In the most recent ad, Sonny (who thankfully has been redesigned from a hip skater bird to a naked, comical character that seems to have a “timeless” quality to him) decides to call his friend Mr. Parrot to get his mind off of his favorite cereal. Of course, being a parrot, Mr. Parrot keeps repeating everything Sonny says- including his comments about those munchy, crunchy, chocolately Cocoa Puffs. The poor bird goes cuckoo yet again.
Even though Sonny does try his best on his own, apparently he does have parents, but they’re no help either. A Food Network special on food mascots featured clips from a Cocoa Puffs commercial that appears to be of 1970s vintage. In it, Sonny is going to bed for the night. As soon as he falls asleep, another cuckoo bird in top hat and glasses appears in his window with a bowl of Cocoa Puffs, commenting to the audience that this should get Sonny going again. He pours the cereal down Sonny’s throat, and the bird shouts that he’s cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, as usual.
So apparently, although Sonny has attempted some self-control as of late, his bird friends are useless to help him cope, and if the aged bird is related to Sonny, his parents actually want the poor bird to go cuckoo, even to the point of depriving him of sleep.
Compared to him, Lucky and the Rabbit have it easy.
There were some really emotional ones during the first Superbowl after Sept. 11. Remember the Anheuser Busch Clydesdales pulling the sleigh across the snow, then all kneeling and bowing their heads before the Statue of Liberty?
There was a black and white commerical for a automoble company’s anniversary a few years back. It was one of those commericals that looked like it was set in the 1920s. It starts out with this ballad song and shows, an assembly line, couples driving out of a passageway laughing. This is the part that was unfortunately cut for time: the solo ballad turns into a rousing chorus and they show vivid images of Americana. Something about that is so sentimental and nostalgic, and I never even experienced that era.
The one that always gets me is an advertisement for plastics, showing how many good things plastics do for our lives.
At one point they show a doctor coming out to tell an elderly lady that her husband is going to be all right (I think he had some kind of heart operation involving plastic valves or something) and the old lady says in this soft relieved voice, “Oh, I’m so glad.” Tears are welling in her eyes, and the expression on her face gets me every time.
Mine is a current stop smoking ad, for reasons opposite what you might think.
We open up to a grandfather sitting on a chair. Then we pan to his daughter, helping her year old son walk in a straight line. She’s behind him, holding his hands. Eventually he lets go and walks on, all by himself. He ends up walking through his grandfather, whose image becomes more and more ghostly. We finish with Mom saying, “Wish your grandfather could be here.”
Alright, so it’s already sad. But it makes me sad because my two-year-old niece was killed in a car crash last January. Every time I see the little one walking, and every time Mom says “Wish your grandfather could be here,” I see Hannah and wish that she was here.
Yes! And this is just the sentiments I had. I would not have found this out without your help. Indeed, nothing is ever lost.
Here: the next four ads in the campaign emphasize a single emotion each. “Falling in Love” begins with the voice of Marlene Dietrich singing “Falling in Love Again.” As scenes from milestones in Mercedes-Benz’ 110-year history are shown, the factory workers, engineers, race drivers and car owners all join in, elevating the song to a passionate anthem.
Here: Mercedes-Benz current ad campaign is generally wonderful, but the prize goes to “Falling in Love Again” because all the racing drivers, factory workers, passengers and passers-by mouthing words to Marlene Dietrich’s classic rendition of that song best express the theme: a long distinguished history continues renewed.
And Here: I’m looking for this song from the mercedes benz commercial where they show clips of the evolution of their cars, with happy auto workers making cars, families driving them around, etc. The song sounds like it is normally sung by one woman, but they have a group singing it acapella, or maybe with a piano, to emphasize unity or something. It goes something like this, “Falling in love again, never wanted to, what am I to do? I can’t help it. Love’s always been my game, play it out, I may, I was made that way. I can’t help it.” if you know the name of this song, or the original artist, hook me up!
This was a while ago. It was for an ISP I believe.
It opens with a little kid on a school bus. The bus stops in front of a house to pick up a new kid and his mom’s there telling him not to be nervous, that it’s going to be alright, but she signing to him. So there he is sitting on the bus alone, unable to talk with anybody.
That night the first kid goes home, and uses the Internet to learn some basic ASL. The next day when the new kid gets on again he sits down next to him and signs something like, “Hello, my name is Tommy. What’s yours?”
My partner and I saw this one day while we were both home sick. We turned to eachother after and both of us had tears running down our face.
I’m gonna have to get out of this thread because I’m sitting here bawling at my desk…
But I love the Johnson & Johnson baby commercial with the mom giving the baby a bath in the kithen sink, and there’s another more recent one with a dad that choked me up too. The tag line is something about “Becoming a parent changes everything forever”. With two little ones now, that just really hits home.
There is a variation of that one lately for the NFL Network. And it’s even a Pittsburgh player that’s in it!!
Slo mo of Plaxico Burress running in for a TD and when he gets to the stands he spontaneously hands over the ball to a kid and pats him on the head. The look on the kid’s face is priceless…then he runs over to show his dad…it’s just so sweet!!!
What’s cool about this one is it’s not staged…it’s game footage of the gesture.