Despite their astronomical price tags and the global marketing empire they’ve spawned, American TV commercials seldom match the edge and ingenuity of their British counterparts. Over here you’d rarely see an ad like the spot for " Club 18-30 " (a dating service, presumably) that, without comment, superimposes its logo over footage of people protesting the ’00 election by chanting, " We want Bush! We want Bush! " Or the advert for Heinz Salad Cream, where a homeless man is seen walking into a liquor store, emerging with a bottle in a bag, and toddling over to a dumpster to season his dinner. " Any food tastes supreme with Heinz Salad Cream. "

Watching these, you get the sense of a barely concealed prurient glee, a willingness to push the envelope just that much farther than we do. One of the funniest spots is an ad for Nestlé’s Quality Street Candies in which candy wrappers are twisted into shiny little sculptures that re-enact scenes from films like The Elephant Man (a deformed John Merrick) and Basic Instinct (Sharon Stone crossing her legs). It’s a neat encapsulation of the differences between our two countries. We may have mastered the feature film, but they’ve got us beat when it comes to the commercial short form.