In celebration of this Sunday's World Cup final, we've put together our picks for the 10 best soccer commercials we've ever seen. Perhaps not surprisingly, the list is dominated by Nike (and Wieden + Kennedy), with Adidas's soccer spots often seeming to fall a bit short. We left off most of the fluffy stuff (like every Pepsi soccer spot ever done) in favor of the meat and potatoes. The choice for No. 1 is contentious, naturally, so let us know your feelings in the comments section here. That's also where you can berate us for the spots we left out.

10. Nike Shox, "Streaker" (Wieden + Kennedy, 2003)

(CLICK TO PLAY)

This Frank Budgen-directed spot remains advertising's most amusing celebration of the sports world's free-spirited exhibitionists. (It hardly mattered that it advertised running shoes, not soccer cleats.) Filmed in December 2002 at Millwall's pitch in London, it starred 32-year-old Mark Bowden in the title role, along with 300 extras. Bowden reportedly distinguished himself during the shoot by screaming with pain in the chilly weather. He later said: "I think I look pretty good in it, actually, but any man will tell you what happens when it's really cold."

9. Nike, "Secret Tournament" (Wieden + Kennedy, 2002)

(CLICK TO PLAY)

Created for the 2002 World Cup, this campaign (which included the three-minute spot above) imagined a secret three-on-three, first-goal-wins soccer tournament held on a container ship, featuring 24 of the world's best players and refereed by former Manchester United legend Eric Cantona (seen above). It doesn't get much cooler than eight mini dream teams competing in a cage match, and director Terry Gilliam brought the concept to life with style. The campaign included 3-D gaming, downloadable posters and perhaps most important, the catch remixed version of Elvis Presley's "A Little Less Conversation."

8. Gatorade, "The Road" (Element 79 Partners, 2006)

(CLICK TO PLAY)

A wonderful patriotic spot from Gatorade for the 2006 World Cup featuring gritty footage from the U.S. team's journey to the tournament set to the baseball standard "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." Sadly, the team's journey out of that tournament was a whole lot quicker.

7. Adidas - Messi (Impossible Is Nothing) (180 Amsterdam, 2007)

(CLICK TO PLAY)

Plenty of athletes have starred in the "Impossible is nothing" campaign. Few have faced the kind of genuine physical obstacles to success that Lionel Messi has. All Messi did was overcome his struggles to become the best players in the world. A triumph of storytelling for Adidas, whose action soccer spots tend to fall short.

6. Nike, "Ronaldinho R10 Crossbar" (Framfab Denmark, 2005)

(CLICK TO PLAY)

One of the truly great "Is it real or fake?" viral commercials of our time, this spot showed Ronaldinho hitting the crossbar four times in a row from 20 yards away. The Brazilian star might not be quite that skillful, but the commercial—which aired online first, and was then screened in public places—itself was masterful. It ended up winning a gold Lion in Cyber and a silver Lion in Film at Cannes in 2006.

5. Carlsberg, "Pub Team" (Saatchi & Saatchi, 2006)

(CLICK TO PLAY)

Most soccer spots celebrate the speed and power of youth. This one headed brilliantly in the opposite direction. It showed a Sunday pub team that happens to include some of England greatest-ever players—Peter Shilton, Des Walker, Bryan Robson, Stuart Pearce, Chris Waddle, Peter Beardsley, Peter Reid, Terry Butcher, Alan Ball, Jack Charlton and Bobby Charlton, with the late Sir Bobby Robson as the manager. The run-of-the-mill premise—that if Carlsberg ran a pub team, it would be the best in the world—is elevated by the spot's aging stars, who bring the sport gloriously down to earth by playing, long past their prime, for love of the game.

4. Nike, "Airport" (Wieden + Kennedy, 1998)

(CLICK TO PLAY)

The Brazilian team passes the time in an airport by playing a jubilant pickup game in the spot, directed by John Woo for the 1998 World Cup. Features a comical appearance by Eric Cantona (as the passenger on the airplane) and a brilliant ending, with Ronaldo just falling short of glory. That turned out to be prophetic, as Brazil lost to France in the final that year.

3. Nike, "Good vs. Evil" (Wieden + Kennedy, 1996)

(CLICK TO PLAY)

Created for the Euro 96 tournament, this epic spot featured a team of European all-stars against a team of horrendous evil monsters. At first, the humans get knocked around, but soon, of course, they begin to run rings around their otherworldy opponents—and this time, the ending is emphatic, with Eric Cantona blasting a free kick right through the midsection of the evil winged monster goalie. The spot was so good, it was banned from Danish cinemas and criticized by FIFA and the International Olympic Committee.

2. Nike, "Take It to the Next Level" (72andSunny, 2008)

(CLICK TO PLAY)

Guy Ritchie directed this manic masterpiece for Euro 2008, in which we get a dizzying first-person view of a young player recruited to play at London club Arsenal and then for the Dutch national team. Includes blood, vomit, the signing of breasts, lots of superstars and some remarkable camerawork that captures the pace and fury of a match at the top level. And, of course, showing all this from the viewer's perspective literally embodies the fantasy of every young boy in Europe—to rise through the ranks and become a global soccer star.

1. Nike, "Write the Future" (Wieden + Kennedy, 2010)

(CLICK TO PLAY)

Yes, this year's spot outdid them all—a cinematic marvel executed from a fun and flexible premise. Add in some inspired cameos (Kobe Bryant, Roger Federer, Homer Simpson), and director Alejandro Iñárritu's three-minute extravaganza had just about everything—including, it turned out, an unexpected ability to put a hex on its featured players, most of whom left the 2010 World Cup early (or, like Ronaldinho, never made it in the first place). Whether the ad was actually cursed, there's no denying it was half-obsessed with the fear of failure—and maybe it just got into the players heads. They'll want to write a different future next time—while Wieden and Nike will just want to keep a good thing going.

The merging of digital technologies with the real world swayed this year's Cyber jury, which gave out two Grand Prix—to Wieden + Kennedy in Portland. Ore., for Nike Livestrong's "Chalkbot," and to DDB in Stockholm, Sweden, for Volkswagen's "The Fun Theory" campaign. Both efforts meshed technology with physical installations while using online networks to amplify the message. With Chalkbot, Wieden collaborated with hobbyist firm Deeplocal and Standard Robot to create a Zamboni-like machine that sprayed inspirational messages in chalk along the streets of the Tour de France course. The public could submit messages through a Web site, banner ads and Twitter. People then got photos of their chalked messages sent to them. "The Fun Theory" promoted VW's blue-motion technology by using it to help people find the fun in mundane situations. DDB turned a set of stairs in the Stockholm subway into a giant keyboard, reminiscent of the move Big, in order to encourage people to walk rather than take the escalator. A video of the project became a viral phenomenon online, garnering 12 million views on YouTube since October.

Both campaigns were a sign that digital is breaking out of the computer screen and into the real world, said Jeff Benjamin, Cyber jury president and chief creative officer at Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Boulder, Colo. They also succeeded in making technology essential to the creative process while at the same time invisible to those interacting with the campaign, he said.
"It's creatives working with technologists," he said. "It points to a new way of how we work together."

According to Wieden, some 36,000 images were submitted during the Chalkbot campaign, although only a fraction of those ended up on the streets. An added benefit was the real-time distribution that the Web gave the campaign, Benjamin said. A similar dynamic was at work with "The Fun Theory," which, thanks to the Web, took a campaign in a relatively small market and turned it into a global phenomenon. "If you weren't part of that moment, you could still be part of it," Benjamin said.
The jury veered from years past by awarding two rather than three Grand Prix. In all, the jury awarded 15 gold Lions, 32 silvers and 56 bronzes. Among U.S. shops, BooneOakley garnered a gold for its agency Web site. The Martin Agency got a gold for "We Chose the Moon" on behalf of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Crispin Porter + Bogusky won five Lions recognizing campaigns for Burger King, Best Buy and Bramo. Young & Rubicam New York also picked up five Lions, all for Virgin America work. Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Martin and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners won three each. Some notable U.S. shops were blanked. R/GA didn't win any awards. AKQA's U.S. offices were shut out. (AKQA London won a bronze for Nike's "True City.") Sapient Nitro picked up a silver and a bronze.

By Brian Morrissey

Sony, Mattel, Nike and Barbie Are Already on Board With the 'Internet of Things'

Garrick Schmitt

Big Ben has been steadily keeping time in London with its distinctive "bong" for over 150 years. But unless you were in the famous clock's proximity, you most likely remained unaware. That is, until late last year, when Big Ben joined and now keeps time virtually for nearly 50,000 people through Twitter's API.

While we can all have a bit of a laugh at Big Ben's presence on Twitter, our newfound ability to communicate with what were previously inanimate objects is no joke. Advances in a host of technologies like radio frequency identification (RFID), near field communications (NFC), electronic product codes (EPC) and, most importantly, Twitter and its API are enabling an array of smart interactions and connections between objects and people.

Not too long ago, unless you knew how to write code, the primary way that we communicated with objects was decidedly one way -- beep -- a simple signal for us to pay attention. AOL ingeniously took a step to humanize the beep in the '90s by alerting us to an incoming e-mail with a chipper "You've Got Mail." But since then we haven't made much progress.

Twitter is helping to change all of that by allowing developers to add intelligence to devices and inanimate objects in a surprisingly warm and human manner. We saw some of this with early experiments like BakerTweet, a system made by U.K. agency Poke that allows bakers to dynamically send out tweets to customers alerting them when a fresh batch of buns have emerged from the oven, and Botanicalls, which uses networked open source hardware and software to allow plants to communicate with people in human terms (e.g. "water me please") by either using the telephone, text message or Twitter.

Sometimes called "The Internet of Things" or "Web 3.0," the possibility of smarter interactions between people and objects is opening up whole new realms for advertisers and product developers alike. Here's a look at some of the more noteworthy attempts.

NIKE+ and the HumanAPI
Athletes are notoriously data-focused so it makes sense that one of the first entrants into the space was the combo of Nike and Apple. Nike Plus is a clever piece of technology that allows people to transform their iPhones and iPods into personal trainers, collecting real-time workout data, allowing them to react in real time and letting them track their performance on their PCs. Taking the concept a step further, independent developer Nikolai Onken has created an iPhone app prototype for the HumanAPI that collects heart rate data and transmits it via Bluetooth to an application for real-time visualization. You can view a series of videos here.

Sony
The interplay between physical space or location and online events is ripe with possibilities. For the Sony Hopper Invasion campaign in the UK, Dare Digital and Tinker.it demonstrated how physical objects could become a real-time visualization tool for an online event. The team built a grid that allows 49 Space Hoppers (colorful balloons, really) to be inflated dynamically through the use of hashtags on Twitter and through the Sony website. You can view a video of the campaign event here.

Mattel and Barbie
Can a product speak? Taking a much more analog approach, Mattel decided to give their iconic doll an online persona for her 50th anniversary. The company created a presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for Barbie and even gave her a voice, sort of. While consumers couldn't actually hear Barbie speak, they could certainly read her tweets which, in today's culture, might just be about the same thing.

Blue Dot
Location-based services are becoming mainstream, but surfacing the information in real time is not. Blu Dot, a small but stylish Minneapolis-based furniture maker, scattered 25 of its chairs across the streets of Manhattan for its Real Good Experiment campaign.The company enlisted a creative shop called Mono, camera crews and GPS devices to track the chairs' travels. Real-time updates were provided on Twitter at bludotnews and realgoodchairs and on a map at realgood.bludot.com. Better yet, Blu Dot even made a touching documentary about its efforts.

FedEx
FedEx is clearly a leader in using real-time data to allow people to track their packages throughout the world, but the company is taking it further with its SenseAware. Using an in-package sensing device (about the size of a drink coaster) with a web-based information platform, the company can now let users know if a package has been opened or exposed to light, its exact location via GPS coordinates and even if it is too warm or cold. FedEx hasn't set up the service to broadcast package whereabouts or comfort via Twitter yet, but it certainly could.

Guinness
Talk about a human API. Guinness continues to expand upon its groundbreaking use of RFID technology with its Ireland rugby team sponsorship. The company just launched Area 22, a site that hosts data on the rugby team and its players performance, an iPhone app and even a Facebook page. The site boasts in-depth data with excellent visualizations on the key areas like kicking, possession, penalties ("Sin Bin") defense and performance. In preparation for the run-up to the Rugby World Cup in 2011, Guinness has even launched a new TV spot that highlights a futuristic -- a la "Minority Report" -- playing field.

Clearly it's still early days for "The Internet of Things" but the possibilities continue to grow as the technologies are becoming cheaper and more accessible. It's also becoming easier to find all sorts of connected consumer devices now, like the dog collar that tweets locations or the Wi-Fi-enabled scale that provides progress updates via Twitter.

Pachube, a company that provides a web service that enables developers to both virtually and physically tag and share real-time sensor data from objects, devices, buildings and environments. Another is Violet, which makes Mir:ror, an RFID reader USB-attached mirror that enables any PC to react to the presence of an object. The company also makes Nabaztag, a very cute connected device that delivers all sorts of audio and visual and information, including readings of your e-mail or RSS feeds.