Top 10 Sickeningly Heartwarming Commercials on YouTube - TopX Ep.33

#10: Budweiser Super Bowl XLVIII Commercial -- "Puppy Love"

- Our first clip is the infamous puppy love commercial from Budweiser. Puppy loves horse, horse loves puppy, puppy keeps running back to horse. Why would this make you wanna buy a beer? I don’t know but PUPPIES ARE CUTE DON’T ASK QUESTIONS.
- So, this is all fine and cute. But that guy with the sunglasses just lost his puppy and will be forever scared of horses. I mean, serves him right for buying from a puppy mill right? Well, I guess he can wash away his sorrows with a frosty cold Budweiser…that’s the point of the commercial.

#9: Child of the 90s | Internet Explorer

- Our next ad takes a very simple formula. Take a buzzfeed list, turn add a thoughtful down to earth narrator, and BAM, you’ve got yourself an add. It’s just that easy folks, why aren’t you paying attention?
- This is actually a pretty clever ad, accept for one tiny detail. It’s for Internet Explorer, the black jellybean of internet browser! First of all, in the 90s, everyone used Netflix. Second of all, they didn’t touch on the everyone favorite IE feature: using it to download another browser.

#8: Diversity & Inclusion – Love Has No Labels

- What would happen if you took that sweet metal detector scene from Total Recall and made it into a public service announcement? You’d get this video – you know, the one shared on your Facebook wall 48 times but you didn’t watch cuz you got the gist of it from the thumbnail and who was sharing it.
- Now, the message is actually something that’s worth supporting – and this is technically a non profit so it’s really hard to rip on this. Then again, this is a pretty safe ad don’t you think? Woah, gay people, what a novel concept. Let’s see that Muslim guy and the Jewish guy do a little Gaza-strip tease and then make out -> that’s pushing the envelope.

#7: Official Ram Trucks Super Bowl Commercial "Farmer"

- This is actually one of the best commercials we’ll see today, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t rip on it a bit. Farmers have it tough, there’s no question about that, so please don’t misconstrue the following. But this is not an add for farmers, this is for trucks. Remember that.
- First of all, this is a great speech. Which was given by Paul Harvey in 1978. Dodge gets no credit for that. They can credit for picking it, which is about as much credit as you should get for picking for picking a good movie on Netflix. Second, and this is the big lesson of today – just because you agree with the sentiment doesn’t mean they aren’t trying to sell you something. Note how the last thing is “there’s a farmer in all of us” – as in, you TOO can buy a truck like this and share in this noble cause. Cause that’s how it works. Truck nuts not included.

#6: Hyundai : A Message to Space

- Up next is an ad that ended up in the Guinness book of world records for the largest tire track image. Yes, what better message to deliver to the stars: please buy an affordable Korean sedan. Oh ya and Stephanie loves you, whatever.
- This is pretty cute, but are we really supposed to believe that Hyundai poured enormous amount of resources into sending the worlds most inefficient text message? Also, how left out would you feel if you were one of the other astronauts? “HA, nobody loves you Phil!”

#5: Always #LikeAGirl

- This is one of those adds that tries to shatter perceptions of femininity. Essentially young women are asked to do things “like a girl”. Their reactions are then juxtaposed with those from younger girls, who I guess haven’t had their spirits crushed by society – and all those not so progressive Always commercials from the 90s.
- Although the message here is commendable, the irony is they never really address the elephant in the room, seeing as they’re really trying to sell you feminine products. I mean, sure, nobody wants to hear that they run like a girl, but that pales in comparison to being called a tampon, right? I’m not sure where I’m going with this…

#4: The Unique Connection – Pandora Jewelry

- Like most of the commercials here today, this is pretty sweet. On the surface it’s a blindfolded little girl trying to identify her mother by her touch and smell, because a mother’s touch and smell is unique, right?
- Wrong again, cuz what the girl really recognizes is that fat chunk of rocks on her moms hand. This is an add for jewelry! That’s right, all the love and tenderness and unique perfume in the world won’t help you loved ones associate with you. What you need is a big frigging ring and a matching necklace, and then maybe, JUST MAYBE your children will form a bond with you. Because we all know, the bonds between mother and daughter are formed by material possessions.
- Notice how the little boy passes over the bracelet of the other lady – Maybe the implication here is that the kid does recognize his moms crappy bracelet, but is too embarrassed to admit his mom has bad taste.

#3: Dove Real Beauty Sketches | You’re more beautiful than you think

- This is yet another ad that seeks to dismantle the negative images that women hold of themselves, the ones supposedly put into their heads by competing brands. Advertising can slowly chip away at a person’s self esteem, and this ad seems to to try to fight that idea by proving that most women think less of themselves than most other people.
- First of all, I could be ultra cynical and say that these people knew they were being recorded, so they may have been especially nice in their descriptions. But that’s some mean spirited shit …and I technically already just said it. It also basically doubles down on that troublesome idea that your value is measured by your beauty. But don’t worry; it’s not as bad as you think! It’s still bad though, but we have some products for that.

#2: Clint Eastwood - Halftime in America – Super bowl

- It’s halftime in America. China’s got the ball, but they don’t really play football so the joke’s on them. There as flag on the play, but thankfully it’s the star spangled banner. Also, to win, you have to buy a car.
- America’s seen some hard times, and nobody knows about hard times better than a lifelong movie-star. Ironic that they got Clint Eastwood, who got his debut playing an American in Italian Movies. Now he’s representing a American car brand owned by an Italian car company – time is circular after all.
- Say what you want about about Chrysler, you can’t deny the well of patriotism this ad inspires. And just like Clint says, Detroit is leading the way, showing the world how it’s done. Oh well, better luck next season.

#1: Thank You Mom – Procter & Gamble

- Procter and Gamble know, that you would never get to the Olympics if you didn’t have your mom heaping huge amounts of vicarious pressure on you to WIN DAMNIT. Now you can finally give back – and if you don’t medal in Sochi you’re walking home from Russia!