Miami gets foam, we get more snow

On this dismal Minnesota day I thought I would post something pretty and happy to cheer us all up. Where better to turn to than Sony's latest epic advertisement? Watch Miami get foamed.

Truthfully, I'm not even sure what they were selling in some of these. I've been told that the Bravia is a high definition television but the first time I saw the "Balls" ad, I thought they were hyping a color printer.

Which leaves me wondering, is all the effort worth it? I recently found out that the balls commercial was pretty pricey, but actually cost less than a $40 million dollar Chanel ad featuring Nichole Kidman. But then again, by making a commercial people will seek out on YouTube, e-mail to friends and even post about on their blogs . . . maybe it's worth it.

Does anybody here know what the average dollar to dollar return on an advertisement is? How do commercial companies know when their ad does a good job selling a product and when it's just entertaining eye candy?