Craig McNamara writes

(And if you've noticed that I've skipped mentioning any robot-themed movie for 2006, that's because there were none that year. Shocking, huh?) The, ahem, transformed athlete of this Nike ad from 2003... ...looks like a potential recruit for the "Transformers" movie of 2007:

(Day 3 and we're not out of examples yet!) The clunky but charming robot made of cookies in this 1999 ad... ...would seem to fit quite nicely among the lovable, junkheap characters of 2005's "Robots:"

(Yes, I'm serious.  Sort of.) Today, its an 2001 ad for engine lubricant that pairs a mechanical body with a creepily humanized visage: ...and has an eerie similarity to the mechanical men of the 2004 Will Smith movie, "I Robot:"

(How do I come up with these topics?) First off: From 2008, comes this science fair ad with a sleekly humanoid robot of shiny, flowing metal. Remind you of anything? Yes, it looks like another of the liquid metal assassins from from the "Terminator" series (the latest installment appearing in 2003):

Leo Burnett, the Chicago ad agency, had already spent years burnishing Maytag's reputation for reliability in print ads; when the washing machines began advertising on television starting in 1967, the agency created a personality every bit as distinctive, memorable and enduring as the agency's other characters, like Tony the Tiger and The PIllsbury Doughboy. In fact, this guy was a little doughy, too: That's character actor Jesse White as the lonely sad sack indentified only as The Maytag Repairman.   Through a succession of TV spots and ads, "Ol' Lonely" waited in vain for the phone to ring, telling him he was needed to fix a broken Maytag.   Jesse White got the part (beating out comic actor Phil Silvers, among others) and played the character until 1989, before relinquishing the role to a succession of actors since.  In recent years, with dependability becoming perceived as more of a parity quality among competing brands, Maytag has tweaked the character a...

It's really too easy to play "hindsight is 20/20" and have a few cheap laughs at the expense of ads of bygone eras, especially when the subject is cigarettes and smoking.  This 1926 Chesterfield ad, however, is too politically incorrect by today's culture not to give it special note here: There's more to this scene than just a romantic appeal to women, though.  Back then, showing women smoking in ads was frowned on as much as women smoking in public.  Instead, consumers of the '20s were given coy come-ons like this one: Is she enthralled by the man -- or the cigarette?  Only her tobacconist knows for sure.

I suppose you could say this is the epitomy of the "sticky" idea, and apparently, so obvious, every tire manufacturer's ad agency eventually thinks of it. 2002 2002 At least Toyo found a new way to illustrate the analogy (though it ends up looking like something out of Odd Rods or Wacky Races ). 2008 (And yes, I know, a squid isn't the same as an octopus, but I liked the title, so I used it.  Just be happy I didn't do some pun on how these ads "suck.")