Top 10 Campaign Ads

From attack ads to feel-good jingles, TIME takes a look at the best campaign commercials

6. Rock

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In this spot for his 2008 Presidential bid, former Alaskan Senator Mike Gravel stares into the camera for over a minute, then turns around silently, and tosses a rock into a lake. Gravel later said that this video wasn't an ad but an artistic "metaphor of an ordinary citizen who acts in an unusual and extraordinary way." Whatever it was, it got the job done. Although polls put Gravel with less than 1% of the vote, his strange videos (there's another one called 'Fire' that lasts for 7 minutes and features Gravel collecting wood) got thousands of hits on YouTube and earned airtime on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Not bad for a guy who hadn't held a political office since 1981.

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