In October 2017, an advertisement appeared on Czech TV. From the first moment already, the advertisement did not seem to be like other advertisements we usually get to see. The story starts with picturing an old man who lights a candle in remembrance of his deceased wife. As he misses his wife, he pulls out a suitcase with his wife’s clothes that remind him of her scent and he also goes through an old diary with memories. It is the Christmas time, so the man starts preparing everything necessary, all just himself. He puts up a small Christmas tree, goes shopping while being spotted by one of his neighbors – a small girl with her teddy bear in her hands. The man even tries to bake a Christmas cake but in different scenes, he struggles to crack an egg and the flour he tries to get spills over the kitchen. While he is eating his Christmas dinner alone, the doorbell rings, and when he opens the door, he sees a present on the floor. After unwrapping the present, he finds out it is a teddy bear. The teddy bear of the small girl who appears in the window in the opposite house and waves to the old man. In the end, it is shown it is an advertisement on a grocery store.
This advertisement is very well known across the Czech Republic. It seems it got stuck in heads of many people and anytime it appears on TV, people talk about it with great emotions. There must be something magical about the advertisement, mustn’t it?
From my point of view, the first thing that attracts someone’s attention is the way the story is narrated. Despite the advertisement is a minute and a half long, not even one word is being said. Instead of words, sad background music accompanies the whole narrative which strengthens its power and delivers a stronger effect on human emotions. This non-verbal narrative then seems to be even more powerful than words.
The potential to induce people’s emotions is obvious. The story is trying to describe the man as lonely as possible as is being shown by picturing different types of situations when he fails to handle actions he is trying to do. To make the feeling of sadness and loneliness even stronger, I think, the author intentionally puts the man in the situations that a woman would commonly have been handling, such as baking the Christmas cake. I feel stressing man’s confusion in these moments is to emphasize how much he misses his wife.
So why such an emotional attack? Although the Christmas time is for most people the time of joy and peace when they meet their loved ones, for many pensioners in the Czech Republic it is a nightmare during which the feel lonelier than during other times of the year. As many statistics show, not only the feelings of loneliness and needlessness afflict majority of lonely pensioners but sometimes these feelings may also lead to suicide thoughts. I consider highlighting this risky time of the year the main intention of the author of this advertisement, even though we are speaking of a popular grocery store.
Every time I got a chance to talk to someone about this advertisement, I was given similar responses. “It is such a sad story”, most people claim. “I cried the entire time”, others say. These responses can be found under the YouTube video as well where people usually comment on it saying they had to cry even though they are not fans of advertisements, that we should help older people and some comments also mention that it is sad that people happen to be alone on the Christmas time. Generally saying, it is obvious that besides getting emotional, it made people think about this problem.
Even I had similar thoughts after watching the advertisement on TV. I assume the narrative made people stop for a second and think not only about all these people who are alone but maybe also about their own families. It might have given people a chance to realize the value and preciousness of their close ones and maybe thanks to this advertisement someone visited somebody who he would not have normally visited. There will always be people who claim it is just a silly advertisement but, in my opinion, in this case the power of the advertisement was used correctly, and it is something what gives otherwise lonely people a chance to feel a little happier.
Link to the advertisement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzy2OdkmIs0
RWS-510 Rhetoric and Culture 