Great Video

I had to post about this video. If you haven’t seen it yet, you’re in for a treat. It’s a public service announcement like none you’ve ever seen. Check it out.

I can’t help but analyze what makes this video so effective. It starts out with a father driving an imaginary car. A wife and child sit nearby on the couch, and it’s clear that everybody is having a grand time. They are safe at home; all is right with the world.

Then something breaks up this peaceful scene. The father is still driving but it’s clear that something is not right. I love the look on the father’s face. It isn’t one of exaggerated horror. He simply casts his eyes down. Despair. Resignation. It’s as if he is saying, “all is lost”.

Then we switch to the mother and child on the couch. There is no discussion. There is no moment to pause and reflect, not even so much as a glance between the two. Father is in danger, and so they leap. Their response is complete and resolute.

It is not an accident that the child wears wings. She is both her father’s Little Angel, and now his guardian angel.

The girl reaches around and hugs her father’s waist. Every day when I return home from work, my six-year-old, who can’t reach any higher, hugs me in exactly the same way.

The wife’s hugs is more tender, almost intimate. And it comes just in time.

The director could have filmed the next part in a number of ways, but the method he chooses is powerful. The entire scene has been shot in slow motion, but the impact of this imaginary car occurs with shocking rapidity.

Something on the table gives us the impression of broken glass, and the man is almost folded in half from the violent impact. Anybody who has been in a wreck knows this is exactly how it happens. The power at which you are hit is beyond description.

And then it is over. Mother and child still hug the father. He in turn touches both of them as if to convince himself that they are still there; that he is still there.

The ad finishes with a simple message. No stats. No further convincing. Just a message.

Embrace Life.