Psychology
Empathy
We feel what the people on screen feel, their joy, fear or tenderness, and that shared feeling attaches to the brand behind the story.
2020s
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2023Forever
Lets viewers grow up alongside Ava and Bear, from her childhood to a child of her own, so the love between them becomes what they feel about the brand.
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2023R.I.P. Leon
Viewers share the lizard-sitter's dread as he texts that Leon has died, then his frantic relief when Leon flips over, so the rescue feels like theirs too.
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2020In Love We Trust
Follows a registry clerk who loses faith in marriage until a devoted widower wins her back, and viewers who share her journey carry its hope to a home-selling brand.
2010s
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2019We All Win
Puts children who play with an adapted controller at the centre, and viewers share their pride and delight at simply being able to play.
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2018Welcome Home
FKA twigs drags herself home drained, then dances as her cramped flat blooms around her, and viewers feel her release as if the music were lifting them too.
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2017Daughter
Viewers hear a dad wonder what to tell his girl about being valued as less than every man she meets, and share his worry, then his hope, as she wins.
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2017The Journey
Follows a mother and her young daughter north on foot, by truck and by train, and viewers who feel the pair's hardship need to know whether they make it.
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2017The Talk
A mother tells her careful-driving daughter that being pulled over is about coming home, and viewers who never had that talk feel her fear for themselves.
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2016Dads #ShareTheLoad
Viewers feel a father's dawning regret as he watches his daughter juggle everything, and his quiet start on the laundry at home lands as tender repair.
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2016The DNA Journey
Shows a man who is no fan of Germans learning he is partly German, and viewers feel the jolt of his surprise as though the result were their own.
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2015Justino
Follows a night watchman who leaves little scenes for colleagues he never meets, and viewers feel his solitude and then the tenderness of being remembered by them.
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2015#heimkommen ("Coming Home")
Viewers feel an old man's loneliness through Christmas after Christmas alone, then his relief at a full table, and that ache attaches itself to Edeka.
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2014Mistakes
Stops time so both drivers can talk, the father pleading for his boy, and viewers share his helpless dread as the two men climb back in for the crash.
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2014Puppy Love
Follows a Labrador puppy that keeps returning to the Clydesdale it loves even after being adopted, and viewers feel every bit of its stubborn devotion.
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2014The Big Leap
Turns a man's nerves before a first kiss into a fall through the void, and viewers who know that terror feel every second of the drop.
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2014Unsung Hero
Lets viewers feel the sting of 'He gets nothing' alongside him, then his quiet reward, a swing strong enough to fuel 'try not to cry' reaction videos.
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2014Monty the Penguin
Viewers watch Monty grow lonely beside his best friend and feel his longing, so the relief of Christmas morning attached itself to John Lewis.
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2013Christmas Miracle: Real-time Giving
Hidden cameras catch passengers' faces as their wished-for presents come round on the carousel, and viewers share the surprise and delight.
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2013Reunion
Viewers share an old man's longing for the friend he lost at Partition and his joy when that friend arrives on his birthday, and the feeling attaches to Search.
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2013Real Beauty Sketches
Viewers watch women confront how harshly they see themselves and feel that jolt alongside them, and the tender moment attaches itself to Dove.
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2012Best Job ("Thank You, Mom")
Follows mothers from pre-dawn starts to the moment the stands erupt, so viewers feel years of worry give way to pride in a single look.
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2011Back to the Start
Tracks a farmer's growing unease as his family farm becomes a factory, and viewers feel his conscience win when he turns back to the start.
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2011The Force
Follows a small boy in a Darth Vader mask through failure after failure, so when the Passat seems to obey him viewers feel his astonished delight as their own.
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2010Parisian Love
Viewers piece together a whole romance from a few typed searches, from impressing a French girl to 'how to assemble a crib', and feel every step with him.
2000s
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2005Love Story
Takes viewers with Jum, a scruffy tomboy, through blurted love, rejection and a makeover, so the foam that helps her shares in every hope they hold for her.
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2002Lamp
Rain, a mournful piano and an old lamp left on the curb make viewers pity it, and that very feeling becomes the joke the brand springs on them.
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2002The Sculptor
Follows a young man so smitten by a print ad that he sculpts his own 206, and viewers share his longing until they want the car as badly as he does.
1990s
1980s
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1989Supermarkt ("Tina, wat kosten die Kondome?")
Has a cashier loudly ask a colleague what a shy young man's condoms cost, and viewers squirm with him until laughing at his embarrassment takes the shame out of buying them.
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1988Christmas Express (Hometown Express X'mas)
Viewers share a dressed-up girl's sinking hope as the platform empties, then her joy when he appears, and that longing became what the bullet train delivers.
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1987O Primeiro Sutiã (My First Bra)
Stays close to an 11-year-old as she first sees herself in her new bra, and viewers share the shy, tender feeling of that moment.
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1987Photo Booth ("Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet")
Viewers squirm along with a balding man as the photo booth defeats him, then share his relief as the smoke rises, so the cigar becomes that relief.
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1983J.R. Hartley ("Fly Fishing")
Follows an elderly man from shop to shop until he trudges home defeated, so his quiet joy when a shop has the book is shared by viewers.
1970s
Empathy: where it comes from
Studies of advertising dramas found that the more viewers felt with the characters, the more they liked the ad (Escalas and Stern, 2003).
In ads it shows up as stories told through a character's feelings, where the viewer feels the joy, fear or tenderness along with them.