The ad starts simple enough.
In the background plays a fine piano melody. The classic white Google search engine dominates the screen. Keyboard slips sound like an invisible computer user words that over the past year have defined most of the pandemic – or, rather: life – for most people: quarantine, social distance, school closure, and lockdown.
But this is what follows, apparently hitting a lot together. The Google ad aired for the first time during the NCAA Final Four game on Saturday and those on social media quickly noticed how it ’emotionally’ or even ‘cried’ about the message it conveyed.
Tell me why the Google ad for the covide vaccine just made me emotional during this Final Four game
– # 1 Leia Fan Account (@FoxtrotMcCoy) 3 April 2021
Am I the only one who watched a Google ad during the Final Four and cried!?!? Wow!
– Scott Rains (@scottrains) 4 April 2021
I did not expect a Google ad to make me feel like a Final Four game, but what are the rules?
– aimee (@ LAimee76) 3 April 2021
After the brief but powerful reminder of the toll the virus has taken, the music quickly picks up and familiar sounds emerge – school bells ring, chatter among a group of people, laugh out loud – while words are highlighted and immediately from the search bar and Google Calendar. Happy Hour and play dates are no longer virtual, weddings are no longer postponed, and neither are sports seasons. And a theater and restaurants displayed on Google Maps range from ‘closed’ to ‘open’.
It ends with a simple message, also the title of the ad: “Come back to what you love.”
But it is also a call to action: get vaccinated. The latest excerpts feature a user typing the words ‘covid vaccine near me’, followed by a link to cdc.gov that encourages the audience to learn more.
When Amanda Litman, co-founder and CEO of Run for Something, said she was “absolutely furious” that a Google ad was “tearing her apart,” Marvin Chow, vice president of global marketing at Google, quickly answered.
“Whatever is needed to make us all safe,” Chow wrote.
Take a look at the ad yourself:
Shannon Larson can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @ shannonlarson98.