Great commercials
I love commercials. Good ones, that is. Lately, eBay has been airing some terrific commercials. Rachel and I saw a new one last night that really struck us.
[no voiceover, music only] A little red-haired boy is playing in the surf with his favorite toy boat. His mother calls him away, so the boy leaves his boat, which is lifted by the tide and swept away into the ocean. It sails on for a long time, over stormy seas and tall waves, until it finally slips beneath the surface. Then, a fishing boat hauls up a net full of fish...and the toy boat. A fisherman picks up the boat and looks at it.
Cut to a red-haired man at his computer. He's staring at an auction on eBay, of his favorite childhood toy. He looks over to a picture of the boy he once was, holding the boat. He looks back to the screen, and he looks like he's about to cry.
Then, the first voice you hear..."What if nothing was ever lost?"
Actually, it made me think of the best commercial I ever saw in my life. It was such a powerful statement that I still remember it more than ten years later. I saw it once, and have never seen it agian.
There are no words spoken. The screen is nothing but a video image of a young, bald black man, pictured from the neck up, staring expressionlessly into the camera...sort of like a live mugshot.
To the left of his face, words appear one line at a time, as follows:
MARCUS JONES
Armed robbery
Assault with a deadly weapon
Grand theft auto
Possession with intent to sell
Breaking and entering
Driving under the influence
Assaulting a police officer
Arrested on 10/12/1993
By Officer William Johnson
[pause]
Pictured here.
I remember I was with a large group of people when this commercial aired, and when that last line appeared, every one of us gasped. We were a group of liberal-minded inviduals, and we realized we'd all assumed that the man pictured was the criminal. Of course, this was the intent of the ad, and it was constructed to MAKE you think the man pictured was the criminal, but the point was still taken.
The ad was sponsored by the NAACP, if memory serves.
[no voiceover, music only] A little red-haired boy is playing in the surf with his favorite toy boat. His mother calls him away, so the boy leaves his boat, which is lifted by the tide and swept away into the ocean. It sails on for a long time, over stormy seas and tall waves, until it finally slips beneath the surface. Then, a fishing boat hauls up a net full of fish...and the toy boat. A fisherman picks up the boat and looks at it.
Cut to a red-haired man at his computer. He's staring at an auction on eBay, of his favorite childhood toy. He looks over to a picture of the boy he once was, holding the boat. He looks back to the screen, and he looks like he's about to cry.
Then, the first voice you hear..."What if nothing was ever lost?"
Actually, it made me think of the best commercial I ever saw in my life. It was such a powerful statement that I still remember it more than ten years later. I saw it once, and have never seen it agian.
There are no words spoken. The screen is nothing but a video image of a young, bald black man, pictured from the neck up, staring expressionlessly into the camera...sort of like a live mugshot.
To the left of his face, words appear one line at a time, as follows:
MARCUS JONES
Armed robbery
Assault with a deadly weapon
Grand theft auto
Possession with intent to sell
Breaking and entering
Driving under the influence
Assaulting a police officer
Arrested on 10/12/1993
By Officer William Johnson
[pause]
Pictured here.
I remember I was with a large group of people when this commercial aired, and when that last line appeared, every one of us gasped. We were a group of liberal-minded inviduals, and we realized we'd all assumed that the man pictured was the criminal. Of course, this was the intent of the ad, and it was constructed to MAKE you think the man pictured was the criminal, but the point was still taken.
The ad was sponsored by the NAACP, if memory serves.