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No potshots at television commercials here. Sure, there are plenty of really, really, bad ads on TV. For those came the invention of the remote control Mute Button.

I'll admit it here. I shun the mute.

Commercials are as much a part of the popular culture as the programming. (Some shows are only filler material between commercials...)

Some spots (that's what we call them in the business) are a cut-above because of the writing skills, and some are addictive because of their use of graphics or technology. (Think about those truck commercials where only the outstanding brakes keep the thing from driving off the cliff into the Grand Canyon.)

Some are great just because of the fantastic casting of the actors.

The guy on the Verizon ad, the older gent behind the motel check-in desk is an example. When he can't scare off the guest with the cell-phone 'dead zone,' he pointedly admits that the "Towels are kinda scratchy!" He has that Stephen King, man from Maine, New-England-crotchety-thing working perfectly.

Expressions can do it. Another cell-phone ad. The executive is checking with his secretary about the day's agenda, which involves texting his wife, his kids, and just about everybody - until late afternoon, when, she explains, there is a budget meeting. The executive purses his mouth in a Steve Martin sort of way (in fact, I think it is Steve Martin's mouth, superimposed...), and she immediately replies that she can reschedule it. "Let's go with that," he says. There is really nothing special about the spot - but the guy is perfect. I can imagine the casting director. "Let's go with him," she says. "Let's go with that," he replies.

I actually turn around to watch the Sonic commercials (the TV is at my back when I am at the computer), the ads that feature the wimpy guy and his friend/wife. The friend is goofy, the wife is condescending. The car-driver-guy is just wimpy - in a good way. Good wimpy. The spots are inoffensive and sometimes idiotic. Just my type. I loved the one where the goofy friend is eating tator-tots and talking basketball, when suddenly Mr. Wimpy darts out a hand to his buddy's mouth to block the tot. "Rejected," he shouts, in his wimpish way.

Then, there are the esoteric Target ads set to the Beatles song "Hello Goodbye." Maybe its the song. Maybe it's all the red targets that pop up. Maybe it is the manner of the horrid Walmart ads, by comparison. I don't know why you say good buy.

I say Hello.

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