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The Pajiba Challenge: Watch This Entire Google Chrome Ad Without Getting Misty (Bonus Points If You're a Parent)

By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Videos | Comments (44)

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I’m seriously not trying to advocate for Google Chrome (after all, for some mad reason I can’t figure out, it garbles punctuation on this site sometimes), I’m just a sucker for their ad campaigns. There’s something in the music. The spots are simple and beautifully done, and in a minute and a half are capable of extracting more emotion than most full-length films. Or maybe I’m just a sucker. I dunno. But I think there’s room for appreciating a good ad campaign for its artistic merit while ignoring the product being marketed. Down with Google! (Up with their splendid commercials)









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Comments

Damn you Dustin! And what the hell, Google?! I don't even like kids. Stop it already. I got it. Just take over the world already. Enough with these commercials! You hear me? Don't remind me that I have a heart. It's ruining my persona.

Posted by: Google Underling Scully at May 5, 2011 2:58 PM

Yeah, this got to me. Probably mostly because of my Dad's recent passing; anything with dads and daughters is going to hit me right in the gut. But damn it works. I'm ready to go ahead and get Chrome now.

Posted by: Cree83 at May 5, 2011 3:01 PM

I totally would have made it through that without getting misty if it weren't for the stray piece of dust that flew into my eye. Stupid dust.

...stupid Google.

Posted by: Ethnic Mike at May 5, 2011 3:01 PM

I am made of stone.

Posted by: Mrs. Julien at May 5, 2011 3:02 PM

Damn- I was fine till the 'can't wait to share these with you someday' line. Waterworks!

I am so doing this for my boy- whose nickname funnily enough is Salty.

Posted by: Amandahugandkiss at May 5, 2011 3:03 PM

I suppose I would succumb to the emotional manipulation of that advert if I actually had an emotion other than rage mixed with a little bit of titillation.

Posted by: admin at May 5, 2011 3:09 PM

Is it not weird to anyone else to email a child who doesn't have email yet? However, I too misted up because I'm getting married in less than a year, and anything Dad/daughter related makes me start to cry. Seriously. You should see me with Father of the Bride right now. Or The Little Mermaid. Jesus. I got engaged and watched that a few months later...got to him making the rainbow and waving goodbye and FUCK I'M CRYING AT MY DESK DESCRIBING IT. DAMN YOU DUSTIN!

Posted by: KatSings at May 5, 2011 3:10 PM

I wasn't misty, I was crying because of ovulation pains. Frickin ovaries...

Posted by: FyreHaar at May 5, 2011 3:12 PM

Damn you Rowles! And double damn you Google Chrome for making me feel guilty about being too lazy/tired to keep up my blog after my kid was born.
*Shakes fist at browser window.*

Posted by: JenVegas at May 5, 2011 3:16 PM

KatSings my very good friends created a gmail account the day their daughter was born (4 months ago) for fear that her firstname.lastname@gmail would be taken by the time she was old enough to signed up herself. The parents write her e-mails, send her videos, etc, just like in this commercial. Her cousins write e-mails. As do the grandparents. And even her great-grandmother got to write her a few e-mails before she passed away last month.

So yeah, people do this.

(But I find this to be weird as well.)

Posted by: Google Underling Scully at May 5, 2011 3:19 PM

Yeah it got me. Stupid interweb thingy....

Posted by: logan at May 5, 2011 3:19 PM

You guys must be a punch of pansies, because I didn't even well up, and I cry at EVERYTHING! Seriously, I think I got a good tear or two during Glee this week... and suddenly I realize I have no room for judgement.

Go in peace, crybabies.

Posted by: Patty O'Green at May 5, 2011 3:22 PM

Bastard.

*tears roll down*

Posted by: Cindy at May 5, 2011 3:26 PM

Nothin. And I cry at everything like Patty O'Green. I haven't seen an Outside the Lines that didn't make me cry like a linebacker on Superbowl Sunday. Maybe if Dustin hadn't told me I was going to cry I would have.

Posted by: anikitty at May 5, 2011 3:30 PM

I'm not crying. It's just raining on my face. In my office.

Posted by: Captain Tuttle at May 5, 2011 3:36 PM

*sniff*

Good thing I preemptively told the boy to come sit in my lap while I watched.

"When are there going to be cats?" he said.

Posted by: Sara H at May 5, 2011 3:45 PM

The Mrs and I have been trying for what seems like an eternity to have a little bugger of our own, with no success after several painful failures. I have been the strong one for the two of us trying remain optimistic and to look at each one as just a stepping stone towards the eventual one that keeps.

And then this fucking commercial comes on, and just reminds me of the sand leaving the hourglass and what we still don't have and what we may never have have.

Had to slam my hand in the door "accidentally" to cover the dam breaking. Call it childish if you will but I function better this way. After a few private moments I am now ready to go back to being brave.

Posted by: bleujayone at May 5, 2011 4:12 PM

Dustin - that song is an instrumental version of Ingrid Michaelson's heartbreaking song "Sort Of", if you're interested. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_4utiBscIE

This didn't move me at all. Cute, but I'm a really tough nut to crack.

Posted by: Nubbies Away at May 5, 2011 4:13 PM

Sorry. Not even a hint of mist. But I am craving egg rolls. Thanks, Dusty.

Posted by: Matt at May 5, 2011 4:44 PM

yeap, i'm made out of stone as well. Maybe it's the sleepless hours I've spent these days writing projects. Neah... it just doesn't do anything to me...

Posted by: catherine at May 5, 2011 4:56 PM

You suck. I hate being so predictable. And I hate kids too. This emotionality makes no sense at all. I feel like I have PMS now, so thanks a lot, you bastard.

Posted by: Drea at May 5, 2011 4:58 PM

I don't get it. Is the dad dead?

Posted by: the_wakeful at May 5, 2011 5:00 PM

Boy, my eyes must be really irritated today...

Posted by: Dingles at May 5, 2011 5:12 PM

"When are there going to be cats?" he said.

That is awesome.

Posted by: Paultera at May 5, 2011 5:27 PM

bleujayone, that made me cry. I wish you both the best of luck and the utmost of strength.

Posted by: Patty O'Green at May 5, 2011 5:31 PM

Nope, not misty. Kids are just like adults, only more stubborn and less coherent.

They get the same ration of polite condescension, measured contempt and barely restrained distaste as the rest of the hoi polloi.

Of course kids are cute. It's a survival reflex - if we didn't find them cute we'd bin them. Don't fall for it, folks, there are too many people as it is.

Posted by: Wintermute at May 5, 2011 5:39 PM

I was fine until "we felt so helpless".


Now, I'm hiding my face from the rest of the office......

Posted by: frank_247 at May 5, 2011 6:35 PM

Chrome rocks - even without the tearjerker commercials. Want to look something up quick and don't have a browser open? Chrome pops right open, no eternal loading while Firefox opens, and don't even get me started on Internet Explorer.

These commercials - the icing on the cake.

Posted by: mswas at May 5, 2011 6:37 PM

C'mon, Dustin. Man up and grow a pair!

How are you going to be the remote, reticent father figure in the life of any young person if you so readily reveal your emotions?

How are you going to perpetuate gender myths and bias through your work on this site if you create a safe place for emotional expression?

[sigh]

Repeat after me: Just because I don't show my emotions, doesn't mean I don't have them. [Repeat until this becomes reflex.]

Signed,

Father of 7-year-old who hosted her 'magic' themed birthday party in full Hermione kit, with her Dad as a middle-aged Harry. Nope, no issues here.

Posted by: Tao at May 5, 2011 6:46 PM

Goddamn you, Dustin. I'm a total child-loathing hag and yet this video got me. I teared up right in front of my bosses. Ugh.

Posted by: CC at May 5, 2011 7:06 PM

I couldn't do it (watch without misting). It is weird to email a kid who can't read yet, though.

Beats the hell out of those goddam Bing ads. How I loathe those TV spots. I'd like our government to waterboard everybody involved in making them. Including the actors.

Posted by: Slash at May 5, 2011 7:29 PM

i must be heartless. go figure.

Posted by: splinter at May 5, 2011 7:32 PM

Holy crap, that's the reason I've been seeing some weird formatting on this site lately? It's because I started using Chrome? Well screw this shit, I gave it a try, and I like the new tab setup, but I'm going back to Firefox. (There are other reasons, not that Pajeeba isn't the most important thing in my life.)

Posted by: SaBrina at May 5, 2011 7:37 PM

This is why I love this site so much!
I couldn't make it through the first 20 seconds before the tears made it hard to see.

Posted by: Jamie at May 5, 2011 8:35 PM

"I am a rock, I am an island."

Posted by: Uriah Creep at May 5, 2011 9:39 PM

I'm not crying, I'm making a lasagna... for one.

Posted by: MelBivDevoe at May 5, 2011 9:43 PM

SaBrina, the only thing Chrome causes to look oddly on Pajiba for me is accented letters, like the "e" in resume, if I wasn't too lazy to write it correctly. It turns that accented letter into "@$e" or something similar. Other than that, I haven't noticed anything out of place.

Posted by: Douchebag McGee at May 5, 2011 9:54 PM

Google, stop trying to catch up to Facebook. you're too late to the game.

win the browser and OS wars first before Facebook beats you at dat too.

and no, the commercial did nothing for me.

Posted by: haplo at May 5, 2011 10:30 PM

Douchebag McGee, that's probably the only thing I've seen too, but it stuck with me.

"You guys must be a punch of pansies"

Like a murder of crows?

Posted by: SaBrina at May 5, 2011 10:47 PM

Nah. Too jaded to get manipulated by these kind of commercials (reminiscent of Google's SB ad about some dude who falls in love in France). Little girls are sugar and spice and all things nice ... but then they reach high school, bring home a senior football player or rapper-wannabe as a "date", begins to litter everyday language with words like "no way" and "you know", and sends a naked picture of herself to her one-week BF. Then what? Google? Then what?!?

Posted by: MisterMJ at May 5, 2011 11:18 PM

So only Asians can be proficient with Google Chrome???

Fuckin' racists.

Posted by: Kballs at May 6, 2011 8:22 AM

Didn't well up, but this did remind of the two other commercials whose music really stood out for me... a couple VW commercials (one from the 90s that had the windshield wipers moving in rythm to New Orleans, and another that was a bunch of friends driving at night through the country to a party and enjoying the peacefulness of it) and a Hagen Daz commercial about vanilla ice cream. Beautiful music...

Posted by: Stella at May 7, 2011 10:36 AM

I dunno. My first thought was not to get misty but that it was kind of racist to use an Asian kid for the convenience of the commercial. You know...cause all Asians look alike and thus you can easily find Asian girls of different ages to pull off the ad.

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Posted by: Registry cleaner at June 1, 2011 2:06 AM