Tikkabik

So there are two ads that I've been enjoying lately, even though they're both in heavy rotation -- Toyota's new Camry ads, since they use "It Keeps You Runnin'" by the Doobie Brothers. I love that tune, and can't seem to get sick of it.

The other one is another Toyota ad, with two little boys in the control center of a crash-test center. They keep joyfully prodding this guy in a lab coat to hit the big red button that causes the pulley to smash a succession of differently colored Toyota Sienna mini-vans into a concrete wall, and then beg him to smash his own car once he's gone through the test fleet. Sure, I can see my own kids doing the exact same thing, but I'm right there with them.

Now that Election Day is here, we're getting a blissful reprieve from the political ads that have saturated TV airwaves over the past few weeks, but in retrospect, there was one that made me chuckle every time I saw it: Mass. congressman Barney Frank's. His plug at the end was "I'm Barney Frank and I approve this message. Who else would?" A well-needed dose of humor in a campaign season that otherwise rubbed a lot of nerves raw.