Unsung Hero

Why it works

A young man with almost nothing spends his days on small kindnesses: he waters a dying plant, feeds a stray dog, brings bananas to an elderly neighbour and gives money to a girl begging on the street. "He gets nothing," the subtitles say, until the film shows what he does receive: the girl in school, the plant thriving, the dog healthy at his side. Ogilvy & Mather Bangkok and director Thanonchai Sornsriwichai of Phenomena built it from a true story of a New Yorker who fed the homeless, and Thai Life premiered the commercial on YouTube before its television run. It drew six million views in nine days and 27 million by early 2016, fuelling the "try not to cry" reaction videos the Wall Street Journal called a digital spectator sport. It is studied as a defining example of Thailand's tear-jerker school: an insurer selling the value of a life rather than a policy, and the long-form TV spot reborn as a film people choose to share.