By Justin W. Sanders

Last week, PromaxBDA: The Conference 2012 wrapped up with the always popular session, "State of Our Art." Hosted by Courteney Monroe, CMO of National Geographic Channels U.S., and Kendrick Reid, SVP and executive creative director of brand strategy at BET Networks, the session presented a mostly lighthearted survey of some of the past year's most memorable spots, including the seven posted below, each of which exemplified what Monroe and Reid described as "the rules of great comedy."

1.) Make the viewer "feel" something. Proctology and power tools? Somehow the ECHO company makes it work.

 
2.) Go to the dogs. Volkswagen's spot is the funniest commercial featuring dogs barking the "Star Wars" theme you'll ever see.

  3.) Select the celebrity from that season with the most scandal. A Conference speaker himself, Charlie Sheen was as charmingly self-deprecating in person as he is in this spot poking fun at his image for Bavaria's brand of non-alcoholic beer.

 
4.) Never let the viewer see the damn product. This spot for LG's latest super-slim TV served as both effective advertising and a helpful instructional video for aspiring criminals.

  5.) Man boobs. Just, man boobs.

 
6.) Hit 'em in their wallet. We're still not convinced the Dollar Shave Club is a real thing, but if it is, this spot does the trick and then some.

  7.) Hit the competition where it hurts. And by that, Monroe and Reid seemed to mean its customers. Here, Samsung makes fun of overly hip iPhone users. Ouch!