Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Feb 25/00) - It's a little bit paradoxical that when watching TV, remote control in hand, most of us flip compulsively away from commercials. And at the same time, the best commercials of the year tour annually to sell-out crowds.

This year, we inconsistent creatures get the best of the century...and they're coming to Yellowknife.

The Northern Arts and Cultural Centre -- always looking for fun, innovative and enticing ways to raise funds to run the facility -- decided to bow to public demand.

"People requested them," says general manager Ina Murray of the World's Best Commercials.

"They'd been here several years ago and people really enjoyed them. We're trying to look at different ways of raising money. Expenses go up every year and core funding goes down."

The World's Best Commercials of the Century has already played in Vancouver, Ottawa and Toronto. The selections that are part of the tour have been chosen from the prize-winners at a festival in Cannes -- the Cannes International Advertising Film Festival.

It may be that we enjoy commercials out of context because they aren't interrupting our television programs. Viewing them on their own, we get the opportunity to appreciate the fertile imaginations that can bring a product to life.

Who can forget Mikey? Or, because of Mikey, Life brand cereal? He's part of the lineup. And how about the Wendy's "Where's the beef?" lady? She'll make an appearance, too.

Nineteen different countries are represented in the lineup, chosen by Keith Stinson of ADFilms in Toronto. Of the 100 commercials, 46 are British, 17 are American and two are Canadian.

The late Jean-Claude Lauzon (Leolo, Un zoo la nuit) -- the wildly gifted Quebecois filmmaker who died in a plane crash, abruptly terminating a brilliant career -- created a public service announcement for Quebec Social Services.

A Toronto Star reporter (Sept. 25, 1999) called it a "stylish mini-movie." The announcement, about spousal abuse, depicts a battered woman, bathing, while outside, her husband pounds on the door.

But this, said the Star, is "as serious as the night gets."

The lineup also includes a 1992 Spanish glue commercial. In it, a very particular "part" has fallen of an ancient statue of a boy. Nuns find the part, fix it back on with the glue. The catch is -- "it" now points upwards rather than downwards.

If my memory serves me correctly, it has always been the European commercials in these advertising extravagxanzas that garner the most raves. Those Europeans have no shame! Imagine a commercial telling you "The more you smoke, the less you poke."

The World's Best Commercials of the Century plays at NACC Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. A deal will be offered to all NACC members. If you aren't a member, maybe now's the time to invest in a membership.