I'm a sucker for TV commercials. I even think they should be put on TV DVDs, though I bet some people would hate that idea.

But it got me thinking about all of the great TV commercials we've had for food over the years. After the jump, eight classics. I'm not saying that these eight are the "best" (though some could be), but they're eight that I really enjoy.

Notice the capital "S" on Subway. Godzilla is going up against the sandwich chain, not a series of underground cars.

Toho, the company that owns the rights to Godzilla and the Godzilla movies, is suing Subway for using the monster in its ads. Now, the ads never state that the monster is Godzilla, but he looks a lot like the famous monster and he does invade Japan in the spots. Subway never got Toho's permission, and aired the spots during American Idol and other TV shows, pushing their "Five Dollar Foot Long" campaign.

Video of one of the ads after the jump.

After a study, British researchers have concluded that food-related TV commercials make kids fat.

60 kids, aged 9 to 11, were studied, and researchers discovered several things. A child's weight influenced what they ate (wow, really?), obese kids consistently chose chocolate over healthier foods when given the choice (you don't say!), and all kids wanted to eat more after they saw TV commercials featuring sweets and other food.

Whenever I see a commercial for Viagra, I want to have sex.

On a related note, it's TV Turnoff Week!

Apparently as one of the country's largest County Fairs, the Los Angeles County Fair has enough budget to advertise on television. I've seen a few of the commercials that make fun of LA's reputation, e.g. a mother and daughter shopping and asking whether cashmere comes from a boy cow or a girl cow, and one where several girls ask about cotton candy and Atkins. However, it wasn't until today that I saw this commercial that takes the cake.

The teacher asks, "Can anybody tell me what comes from a cow?"

The kids raise their hands and answer one by one: "Lattes?" "Nu-unh. My mom says non-fat half caff cappuccinos." "Iced Caramel Macchiatos?"

Oh, I fear for the future of our country.

Even though we already looked at some great commercials made in the 1980s, a post on TV Squad about a ketchup commercial starring a young, hip, ketchup-loving Matt LeBlanc is a good reminder that there were a fair number of entertaining commercials made then. Many were from Heinz, which ran a number of commercials touting how thick and rich its ketchup was - before people started to complain that it was so thick that they couldn't actually get it out of the bottle.

When the Dunkin' Donuts on my corner closed, I mourned for months. Now, Michael Vale, the actor who played the sleepy doughnut baker in so many commercials, has died. Dunkin' Donuts will forever be tinged with a sense of deep loss for me. Chocolate creme-filled doughnut, I hardly knew ye!

Michael Vale was 83 and was born in Brooklyn. Dunkin' Donuts campaign that featured him ran for 15 years, until its end in 1997. And in my opinion, nothing they've done since is half so compelling. It's a sad day for doughnut lovers everywhere.