The latest round of commercials for the United States Air Force play on the theme "It's Not Science Fiction," portraying Air Force missions and technologies as something out of military science fiction. One even shows off the Space Command, although this one doesn't appear to involve Stargates or preparations against an alien invasion.

Another ad spotlights the Unmanned Aircraft Systems, with a desert mission seeing support from a spy plane.

Another spot imagines the Air Force's combat, search and rescue airmen parachuting onto an alien world.

US Air Force Not Science Fiction [The Inspiration Room]

Just in case you are unfamiliar with the Uncanny Valley, we've added the 30 Rock Clip which expertly illustrates this phenomenon.

Additional reporting by Julia Carusillo.

Mars' has been forcing its candy-covered cartoon faces into our favorite movies for years, and by Cybertron, I've had enough of it. I already had to withstand years of being force-fed the idea that a green chocolate creature could be sexy and now they've gone and burned this creepy image of M&M Bay into my brain. That chocolate smirk has stubble - stubble! I'm all for sap, and I understand marketing but looking back on the large career of M&M movie tie-ins, I have to say they are truly the worst. Especially the Star Wars ads.

I make my case below with some of the most painful M&M movie ads of all times.

M&M Transformers

M&M Star Wars

M&M Wizard Of Oz

M&Ms Addams Family Commercial

I Blame M&Ms For Shrek

Tarzan

This are just superb, all I need now are Alien and Predator bathroom hijinks portrait and I'm set.

[DDB New Zealand via Superpunch]

Totally Looks Like blew the whistle on Avon for trying to spread this zombie formula over the masses. The product that calls itself "Avon Derma-Full" promises that in three days you'll have less wrinkles....and an unquenchable thirst for human flesh. Don't believe us? Then check out the commercials one from Umbrella Crop. the other from Avon.

Stay away from this product good citizens, at least until I get my shot gun and Ducati escape plan underway.

Avon Commercial

Umbrella Corps Regenerate Commercial

[via saferight]

First off, who knew that Dead Snow'sNazi zombies were also good at peddling products? Check out this commercial for hot cocoa - undead-Nazi approved!

In other news, we called on trusty io9er Bjørn T. Bøe, to fill us in on whetherDead Snow is worth the icy trek to Utah just to check out the new zombies. The film has been out in Norway for a wee bit longer, and Bjørn gives it two frostbitten thumbs up. Plus new pics below!

Bjørn T. Bøe says:

Død Snø starts off like any other in a long line of recent Norwegian teen-scream slasher flicks: A couple and their respective trios of sex-starved best friends are en route to a remote cabin for a cozy retreat. Seen that film before? Me too. That's why I was initially disappointed as I sat attending a private screening of the film. Granted, these characters were not teenagers, but still. But as it turned out, this opening was a sham; the film makers made an obvious nod to that well-known trope, partly to cement Død Snø as a comedy by pushing for the obvious, and partly because, well, the premise actually works with the plot that unfolds.

Yes, Død Snø is a comedy. You should know this before you enter the theatre at Sundance. However, it is also an extremely graphic splatter film, of the old school (none of that Hostel or Saw crap). I hate the standard Hollywood pitches, like "Die Hard meets Star Trek" (although I'd love to see that particular concept), but there is no escaping the fact that Død Snø borrows heavily from films like Evil Dead 1 and 2, Dead Alive, Surf Nazis Must Die, and even Pirates of the Caribbean. The latter in the form of a revealing MacGuffin (but I've already said too much - I want to keep this review spoiler-free beyond the clips you've already seen here on io9). But it is by no means a straight rip-off deal; the film gingerly tips its hat at those predecessors (well, apart from Pirates), both in the form of pretty obvious scene references, but also in the form of actual name-dropping, and the fact that film geek character Erlend (Jeppe Laursen) actually wears a Dead Alive! (called Braindead hereabouts) t-shirt during the initial zombie attack.

However, Død Snø is much more than a simple line-up of homages. It's something as original as a Norwegian monster movie, made for a mainstream audience. This one's a first, and despite its tiny budget of just under two million US dollars, it manages to come across just as flashy and eye-candy-like as anything else - it certainly has a production value vastly exceeding those films it draws upon. Pulling on Australian cinematographer Matt Weston's eye for exciting solutions, Død Snø comes across as part horror film, part extreme sports video - and this is certainly a good thing.

With the kind of scenes wünderkind writer/director Tommy Wirkola has created, it would have been a disaster not to shoot some of the more outrageous scenes the way Weston did - and he makes it look damn good. The cinematography, the sound design, the special effects and the make-up have all been heavily lauded by a surprisingly united national press - to the point where certain reviewers have stated that it might not be their cup of tea, but damn, it looks good.

Just don't expect too much of the story. I mean, evil Nazis frozen for sixty years return to wreak havoc on the picturesque snow-covered mountains, and eat the entrails of the living, and only a group of inept medical students, in way over their heads, can stop them? The premise screams "So bad it's good", but it's intentional; after all, Wirkola's feature debut, Kill Buljo, was a practically no-budget outrageous parody that became a solid mainstream cult hit. Within the context of the film, the narrative works surprisingly well, and certainly kept me on the edge of my seat, with my constant intervals of laughter and exclamations of "Eeeew!" The set-ups are often very simple, but the pay-off is worth it almost every time. I agree with the general consensus in the io9 comments that the backhouse sex-scene was pretty filthy, but it worked within the parameters of the outrageous plot and with its slightly twisted character archetypes.

Suffice to say, this is a priceless gem you'll probably not want to miss if you can catch a screening of it. It will undoubtedly be available on DVD one way or the other, and I really hope you will be able to see it - this is one piece of my cultural heritage I'd really like to share.

Oh, and sorry, but this is a running-zombies film. But I think you'd agree with me that although the director definitely refer to the creatures as zombies, I'd categorize them as something else. Or maybe I've just owned too many editions of the Monster Manual, I don't know.

Commercials have become such a depressing mix of skinny people bounding around to catchy music that it's been months since I've actually sat through a commercial break, what with Tivo and DVR allowing me the freedom of fast forwarding. But then there are those little moments of true exciting ingenuity that makes us stop and yell out "Wait, rewind!" Vesa Manninen's commercial work is one of those little gems in a plethora of exhausting Pepsi ads. I caught his Swedish Battery Collection Project homage to black and white monster flick of yore (strings attached) and I was immediately hooked. So just for fun, let's check out what happens when you let someone with a passion for creating thing on the screen that look, sound and feel unique direct a commercial.

Swedish Battery Collection Project

The Hand, Monster.fi

VR (Finnish Railways, Congress

Head inside your head, Juicy Fruit DIRECTORS CUT

Next up is the highly anticipated trailer for 1, which is inspired by Stanislaw Lem's One Human Minute. A bookstore uncovers a novel that details what happens to all of humanity in one single minute. Unfortunately, we could only find this version, but we promise to keep our eyes peeled for a English-subtitled or voiceover version soon.

Here is the official synopsis; thanks to Quiet Earth for pointing it out!

A bookshop renowned for its rare works is mysteriously and completely filled with copies of a book entitled 1, which doesn’t appear to have a publisher or author. The strange almanac describes what happens to the whole of humanity in the space of a minute. A police investigation begins and the bookshop staff are placed in solitary confinement by the Bureau for Paranormal Research (RDI Reality Defense Institute). As the investigation progresses, the situation becomes more complex and the book increasingly well known, raising numerous controversies (political, scientific, religious and artistic). Plagued by doubts, the protagonist has to face facts: reality only exists in the imagination of individuals.

Combined with his evil looks, you can't blame a kid for not being able to sleep with The Great Garloo standing in the corner of his or her bedroom—which might be the reason why the second half of the commercial shows a kinder, gentler Garloo, sweet enough for sis to kiss. (By the way, according the American Institute for Economic Research, Garloo's price of $17.98 in 1961 is equivalent to almost $125.00 today—faithful servants never came cheap.)

And here's his friend, the less impressive giant robot named Big Loo:

A bizarrely erotic ad for Phillips razors features a robot straight out of I, Robot and a futuristic house that reminds me of something from Greg Bear's classic novel Eon. Definitely cyber, definitely all about buying a razor.

An Israeli ad for a dairy is snatched right from Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age. We see an old-fashioned factory, but then when the factory owner opens his doors we discover it's a tiny island of old-schooliness in the middle of an ultra-futuristic cyberworld.

A bizarro ad from Mountain Dew creates an early cyberpunk vision ripped straight from William Gibson's Neuromancer, with corporations ruling the world and high tech innovation the only hope for freedom. Except, of course, the rebels in this world are trying to create "the ultimate soft drink."

A Levis ad plays with imagery from Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash to create this futuristic wasteland where a guy lassos a car (think of the skateboarding pizza delivery punk in Snow Crash), which turns out to be self-driving (Transformers or KITT anyone?).

An ad for Playstation 2 depicts a Max Headroomish future of multinational media conspiracies:

Sure these ads are creative, and there's nothing wrong with getting inspiration from cool punked-out scifi subcultures. But once the subculture is smooshed all over SUVs and razors? Then it's just a hollowed-out shell of itself being used to sell stuff. Old-school cyberpunk novels are still great, but today's cyber is VH-1 material at best.