WORLD’S BEST COMMERCIALS 1997

Sells itself, it does, this annual roundup of award-winning, startling, searing, funny and inventive ads from around the globe. Time and again the feature-length collection has been one of the CIFF's most popular attractions, and no wonder. You may be familliar with “Seinfeld's” Jason Alexander as the basketball wonder “Pretzel Boy,” for Rold Gold . . . but what about his Australian competitor “Roo Boy”? Here's your chance to see Will Vinton's ingenious stop-motion toy story for Nissan, starring G.I. Joe and Barbie dolls, joyriding across a big screen, where it belongs. And chances are that Smirnoff's thrilling kaleidoscopic spy chase will stick in your mind a lot longer than “Tomorrow Never Dies.” The opening bit for Britain's Tango soda challenges you to guess how they could possibly have filmed it; the macabre closing one for a Dutch insurance company makes its point very sharply indeed. Pitchmen include Bob Dole, Henry Kissinger, Jennifer Aniston, and several carloads of drunken New Zealanders. And from now on you'll look twice at any panhandlers you meet on your way to a movie theater.