Returning Stork Brings Hope to Grayed-Out Life
This Monster.com Stork commercial is so good both Angela and I had to write about it. Predictably, Bob Garfield didn't like it so much. At first, we were going to compare the commercial to that odd, Cannes-winning IKEA lamp spot back in 2003 but then we realized, hey, this Stork spot is actually good. Really good. Like a slap to the face, it makes one realize the pit of a life into which one may have fallen and how one needs to kick oneself in the ass to make a better life. With a new job from Monster.com, of course.
For sure, it's one of those potentially heart-wrenching, fairy tale-style commercials complete with manipulative, misty-eyed music but it also beautifully encapsulates a simple message: we were all given and equal chance at the starting line but it's up to us to make sure we run a good race.
It's easy to get complacent. It's easy to accept mediocrity. It's much more difficult to realize the value of your potential and to use it to better your life. This commercial nails that notion perfectly. Oh sure, a job is but part of one's happiness but it is a very, very big part and if that cog isn't in place, none of the others are likely to work that well leaving one with a very bland, depressing, grayed-out life such as the one we see in this commercial.
Comments
Damned if you do, damned if you don't. If this little production flaw, as Garfield put it, were "fixed" to more perfectly sync the baby's coo/yawn with the adult's yawn, then he'd probably say that it was forced. I think it's fine just the way it is. Actually, what bothered me was the CGIed baby's legs sticking out of the sack in the middle of the spot. I'm okay with a CGIed stork throughout, but to go from a fake baby to a real baby in the end--that's my nit. But I can still appreciate it for what it is --a captivating, poetic spot.