Commercials that make you want to cry

My mom, God love her, would, given the choice between running over me or a cat, would point the car to me and hit the gas. Or a dog. Or a racoon. Squirrel's 50/50.

Anyhow, one day one of those Chik-Fil-A ads comes on, the one where the cows are parachuting into the football stadium. One of them lands on a burger salesman.

My mom starts panicking, thinking it was a remote and these cows had just did their version of the turkeys in WKRP. I had to explain that it was an ad, and nobody got hurt for real and the only one that got hurt in the script was the burger guy.

That was OK with her.

 

I am a good dog, and I just want to go home.

 

Those Pacific Bell commercials always did it for me.

 

There's a commercial from 20-25 years ago that I hadn't thought of until recently, but remembering it made me really sad. It was about a little boy holding a teddy bear and trying to sleep on a bench in an office. The kid asks his mom: "Mommy, when can we go home?" and the mom replies, "Soon honey, try to go to sleep," while the mom is trying to clean the office.

 

Okay, just want to make this clear up front: Despite another admission, I don't want y'all to think I weep openly at the drop of a hat (and it's not a commercial), but I've been sick and partaking of a bunch of daytime TV. Specifically, I've been watching Ellen Degeneres' show, and she's been on a run of finding good people who are in serious financial trouble and surprising them, sometimes at their home, with $35,000, cars, and a whole bunch of stuff.

The reactions of these folks, who are being pulled out of dire circumstances, makes me cry every time.

There. I said it.

Oh, and the Browns make me cry every week. Okay, not really, but they make me want to cry.

 

They didn't make me cry, but the two commericials that Mark Eaton and Bill Cartwright did for child abuse sure as hell could make a huge (no pun intended) impression:

 

And as counterbalance to all the schmaltzy dog ads:

 

That is a well done commercial. I also like the one where the guy takes the girl to memorable spots in the their relationships. Then they get to one she doesn't remember and he gets on his knee and says "you will" while opening a ring box.

 

The funniest part of this, though, was a few issues later when they casually mentioned on the credits page, "Oh, by the way, we shot the dog."

 

That would be some effective advertising.