Yes, it was featured in the super cut. But, at least in this scenario, the “somber piano music” actually instantly turns into more of a soft, inspirational melody. In all actuality, if you play that exact tune over different scenes, maybe it is somber. But, the message here is uplifting, inspiring and honestly, pretty motivating. At a time when many people were feeling isolated, scared, unsure and at a loss, it was refreshing to see these small examples of others overcoming those same emotions and pressing forward. I love it.

This commercial was a great example of breaking the “script” of the COVID commercial. It servered two purposes: being dumb and silly when we needed something dumb and silly, and at the same time, also quietly serving as a public service announcement when lots of people were feeling uneasy about the idea of “staying home.” By framing the act as being a “couch potatriot” Burger King earned a tip-of-the-cap from me.

This commercial was a great example of breaking the “script” of the COVID commercial. It servered two purposes: being dumb and silly when we needed something dumb and silly, and at the same time, also quietly serving as a public service announcement when lots of people were feeling uneasy about the idea of “staying home.” By framing the act as being a “couch potatriot” Burger King earned a tip-of-the-cap from me.

Another genre of ad I’ve noticed an uptick in (seemingly) is the quick-reaction ads to something topical. We saw a cheeky, and nearly immediate execution during the first Vice Presidential debate featuring the unexpected star of the evening, “the fly” who spent a full two minutes sitting atop Vice President Mike Pence’s head. The online world, more specifically the Twitterverse, was quick to start cracking the same three or four jokes. But by the time the debate had ended, the digital team for Joe Biden had posted this clever jab:

Not only was it a punny little attempt at humor distracting from what has been a divisive political landscape, the clever ploy to add the call to action for a modest $5 donation undoubtedly was an unplanned success with the tweet sitting at nearly 216,000 retweets at the time of this writing.

If 2020 has given us anything, it’s definitely given us a plethora of viral videos to digest due to the pandemic probably creating a lot of cabin fever and people letting down their guards to post anything and everything. One of the more recent was TikTok sensation Nathan Apodaca’s entry, casually skateboarding down a slight hill, jamming to Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” while filming himself and sipping on some Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry juice. 

It instantly went viral, inspiring a plethora of copycat posts by many online users, including the one and only Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac and the CEO of Ocean Spray himself, Tom Hayes. Clearly inspired by the virality of his product’s placement, Hayes and Ocean Spray gifted Apodaca a new set of (motorized) wheels and a ton of juice. 

TikTok, riding the waves of their platform being the source of the video and the popularity of the news, spun the original and some copycats into a commercial in a few short days and had it on-the-ready for the MLB playoffs.

So this isn’t an advertisement, so to speak. Technically, it’s a music video. But, the sense of being “alone together” certainly had to have struck a chord with more than just me, and I think the 865,000+ YouTube views the video has received is a testament that my inkling is probably accurate.

OK GO, a band known for their viral videos of the past, not only wrote an emotionally charged and inspirational tune reflecting the times, but they also recorded their individual contributions independently. It was then transformed into an animated Zoom-esque display with a heartfelt, climactic ending paying homage to the healthcare workers battling on the front lines against the virus. As I said, it’s not an ad, per se, but it was a powerful salute to the selfless work and dedication of the doctors, nurses and other hospital personnel bearing the brunt of the pandemic. 

After all, as not-so-famous ad man Howard Luck Gossage once said, “Nobody reads advertising. They read what interests them, and sometimes it’s an ad.”

Even if you were to hate the song, there is no way the climactic ending doesn’t just make your heart swell and suddenly realize just how dusty it is in whatever room you were watching it in.

While 2020 has been quite the rollercoaster of emotion, with far more “downs” than “ups” for my liking, it has been refreshing to see the ad world stepping up to offer us a few moments of inspiration and joy. They’ve given us a few much-needed smiles at a time we certainly needed them.