Commercials actually worth watching

Though Google's mini-masterpiece of storytelling was obviously the best of Sunday's Super Bowl commercials, Coca-Cola's two memorable ads continued the company's recent tradition of classy, inventive short films that just so happen to be selling you something.

Every few months, a new Coke ad appears before the trailers at your local movie theater. I actually look forward to these. Their movie-theater ads over the last decade have cut across filmmaking genres and conventions, and are, sadly, often more creative than the films that follow.

They sometimes rely on pop culture -- like the battle of the Thanksgiving parade balloons, or Sunday's "Simpsons" ad -- but more often than not they are simply beautiful images and sounds meant to evoke the fun and nostalgia of, say, drinking an ice-cold Coca-Cola on a hot summer day after a bike-ride with your friends. Their ads are elegant, and lack other campaigns' tired reliance on sex and bathroom humor. (Wow, that sentence makes me sound so old.)

Soon it will be almost impossible to see a movie directed by a newcomer who did not get his or her start in commericals, and that's part of why I so appreciate the good ones. Today's Coke commerical director could be tomorrow's David Fincher, or Ridley Scott, or Andrew Stanton. (Most of them will probably be tomorrow's Michael Bay or Antoine Fuqua, but you take the good with the bad.)

So with that in mind, browse these Coke ads from the past ten years, starting with Sunday's two new spots:

I cannot find a video of my favorite Coke ad, probably because it only played in movie theaters: A boy rides his bike through an ever-evolving parade that celebrates all corners of Americana.