Share

Read the list, watch the videos, and let us know whether you agree with these choices by voting for your favourite ad using the poll on the right side of this page. Don't see your favourite ad? Suggest one using the comments area on this page and we'll add your best ideas to the bottom of this page.

The beer might have been bland, but the sentiment had spine. This rousing spot from the summer of 2000 went viral even before YouTube, and proved that ads can be cultural artifacts as much as anything sponsored by the Canada Council. Its pitch-perfect script ("the beaver is a truly noble animal!") and tongue-in-cheek pride spawned a national phenomenon that sent "Joe Canadian" on the road to perform his rant for tens of thousands of hollering, chauvinistic fans.

In its fourth year and still running strong, Apple's "I'm a PC" campaign reinforced the computer company's image as the choice of creative individualists, while tartly allowing it to define the competition as fussy and fusty.

A refreshing triumph, this homegrown effort that went worldwide capitalized on the uncertainty created by years of post-feminist girl power, counter-intuitively shilling cosmetics by telling women they didn't need cosmetics. Even years after its creation, the short film Evolution, a fast-forward view of how unreal ideals of beauty are manufactured, gives us hope that our daughters may grow up in a culture that doesn't beat them down.

An impressive integration of social media, grassroots organizing, product charisma, and old-fashioned saturation advertising, Obama's was the first truly open source campaign, which allowed individuals and small organizations to spread the word on their own to millions of like-minded others. The celebrity endorsements - including a nifty remixing of the candidate's landmark speech on race by Will I Am - didn't hurt.

A giddy celebration of colour and childlike playfulness, this 2006 spot sent 250,000 superballs bouncing down the hills of San Francisco in slow motion, set to the calming guitar and crooning of Jose Gonzalez. In an era of CGI trickery, it was sometimes hard to believe the bouncy balls were real and not digitally conjured, but we could watch this one all day.