Through New Year's, we'll be counting down the best work of the year in TV/Film/Branded Content, Print/Outdoor/Design and Interactive/Integrated (IX) as our picks of the day.

At #10 in TV comes "Puppymonkeybaby," the Super Bowl spot for Mountain Dew's Kickstart line extension. Whether you loved or hated it, the spot was the most talked-about of the big game, with its creepy animal VFX and general weirdness. The idea -- an anatomic amalgamation of three of the most commonly used creative devices in Super Bowl spots -- was both smart and creatively brave.

Original story:

What if a the E-Trade baby was crossbred with the Budweiser puppy and a CareerBuilder monkey, three now unemployed ad stars of Super Bowls past? It might look something like Mtn Dew's "Puppymonkeybaby," the star of a Super Bowl spot for the PepsiCo brand's Kickstart line extension.

The creature busts into the ad as an anatomic amalgamation of three of the most commonly used creative devices in Super Bowl spots. Although, as Ad Age recently pointed out, primates have been a bit of an endangered Super Bowl species of late.

The ad, by BBDO, New York, carries the tagline "three awesome things combined." That is meant to be a reference to Kickstart's formula, which combines Mtn Dew, fruit juice and caffeine.

Mtn Dew returned to the game this year after a 16-year absence, although ads for Kickstart -- which launched in 2013 -- had been shown in Super Bowl pre-game shows in recent years.

PepsiCo considers Kickstart as one of its most successful beverage launches in more than a decade, generating more than $300 million in annual retail sales. The Super Bowl ad comes after Kickstart last month released three new flavors: midnight grape, watermelon, blueberry pomegranate and blood orange.