The holidays tend to be an emotional time. There’s a lot of lots. Lots of togetherness. Lots of food. Lots of stress, crowds, and expenses. Lots of people you haven’t seen in years (lots of whom you were okay not having seen in years). Lots of smiles, lots of late nights, lots of alcohol. Lots of incense at midnight mass. (Like, seriously, Father, your enthusiasm is admirable, but that second lap was not necessary.) That kind of excess can make for lots of Feelings, and we all know advertisers love to kick you right in the feelings if the opportunity arises. They haven’t failed to deliver this holiday season, with ads ranging from happy-weepy to sad-weepy to sweet-weepy.
But there’s weepy, and then there’s Weepy. Read on for the tear-jerkingest ads of Holiday 2019.
Honorable mention: Toyota, “Yellow Paper” (Saatchi & Saatchi)
This ad gets an honorable mention on the basis of not being overtly holiday-related (unless you consider Toyotathon to be a holiday [and if you do, by all means, joyeux Toyotathon]). And it’s also kind of low-hanging fruit — deployed parents coming home and hugging their children are a sure-fire tearjerker any time of year. But there’s something about this season that makes it even tear-jerkier, and thus this little mini-story of a family welcoming their dad and his fellow service members home with a yellow ribbon at the airport earns itself Weepy honors.
Bronze: Gap, “The Hoodie” (Johannes Leonardo)
Anyone who’s ever stolen a loved one’s hoodie knows that it’s so much more than just a hoodie. In this ad, the hoodie represents the moments, big and small, shared by a single mother and her son that make up the story of their life together. “The Hoodie” is the cornerstone of Gap’s “Gift the Thought” campaign, and when the now-full-grown son opens his new Gap logo sweatshirt, you can see the same memories and the same thought on his mind: You’ve been there all along.
Now, go call your mom. She misses you.
Silver: Apple, “The Surprise” (TBWA\Media Arts Lab)
Lonely old men have long been a staple in weepy holiday advertising. (Take Edeka, John Lewis, and Spain’s annual Christmas lottery as a few examples, and those were all in the same year.) But they’re a classic for a reason. This ad starts out as the story of a couple who unloads their unruly daughters on recently widowed Gramps to trash his house and harass his dog as he studiedly ignores the reality of his own grief. But the last ten seconds put it in Weepy contention with the only-partly happy tears of a man who misses his wife so much and will accept seeing her on an iPad screen but it’s not the same and dammit, Apple, why would you do this to people? It’s heart-simultaneously-warming and -breaking. (And if doesn’t help that the song used in the ad is “Married Life” from the movie Up, essentially the sad-old-man-est of all possible songs, so yeah, basically screw you, Apple.)
Gold: Pantene, “Coming Home Should Be #BeautifuLGBTQ” (Grey)
This year’s easy winner, though, isn’t the story of a sad old fictional grandpa or the love between a fictional mother and her fictional son. This year’s winner is the story of real people, with real families, some by blood and some by choice, and it puts the ads in a category above the other touching-but-contrived ads of the season. Pantene’s holiday ad campaign (featuring a beautiful rendition of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” by the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles) acknowledges the estimated 44 percent of LGBTQ people who feel like they can’t go home for the holidays as their authentic selves, and celebrates the stories of four who finally can. They’re moving because they’re true — they aren’t ad-miracle happy, they aren’t touchingly scripted, they’re the kind of happiness that happens to real people who deserve to be happy, and it hits you hard, in the best way.
Watch videos with Crystal S., Miliana S., MJ, and Steven H.
Weepy holidays.
Any ads making you weep this year? Anything I’ve missed? Let me know about it in comments — but be gentle. I’m a little bit emotional at the moment.