Every once in a while I'll come across the perfect TV commercial.
Perfect writing.
Perfect casting.
Perfect direction.
Perfect editing.
Perfect timing.
It's a rare occurrence.
Made even rarer when it happens in a 15 second spot.
Most 15 second spots I see are mere cutdown of their 30 second brethren. Half the time they don't work. The storytelling is forfeited in lieu of some cheapskate bean counter's need to make the numbers and ship more profits to the mothership in NY. And often times, clients who are intimately aware of the longer version, will just assume the viewer at home will "get it."
Newsflash, they won't.
But I digress.
This 15 second spot is storytelling at its best. I liken it to those contests I often see online challenging the writer to tell a tale in six simple words. You've seen those. Like this Hemmingway classic:
Baby shoes for sale. Never used.
This spot, featuring a baby, has a happier ending.
Maybe.
I'll grant you the connective tissue to TurboTax is a bit specious. And you could argue that this is a classic case of borrowed interest. Nevertheless, every time it comes on, I find myself rewinding the DVR and letting myself soak in the moment.
Particularly the smiling ginger mailman as he enters the room without a care in the world.
There was a time when infidelity and the birth of a bastard child was completely out of bounds for big national advertisers. But that was before we elected a porn star-banging, pussy-grabbing, money-laundering, swastika-embracing president.
It's a new world out there.
Thank you Captain Fuckknuckle.
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