The award for Best Thing Of The Day on this Tuesday, 17th September goes to a television commercial from Thailand that is sure to bring a lump to the throat:
The organisation Americans Against The Tea Party (AATTP), whose political outlook and objectives are clearly not naturally aligned to my own, but on whose website I happened to stumble upon this video, described it thus:
Sometimes you don’t need a two or three-hour movie to tell a story, make a statement and move people. Sometimes you can do it in three minutes with little dialog and a minuscule budget. Sometimes simple imagery does it better than any special effects or big production pieces. Sometimes you find such artistry in the most unexpected places – you know – like maybe within a television commercial.
In a three-minute commercial called “Giving True,” a Thai telecom company does just that and, while it may seem to be a bit crass to put the company out there as some major philanthropic organization, the end product is an excellent morality tale.
It tells the story of a man who does a good deed with no expectation of repayment and, who many years later, is repaid many times over for his kindness. In three minutes this mini movie tells a touching story and elicits a strong emotional response. If it does not move you and, at the very least, bring a lump to the throat then there is something wrong . . . you have no heart.
Those tearjerker commercials will get you every time, though I can’t help thinking that True Move, the company behind the ad, has certainly set the bar very high for themselves in terms of their own behaviour, corporate governance and customer service!
Semi-Partisan Politics 