Ads that make you think and go “awwww”

On a random, more unusual note, I wanted to share some of the best ads I’ve seen so far. This is a marketing blog, so anything “marketing-related” goes. All of these were found on the internet, either via YouTube or Coloribus, a global advertising archive of sorts. Many of these ads follow these common themes:

1. They are epic,meaning 2+ minutes. (Though not all)
2. They have a developed storyline, which captures and holds attention.
3. They will make you bawl like a baby, so have tissues handy!

Here’s my list in no particular order. The foreign ones start about halfway down the list.

1. McDonalds: Proud Papa The lengths that bears will go to have some McDonalds.

2. Sketchers: Break UpThis one aired during the Super Bowl. Kim Kardashian breaks up with her trainer because she has those awesome/ugly Sketchers shape-ups.

3. iPod Nano: Teddy Bear Story“This Valentine’s Day, teddy bears are history.”

4. AT&T Bedtime StoriesTouching! Kind of reminded me of the FaceTime commercial.

Thanonchai Sornsrivichai is an amazing Thai director. Some of his “best” works can be found here. The following is by him:

5. Thai Life Insurance This ad is about a middle-aged woman who suffers from cancer. But instead of feeling sorry for herself, she takes into her care numerous sick orphans in the hospital where she is treated.

5. 7UP Funny CommercialThough the entire video is in Chinese, you can understand the general plot of the commercial. But just to be safe…the guys make a bet that whoever get a winning 7Up bottle tab (kind of like Roll Up The Rim) will have to ask out the next girl they see. At the end of the commercial, the “woman” asks why the main guy had chosen her out of all the girls available. He reflects back to the day with his friends. The point of this commercial is to advertise that there are many chances to win. This is a “Hu Ge” viral video, I believe that’s the name of the actor who appears in many of these videos. He has very bad luck with love (as you will see).

6. 7up Christmas viral video (prequel)

7. McDonalds China: A ‘Hu Ge’ Viral 2010No subtitles, but basically McDonalds has a promotion whereby if you bring in any coupon that has a zero, you get 10% off your purchase. The main character relentlessly tries to pursue the same girl with different coupons each time but she rejects him over and over again because she doesn’t know that this promotion exists. At the end of the video, the girl is seen with her daughter at McDonalds, the daughter overhears the cashier telling a customer that they get 10% off and asks her mom what this means. The woman says to her daughter that she doesn’t have the coupon and thus can’t get 10% off. The main character is all grown up and finally saves the day (and wins the girl?) with his coupon!

8. Air China: Be Our guestI can vaguely understand what the stewardess is saying.

9. TC  Bank: Dream RangersThis is an ad for a Taiwanese bank which depicts a few senile fellas who are sick of being old, so they go out and try to fulfill their dreams. (I shed a couple of tears when I first saw this one, just saying.)

10. Pantene: Deaf Girl Learns How to Play the ViolinI thought this ad was kind of weird…a 4-minute video about hair, yet there’s a really touching story behind it, which is slightly unrelated but I decided to put it here because it also made a cry. Hey, I’m sorry your violin broke but at least you have pretty, flowy hair!

Enjoy! What are your favourite ads?