In this quirky advertisement, a wobegone Frenchman describes the sad life he once led. He was a misunderstood loner, his playful attempts to engage strangers -- knocking off their hats, mussing their hair, lifting up their skirts -- leaving him ignored and friendless. Hmm. Hard to imagine why.

But just when you start to think that maybe this socially dysfunctional Froggie was alone for all-too-good reasons, the story turns. He tells you the story of a man he met who gave him a job, a purpose -- a reason to go on. And THEN the whole thing gets flipped on its ear as the Frenchman's true identity is revealed, and the esoteric meets the metaphorical in a resolution that is sweet, clever, and frankly just super-cute.

Nicole Kidman turned forty last week, and as this European commercial for Nintendo DS reminds us, the brain is the first thing to go. Here, angelic-looking Kidman is distressed to find that her "brain score" is 52, which is apparently pretty dire. (Guess that's what happens when you use up all your energy making sure everything in your home and your wardrobe is the exact same shade of white.)

To remedy the situation, Kidman jumps into a rigorous Nintento DS game of... Rock, Paper, Scissors. I'm not sure exactly how that particular game gives your brain a workout, but then again, my brain score's not 52.

Nowadays, those lucrative, super-secret commericials celebs do overseas just aren't so secret anymore, and they know it. Does this mean a trend away from the truly enjoyably embarassing ads of yore? (Well, we've always got Nic Cage.) Kidman may look fantastic here, but she's still advertising herself as being dumb as a bag of rocks (or paper or scissors). So I just don't know.

Commercials have always been the place for visual effects wizards to try out new techniques. But in the years since the 1998 Gap ad that froze swing dancers in mid-step, we've all gotten a little blase about what a skilled artist can do with 3-D imaging. The wonder is gone, leaving us with a "hey, cool, whatever" attitude.

So if you sent this European ad for Miller beer back in a time machine to the year 1997, those primitive monkeys would be dazzled -- but they're blissfully ignorant of ten years of digital evolution. As for us advanced spacemen, this is a clever enough commercial with a great deal of charm (most of which is not found in the FX, but in the gesticulating eyebrows of its star) that nonetheless barely bothers to make a point.

Thanks to the hipster fashions and spiffy visuals, this is a great example of an ad that sells by projecting an aura of cool. It never bothers to make the obvious connection between peeling away things you don't like and peeling the labels of beer you're not really enjoying. Perhaps we're just supposed to learn that beer is cool? Not that we needed CGI to teach us that.