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By Nat Ives 

In a contentious year when some brands made political statements, only one of the most-viewed ads on YouTube played directly into the heat of the moment: Nike's "Dream Crazy" featuring Colin Kaepernick, the former National Football League quarterback who protested racial injustice by kneeling during the pregame national anthem starting in 2016.

"Dream Crazy" ranked fourth on YouTube's annual ranking of ads, with 27.3 million views between its September release and Dec. 12, when YouTube's analysis cuts off.

First place went to Amazon's comedic Super Bowl commercial "Alexa Loses Her Voice," which accumulated 50.1 million YouTube views since its debut in late January.

Other standouts included Groupon's Super Bowl commercial starring Tiffany Haddish; two ads featuring Lego characters, one for Turkish Airlines and another for Lego's "Jurassic World" tie-ins; and "Welcome Home," a visually striking promotion for Apple's HomePod smart speaker that was directed by Spike Jonze and featured the singer and dancer FKA Twigs.

These being ads, of course, the ranking is hardly the final word on the videos' actual popularity.

A YouTube spokeswoman said the ranking reflects both paid and unpaid views, how long people watched and what percentage of the ads' total run time viewers saw. Ads needed to meet undisclosed thresholds for paid views and so-called organic views to make the list in the first place. Movie and videogame trailers were excluded. YouTube doesn't reveal exactly what it counts as a "view," saying such information would help video creators inflate view counts.

Here's the full top 10:

1. "Alexa Loses Her Voice," Amazon, 50.1 million views

2. "Open the World of Music. It's All Here," YouTube Music, 39.5 million views

3. "Real Support Makes Real Hero," Oppo F7, 31.7 million views

4. "Dream Crazy," Nike, 27.3 million views

5. "Safety Video With the Lego Movie Characters," Turkish Airlines, 25.3 million views

6. "Who Wouldn't," Groupon, 21.5 million views

7. "Moving On," Samsung Galaxy, 17.4 million views

8. "Welcome Home," Apple HomePod, 16.3 million views

9. "Heart of a Lio," Gatorade, 13.7 million views

10. "Rescue Blue the Dinosaur," Lego Jurassic World, 10.8 million views

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 17, 2018 03:15 ET (08:15 GMT)

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