10 Greatest Toy Commercials of All Time

7. Transformers (2007-2011)

While Michael Bay€™s later commercials (Transformers, Pearl Harbour, Armegeddon) have not attracted the same critical success or award-recognition as his earlier works (Coca-Cola, Got Milk?, Verizon), the commercial resurgence of the Transformers toy-line which followed his four-year advertising campaign speaks for itself.

While not the first advertisement to explore the full-length format, nor for that matter the first full-length Transformers commercial (see: Transformers: The Movie, starring renown product spokesperson Orson Welles, in his final role), the three-film Transformers campaign is audacious in its integration of plot-like elements and product placement.

Bay manages to extract an excellent performance out of child-actor Shia Lebouf, which, while hardly Oscar material, is excellent in terms of toy-commercial-acting. Furthermore, unafraid to inject a little subtext into his toy commercials, Bay explores his recurring theme of woman-as-plaything, in the persistent objectification of the human-doll Megan Fox.