50 Best Ads, Ahy Chihuahua!

They are 30-second stories, and the good ones not only sell, they entertain.

Coca-Cola's commercial in which a vast cast on a hilltop sang "I like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony" got a whole generation of teens humming about the real thing. Clara Peller became a super-star in 1984 when she uttered those three little words... "Where's the beef?" Catchphrases like "This is your brain on drugs" have been the hallmark of many great commercials.

TV Guide asked industry experts who cover advertising to come up with a short list of what they considered the best commercials of all time. TV Guide Consulting Editor Dottie Enrico talked about some of them on CBS This Morning.

Apple Computer's '1984' Ad
It is the #1 commercial on the list although the ad aired only once during the 1984 Super Bowl.

This ad, which aired during Super Bowl XVIII, changed the ways ads are created and viewed, Enrico said. It featured an ominous large-screen Big Brother whose tyranny is about to be shattered by the introduction of Apple's Macintosh personal computer.

It turned a little known brand into a household name and set a new standard for production values and cinematic style in commercials. It also raised the financial stakes. Apple spent a then-outlandish $400,000 to produce the ad and $500,000 to air it.

This Apple ad also made Super Bowl commercials important. Fifteen years later, a minute of Super Bowl time costs $3.2 million.

Volkswagen
The #3 and #4 ads on the list are both for Volkswagen, in 1969 and 1963 respectively.

The 1969 ad, "Funeral," tapped into the Volkswagen Beetle's reputation as the preferred mode of transportation for nonconformists and anti-establishment types, Enrico noted. It featured Harold the penny-wise nephew who inherits his rich uncle's Beetle, the real fortune. It is considered the best car commercial ever made by the panelists, who say it could still run today.

Wendy's
"Fluffy Bun" takes the # 9 spot on the list as TV's greatest hamburger ad. It introduced two advertising classics: the "Where's the Beef?" catchphrase and octogenarian Clara Peller, who barked out the line. After this ad campaign, Wendy's sales rose 30 percent.

American Tourister
The luggage maker hired Oofi the gorilla to help prove that American Tourister hard sided plastic models were the only ones able to stand up to harsh abuse. It came out in 1970 at a production cost of $33,000, and ran for 15 years.

Taco Bell
Romeo and Juliet. Gidget, also known as the Taco Bell Chihuahua, put Taco Bell back on the map by introducing the ubiquitous phrase "Yo quiero Taco Bell."

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