Here's a great Coca-Cola/Walmart holiday ad that I haven't seen enough of recently:

Unfortunately the American public at large polled by the Nielsen Ratings Company decided to name these 10 horrible commercials their 10 favorite for the season. Specifically the ad occupying the "#1 spot", how is this one even clever? Does it ever look like this at Walmart?

I would love to get some of the year's best sound bites from financial news coverage and remix them into the ultimate economic downturn mash-up. I'd get Jim Cramer screaming "They know nothing" with Liz Claman dissin' CNBC in the chorus. Throw in Larry Kudlow's horribly grating tone with Neil Cavuto attempting to sound calm. Maybe I'd even give some props to Peter Schiff for being such a good predictor.

Don't worry, the music video will have all the hot on-screen visuals of 'the year in biz babes'.

Until this track drops, here is something to hold you over in the mean time. From The Big Money, an homage to the year when 'volatility', 'liquidity', 'recession', and 'Dow' became part of the general vernacular:

In what seems like Round 2 of the CNBC vs. Fox Business battle of the promo shorts, FBN's Liz Claman unleashed a sarcastic parody of those epic "I Am CNBC" ads that have been popping up ad nauseum. The CNBC spots are getting kind of weird (did you see the one where Melissa Francis says she 'doesn't like her feet'? Wtf?). It's about time someone spoofed them.

As background, here's the original one featuring Maria Bartiromo:

and Liz's parody:

Everything you ever wanted to know about hedge funds but never asked, all explained with a delightful Irish accent.

I would really like to see "Dennis The Hedger" and his "Uncle Sam" in a saturday morning cartoon.

Bernie Madoff got a $50 billion shove from a photographer outside court today. That incognito coat and baseball cap didn't surprise anyone, but his forced smile after the stiff arm to the clavicle shows he's still in good spirits for a guy that's totally screwed.

Wow, Santa has really poor financial planning skills. You'd think one of his elves could take care of this thing?

Listen to this guy talk up epic investor crook Bernie Madoff like he's the Queen of the World at a conference roundtable in October of 2007. Someone has a school girl crush!

10% of stocks traded in the United States went through Madoff Investment Securities? Given numbers like that it's more comprehensible to hear he squandered $50 billion.

Clusterstock goes on to point out some of the more-sinister quotes from this video where Madoff daringly said:

“By and large, in today’s regulatory environment it is virtually impossible to violate rules. It’s impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time.”

Perhaps when you start using a dead dog whose inner body cavity has been used for drug smuggling purposes as your narrator, things have gone too far?

The outrage over this commercial in England just proves that killing off regular schmucks on TV elicits no reaction from people, but throw in a few cute little dogs and everyone will absolutely flip their shit.

via AdFreak

Charlie Gasparino takes a trip down memory lane about his old pal, alleged Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff.

Can anyone believe this Madoff guy? I guess if you're gonna committ fraud, go big or go home, right?

I've seen this spot on TV a few times now and I just wanted to know, 'Does anyone else get the wrong first impression from this ad?'

Maybe I'm just jaded by huge oil companies bragging about how green they are or the fact that every other TV network is making its logo green, but when I watched the first half of this commercial I thought it was some cutesy brand comparing their new 'clean coal' technology to that of mother nature herself. I just assumed they were making an allusion to how great and effective their new eco-friendly product was.

Instead, the ad serves as a means of showing that there is no such thing as 'clean' coal. It's non-existent at this point. By the end of the spot you'll realize it's a more dark and cynical approach to the situation.

ThisIsReality.org offers some dark facts about the coal industry and serves as a reminder that no form of coal can be called 'clean' until all CO2 emissions are captured and stored safely without harming the environment. They even have a cute little dead bird as their mascot. Canary in the coal mine, get it? But shouldn't this have been something airing before the election, when we could have actually done something about it?

What do you think of the ad and the marketing campaign in general? Is it effective or just another shout falling on deaf ears?