starved for another generous helping of weekly Quickfire challenges (at least I know I have) and now the wait is only a little over a month away. For this season, the chefs will be battling in New York City, and previous reports/rumors have them living in Williamsburg for the duration of their stay. You can learn more about the 17 new cheftestants on the Top Chef home page on the Bravo TV web site.

In addition, this season Top Chef staple Ted Allen will not be returning as a judge and will be replaced by Toby Young, British food critic and author of the book How to Lose Friends And Alienate People (yes, the book that the movie of the same title that is coming out soon is based on). Not really sure what prompted Allen's departure, but I believe no show could could hurt from a splash of British humor. Special guests that have been announced include Martha Stewart, the Foo Fighters, Jean-Georges, Eric Ripert, Rocco DiSpirito, Wylie Dufresne, Jean-Christophe Novelli, and Natasha Richardson.

New Alton Brown Special on Food Network

Feasting on Waves, the new Alton Brown (Good Eats & Iron Chef America) special series premiered last Sunday night on Food Network, and let's face it - we all can't get enough Alton to satisfy our culinary curiosity. The show: part cooking demo, part history lesson and part travel show - is a spin off from his popular show Feasting on Asphalt. Like Asphalt, the show follows Alton and his film crew as they travel in search for authentic culinary dishes and history of the region; however, instead of riding around Middle America on motorcycle, the crew sails around the Caribbean on a 50-foot catamaran in search for true island cuisine. I personally like the new show more than its predecessor as I find the filming locations much more interesting. And as always, the show is much better in HD...

On a side note, Gizmodo has a great interview with Alton about the various technology used while filming the show.

Food Network's Alton Brown Talks to Giz: Caribbean Adventuring With A Garmin, an iPhone and a Shload of Cameras (Gizmodo)