one of philippine advertising's best : mcdonald's "karen" commercial

i think it's very poetic that one of philippine advertising's best, one that we can never forget, that we always remember is a tv commercial about forgetting - mcdonald's "karen" tv ad. we don't know what the official title of this ad is but all of us remember that ad by the name of one of the stars of the ad, karen.

it's a very simple ad, one story and one message. by now, we should be convinced that the most powerful ads, those that impress us the most are those that tell one single story and told in a most simple way.

it's a very pinoy story, one with drama and could have very well made most of us cry. but this is not the type that we see in telenovelas. it's not cheap nor forced.

that is where you will learn to admire the skill of the director of the ad. these are very simple shots, very straight forward. the magic that the director put in this ad is the very understated but very real acting. you felt and saw the restrained disappointment that karen felt when the lolo for the third time called her gina.

the first time the lolo called her gina, karen corrected her lolo still with a smile. the second time with an eloquent sigh audio but the third was brilliant acting and directing. it was a curt response but no real disrespect of the forgetful lolo. we all felt the disappointment that karen felt. but we admired her.

the director's skills in delivering drama and his excellent story telling skills are best shown in the last sequence where the lolo starts to slice the mcdo burger in half. this whole sequence felt like it was shot in slow motion. it wasn't, it was shot in real time. it felt like it was in slow motions as all of us were drawn to what the lolo was doing. we were captivated by the close up shots of karen and her facial expressions which were all muted but powerful. we felt transported like we were seeing what the lolo was doing to the sandwich from her eyes.

the ad works not just because of the drama that we saw unfolding in the ad. it works very well because of the consumer insight - what a dining table means to pinoy families.

all pinoy families share the best and the worst of times on the dining table. in the pinoy home, the dining table is the place where love is shown, hearts broken and where families become families.

that is no different in this dining table in a mcdonald's restaurant. in it, karen felt the love of her lolo and we saw and appreciated the love that karen had for her lolo. she did not even have to say anything, we all felt it while it happened in a dining table in mcdonald's.

all pinoy families saw this ad in their homes, many while having a meal. i'm almost sure after pinoys saw this ad, they all felt the need to call their lolo and lola. we may not think much of mcdo's dining table, but after this ad, we saw mcdonald's dining table in a different light. and better still, we saw a mcdonald's meal as a pinoy meal.