I Can't Help Falling In Love With A Damn Gum Ad For Christ's Sakes!

A scene from "Sarah and Juan," the new Extra Gum
ad that is actually quite moving.  

I saw a ad for chewing gum that pretty much turned me into an emotional puddle.   I was actually moved!

Most advertisements are so bad that I want to scream, of course. My husband is sick of me screaming at bad ads but he kindly tolerates it.

When I finally see a rare, well-crafted advertisement, I cheer for it like crazy.

So it is for the Extra Gum commercial you'll see below. You really want to watch it.

The nearly two minute ad from the agency BBDO features the story of "Sarah and Juan" high school sweethearts who meet and build a relationship into adulthood.

After every significant moment with Sarah, Juan draws a little picture on an Extra gum wrapper. You don't know why he does that until the end of the ad. And at the end, there's one drawing he made on a gum wrapper that actually hadn't happened........yet.

This ad is a follow up to another wonderful commercial for Extra Gum called "Origami" in which a dad keeps making little origami swans out of gum wrappers for his daughter.

While you're at it, check out the awesome Barbie ad currently on BBDO's home page. 

The Sarah and Juan ad is very sweet, of course. Maybe I'm biased because the soundtrack is Haley Reinhart's sweet version of the song "I Can't Help Falling In Love" the great Elvis Presley standard  that was sung during my wedding three years ago.

OK, I'm totally a sucker for romance. And, yes, the ad is manipulative, but aren't ads supposed to be manipulative?  I might actually go out and buy some Extra Gum today. See? Good ads work.

Here it is: