OK, you guys have an unfair advantage. Of all the ads you mentioned, the only one I know is the Windex one with the bloke being pranked by a couple of crows (only I thought they were magpies, and it was an Aussie ad...).
Ads I hate - anything with a talking head, or worse - two talking heads.
Ads I love - I don't think you guys have them in the US.
We have some FABULOUS Aussie ads. Some good ones also come out of New Zealand, ads like the Toyota ad (I can't tell you the word in the ad, the site censor will bleep it) and the Carlton Draught Beer ad, made like a LOTR army in vari-coloured robes, running across the fields of New Zealand, singing to the tune of Carmina Burana, "It's a big ad..."
About 20 years ago there was an Aussie ad for Bornhoffen bread. The ad starred an Aussie comedian called Paul Chubb. He had a classic round, blowsy face like a medieval country bumpkin, which was the character in the ad. He was a peasant going through all the stags of making a loaf of bread. At each stage - threshing the grain, grinding the grain, kneading the dough, baking the dough - he is tempted by an attractive peasant girl but he turns his back on temptation (with difficulty) and continues baking his bread.
In the last scene he's taking the bread out of the oven and is about to slice it, butter it and eat it - he is doing it on fast forward, while watching a young woman sitting on the straw-covered floor, scratching the back of a young pig. We hear the announcer say, "man does not live by bread alone - but with Bornhoffen, he comes close..." Then just as he finishes his bread he rushes over to the girl (now off camera) and as the camera stays on the crumbs on the table, you hear a pig squeal.
The pig squeal was cut from later versions of the ad - such a pity, the timing was absolutely perfect.
I think it won a Gold Lion at Cannes. It deserved it.
We have TV shows which screen the best commercials. Most Aussies like the Budweiser ads, even if we don't buy the beer. Apple computer ads are great. Some of the easy child ads are getting better too.
Marg