Thorough as it was, Ad Age's Book of Tens just couldn't accommodate the many moments of creative excellence that gave 2007 its texture. Here, some creative highlights that may have been missed among the lists of lists.

BEST PERFORMANCE OF A SINGLE LINE OF DIALOGUE

Skittles "Touch," TBWA/Chiat/Day, New York. Actor David Jean Thomas, playing a blessed/cursed video-store worker and remarking on the upside of having just essentially committed manslaughter due to a condition whereby everything he touches turns to Skittles: "I guess it's pretty awesome."

Runner-up: Net 10 "Agent" Droga5. (Three-eyed, mutton-chopped villain on phone to his cell company) "Oh, you guys are evil." (Pause.) "You're welcome!"

DUAL WINNER: BEST LOW-BUDGET SPOT/BEST PERFORMANCE BY A FISH

The Oregon Coast Aquarium "I want to go to the aquarium," Leopold Ketel & Partners. A bowl, a goldfish and one line. The recipe for making something out of almost nothing.

BEST PERFORMANCE ABOUT FISH

Comcast "Fishies," Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. We don't know if the company deserves to die or not (now, Time Warner -- that's another story), but it makes a good commercial. Director Jim Jenkins and actor Leonard Earl Howze convey HD rapture with few discernable words.

MOST GRAPHIC ANIMAL-ON-ANIMAL SEX SCENES IN A BEVERAGE SPOT

Orangina "Naturally Juicy," FFL, Paris. With a product name that ends in "gina" and French creative duo Fred and Farid onboard, one braces oneself. But nothing can prepare the mind for this oddly shocking dirty dance by a forest full of horny, Psyop-created anthropomorphized animals.

BEST USE OF NEWSPAPER

Balled up and inserted into a foul weather jacket created by Taxi, Toronto, for distribution among the homeless of cold, cold Canada. Taxi creative Steve Mykolyn field tested the "15 Below Project" garment during eight hours in an industrial freezer (where temps ranged from -18 to -30 degrees C). His biggest complaint: boredom.

BEST PRESS RELEASE

Cutwater's "What's going on in San Fran?"

Amid speculation about a San Fran agency to be launched by TBWA creative biggie Chuck McBride, a mysterious video arrived at Creativity HQ. It showed TBWA offices littered with corpses and the soon-to-be creative chief of new shop Cutwater enjoying a post-killing-spree cigarette and whispering reassuringly, "Relax. Everything's gonna be OK." Totally inappropriate, incorrect and excellent. The perfect counterpoint to the ridiculous, clich?-ridden PR that sets eyes a-rolling at agency launches.

MOST NEATO OUT OF HOME

HBO "Voyeur," BBDO, New York. A projection on a Lower East Side wall appears to provide a glimpse into the antics of a group of apartment dwellers. It's really a series of films shot by Jake Scott as part of an integrated campaign.

Runner-up: McDonald's Fresh Salads. Forget billboard soccer. Leo Burnett grows lettuce vertically!

PRODUCT THAT BEST STOOD UP TO ADVERTISING CLAIMS

Fage yogurt. The excellent print and out-of-home ads show neighboring brands literally making an impression on the creamy yogurt. And, yes, this stuff (particularly the full-fat version) has a texture that makes one want to completely submerge one's face in the container. My most virtuous new habit of '07.


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Teressa Iezzi is the editor of Creativity magazine and Creativity-Online.com. E-mail her at [email protected].