Touching commercials

My friend sent me a link to these two commercials a couple years ago. Though I am not interested in purchasing life insurance, especially life insurance in in Thailand, I have remembered these commercials in detail for years because of the effect they have on me. When I watched these two commercials years ago, by the end of each one I was sobbing. When I just watched them again while writing this post, I couldn't help it -- my eyes filled with tears once again. These commercials both tell stories filled with love, family, and sacrifice, which are all topics that cause strong emotions in most people. In an article in the Psychiatric Times, John J. Medina states that memory traces tied to strong emotions are often retrieved with great clarity. This explains why I can remember these Thai commercials well, yet cannot recall the details of most of the many thousands of advertisements I've seen or heard over my lifetime.

When people watch these commercials, they aren't initially told what's being advertised. In fact, these videos seem less like advertisements and more like short films until the last few seconds, where the company name and logo are shown. By the time the commercial ends, most of the audience has formed an emotional connection to the story and characters, and they may be thinking of their own families. The dad and adoptive mother in these commercials both worked hard and made sacrifices to take care of their children, which could make parents who watched the commercial want to do the same thing. This might even make some parents feel guilty for not taking care of their children as well as the characters in the commercials. And then these parents are presented with a way to stop these feelings of guilt: at the end of the commercial with the dad, the narrator says "take care of your loved ones" as the logo of the life insurance company shows up on the screen. These commercials also communicate the trustworthiness of the company: at the end of the commercial with the adoptive mother, the narrator says "Thai Life Insurance, we see the worthiness of every life." More companies should create commercials that tell stories.