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Some television viewers greet commercials by grabbing the remote control and surfing other channels. Others just thumb-punch the mute button. Once in a while, we merely endure them. That’s because much commercial advertising can be annoying at best and offensive at worst.
This means you, gambling, booze, and pickup trucks. You, too, fast food. And all you car-crash lawyers who sue, sue, sue everybody all the time all over Detroit TV.
But a rare and special ad currently airing in heavy rotation can lure a viewer into staying on channel, turning up the volume and staring at the screen for 30 charming seconds. It is the mini-drama for Expedia Travel called “Northern Lights: Julie, Grace & Maya.”
The frosting on this particular cupcake is a 57-year-old song by the Velvet Underground called “I’ll Be Your Mirror.” The whole package is sentimental without being schmaltzy, a delicate balance that is hard to achieve.
“Northern Lights” tells a plausible story touching on nature and nurture and female family ties. It honors intergenerational bonding over family values that are about more than material things.
Nevertheless, exotic-destination travel — what Expedia calls a “bucket-list-trip” — is a high-end product, not for those struggling financially. As another old song might have said: all you need is money.
“Lights” shows a working mother taking her daughter and her mother on an impulsive vacation to Norway to see the Northern Lights. As their story unfolds visually, the soundtrack plays a short clip from the 1967 song “I’ll Be Your Mirror.”
“I find it hard to believe
“That you don’t know
“The beauty you are
“But, if you don’t . . .
“Please put down your hands
“‘Cause I see you.”
The ethereal female singing voice is that of Nico and not Lou Reed, the usual front man of the V.U. If ever a commercial on TV can be called exquisite, this may be the one. It began to air on Super Bowl Sunday to promote specific, special tourism in the year of the aurora borealis.
Like many ads, “Lights” tries to include memorable visual “hooks” that viewers anticipate (sometimes unconsciously) on repeated viewing. One comes in the fifth shot of 16 camera cuts in 30 seconds.
It shows the working Mom (lawyer? executive?) having rushed home through the front door while still on her cell phone. She’s looking for her mother, who is baby-sitting for her daughter. This family appears to be matriarchal, if not matrilinear.
“Mom?” she says, an urgent edge to her tone.
By now, we see a personality, if not a character. Single mom? Husband dead or away in the military? Divorce? They leave it vague, but force you to imagine this mother more fully. Her “mom” is the smiling, grayish woman playing in the next room on the floor by the bed with the little girl.
Their toy shows a pretend version of the Northern Lights projected in a dark room. The visual plotting here is clear even as a silent film. Then comes a pivotal shot. The camera swings left to right to meet the working mom as she comes to a sudden stop while entering through the doorway.
She gazes at her mother and daughter, open-jawed, slightly startled, her eyes with just a flash of regret — is my daughter growing up without me? But her look quickly softens and her lips close in a small smile because, after all, her daughter is safe with grandma. Still, a seed has been planted.
Despite a quiet feel, the “Mirror” music plays on, almost like a lullaby, which is appropriate for the next scene, after the grandmother puts on her coat and leaves. We see, through the mother’s eyes, the little girl sleeping on the sofa while mom works late at her home desk, burning the midnight electricity.
She works against the backdrop of two, big windows, dark against the urban skyscape. That’s a clue, too. They live in the sky but can’t really see it. The soft singing continues, a German accent, a voice once described as “a bewitching contralto.”
The camera then pans left-to-right and downward (from mom’s point of view) to the Northern Lights toy. This gives Mom a flash of inspiration. You can see it in her eyes. She pulls out her cell phone right away and books a trip for three to Norway to see the Northern Lights!
The second-last shot of the ad shows the three of them, in profile, transported to Norway, staring up at the dark, northern sky, and all those swirls and flashes of shimmering green light. You see, mom, this is your reward for all those late hours and all your success
You’re not assuaging guilt; you’ve earned this. Gosh darn it, Julie (or Grace, or Maya), you’re a good mom. The song’s words are the only other dialogue besides “Thanks, Mom.” At conclusion, the lyrics blend into the voice of the Scottish actor Ewan McGregor.
“You were made to dream about it for years,” he tells the audience. “We were made to help you book it in minutes.”
The ad was directed by Hiro Murai, Expedia said. The website campaignlive.com reported that the ad was created by Yo Umeda and Michael McCommon.
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Joe Lapointe
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