tear jerks

you know that feeling you get when you're watching tv and your friend/brother/roommate/dog has gone to the other room during a commercial break to get a snack/answer the phone/go to the bathroom only to come back and catch you sniffling/choked up/wiping away tears?

yeah, that's when you know you've been suckered by a commercial.

we've all been there, denial or not. it doesn't happen to me often, but when it does, i'm stunned. today i was watching one about a girl getting ready for her wedding. some not-bette-midler was cooing 'wind beneath my wings' over the montage, which kept switching from the girl and her father in present day (her fussing with her hair, him hanging lamps in the banquet tent) to them when she was young (him picking her up in the back yard). At first i was like, eiw cheesy, especially during the 'did you ever know that you're my hero' part. but dammit, that freaking commercial got to me. i guess it was something about how the little girl's long hair was just a little bit messy and blowing around in the wind and how the dad took her hand as they walked. if those people were brown it could have easily been taken from a shot in our family photo album.

but even then i was still okay. right until the moment when the girl is dancing with her husband at the reception and sees her dad, then comes over to ask him to dance. but as they're getting up and walking to the dance floor, instead of showing them in present day, they show the little girl and her daddy again. suddenly, my vision was blurry.

freaking advertising. but the thing is, it works. i remember perfectly well that the daddy paid for his little girl's wedding through Chase Financial. who knows about that company. all i know is that their ad agency is good.

some other adverts that get to me?

* the lifesavers one from long ago where the kid proposes to the girl and she says, 'where's my ring? a lifesaver?' and he says, 'don't worry; we can live with my mother.' no tears, but that's just so damn sweet. and honest.

* the gap commercial from a few years back where ballet dancer Will Kemp is jumping around in jeans. seriously, there wasn't anything overly complex in the dancing, but for some reason, whenever that commercial was on, i found myself unable to tear my eyes off the screen. not even for the phone. (which is shocking for 2002.)

* and the one that hands-down takes the cake -- the deBeers new year's eve spot. they're in crowded Times Square, but as the ball is dropping, parts of the crowd keep vanishing until they're all alone at midnight, when he opens that velvet box.

no wonder, as a profession, advertising can boast one of the highest stress rates. there's got to be a lot of pressure coming up with this stuff.

but hey, when it works, it works.