PRIVATE VIEW.(television commercials)(Brief Article)(Column)

As the American comic, Steve Wright, says: "There's a thin line between fishing and standing by the side of a river doing nothing."

2 Iceland, for example. No, not the main animated campaign which I like very much, but a series of price ads extolling the virtues of buying one and getting one free. Which has always struck me as a dubious offer anyway -- I throw enough stuff out of my fridge as it is. Some are about the lengths people go to to get their hands on the deals -- shimmying in the aisles -- some involve men dressed as penguins, some are just people being odd. You know the sort of thing, all very postmodern and ironic. For my money, the whole thing's a bit overcooked. Trying too hard to be mad and subversive. I felt like I was watching someone acting out a Monty Python sketch in …