Well, this should be a lively thread. Mine is the new Lowe's commercial where the man and woman are walking through the store and imagining their children using all the stuff. What makes me tear up is the very end, when they're studying paint swatches and imagining their son painting a dog house, with the worlds cutest little dog Spike. Gets me every time.

Mine is that one about credit cards, where the guy goes from carrying his wife over the threshold to tucking his little girl into bed to playing with his grandchildren. It's the circle of life man, and it moves us all.

Chunkyrice, I love that commercial. That's the one that using "A Hundred Years" (or whatever it's called), right?

The car insurance commercial with The Beatles' "Long And Winding Road" in the background gets me every time.

I think that's right, Betty. It keeps cutting back and forth between him putting another card in his walet and being at a new stage in his life. Aw man.

Your life, brought to you by Chase.

Yeah, yeah, it has the same effect on me, I'm embarassed to admit.

That ad makes me want to cry, but only because I find it depressing for some reason.

Funny, I can't stand the commerical (who daydreams about their future children in a hardware warehouse?!?), but the part with the dog makes me smile everytime. And I don't even like dogs.

Here's one that I saw the other day, and I was totally ashamed to get all teary-eyed about it. It was a commercial for Nike. I think they're releasing another Air Jordan shoe.

Anyway, it's all of these shots of people from all over the world playing basketball. Each shot involves someone imitating Jordan's signature moves, you know, the tongue, his big dunk from the 1987 Slam Dunk Contest, his big fist pump from the 1989 playoffs, stuff like that. There's no dialogue, but the music is swelling, and then there's a shot of a kid on a playground imitating one of his moves from 1992 NBA finals, and then they show the man himself, standing on the sidelines, watching. And he smiles at the scene, and nods at the next generation.

And then my screen gets all blurry. Stupid, dry winter weather, making my eyes water. Yeah, that's it. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go pick on some kids and take their lunch money.

Oh I've got one, again it comes courtesy of Chase:

It's the one we get to see the daughter growing up and showing the bond with her dad. All while Bette Midler's "Wind Beneath My Wings" plays in the background. It ends with the daughters wedding, she asks the father for a dance and they go off with her transforming into the a little girl holding her dads hand.

It just gets me every time, I don't know if its just the music or whatever but it's a very well done commercial. Did you ever know that you're my hero......

Oh, that Iams commercial where at the beginning, a little girl calls to her puppy to come up the stairs, and he struggles, because he's so young and awkward. At the end, she's a young woman, and he's an old dog struggling up the stairs for a different reason. Gets me every single time.

Those Pedigree "We're For Shelter Dogs" commercials get me every time. The way they show all those cute dogs in the shelter and say their names and then the one dog gets adopted and romps out to his new owner's car....mmmmpfff.

And I'm embarrassed to admit that I bawled over that one Budweiser Super Bowl spot a few years back that showed the soldiers walking through an airport on their way home and one person starts clapping for them and by the end, the whole terminal is applauding. A little trite and contrived, but it got me.

Eep! Yes, so sweet. The dog's name is Casey, by the way. *sniff* Don't mind me.

How about the Cheerios commercial where the couple has adopted a child and they're flying home and the little kid looks all sad and scared, so the mom puts some Cheerios on her tray in the shape of a smiley face to make her feel better? Anyone else starting bawling at that one, or am I just a sap?

You couldn't possibly be as big a sap as I am, help me lucy, because I'm crying reading this stupid thread!

There was a commercial when I was a kid with the puppy who's always looking for his owner- who's a kid. Then you see the kid and the dog age til the kid goes to college. And leaves. And sad dog is left behind- watching the car pull away. Staring out the window. And then old dog still jumps up for the guy when he comes home as an adult. Sigh. Damn dogs. Making me cry at the computer. 20 years later.

There's an old commerical: I don't even remember what it was for. It's the family's first Christmas without their older son there, and apparently their boys used to sing Christmas carols with the family together. The younger brother starts singing "Oh Holy Night" on his own, and suddenly his big brother walks up behind him and starts singing along. I have no idea why it got to me so much: but I still get misty-eyed thinking about it.

Does anyone remember that Hallmark commercial featuring a mother and her children taking care of an older lady that lived on their block? The mother notices that the old lady (tiny and adorable) shuffles to her mailbox everday and opens it to find nothing, presumably because her family consists of a bunch of evil bastards. So she sends a Hallmark card to the lady, and they show her shuffling to the box, opening it and delighting in her one piece of mail. Then she opens it to read it and she lifts this quavering hand to her mouth, like she's about to start crying, and, oh, God, I just lose it!

That Chase commercial makes me sad, too. I think it's because his life is going by so quickly that I kind of just fill in the blank and picture him dying approximately 5 seconds after the commercial ends.

eagle you weren't alone in your tears on that commercial. Of course, this is coming from someone who crys in the Hallmark card aisle while reading them. I'm so sappy, I make myself sick.

Oh my god, that's the commercial I came in here to post about. I can usually hold it together until the little girl comes running up shouting "Daddy, Daddy!" as the music picks up with "Did you ever know that you're my hero..." and then I am gone. I'm so glad I'm not the only one who gets misty at that.

Another one that gets me is an ad for Folger's. It's Christmas morning, and "Peter" has come home, presumably from the army. So he sneaks in, and his little sister, who I guess is about six, spots him and gets excited, but he shushes her and they make coffee, which wakes up their parents, who come down, and the mother gets all teary-eyed because her son is home for Christmas.

The Hallmark commercial with the old lady just depresses the crap out of me. I don't like old people, but geez, I'm not heartless. And it's because of that ad that I make sure to drop a letter or card in the mail for my friends from time to time, even when we're in close e-contact.

Oh, what about the dog food commercial with Casey the Irish Setter? He starts off as a clumsy puppy with a little girl calling him up the stairs. Next scene, they're a little older and she's "racing" him up. Next, she's in her early 20s and is quietly coaxing a hobbling, graying Casey up the stairs, and she hugs him and whispers, "Good boy." Aaaaand, waterworks.

The St. Jude's commercials owns this thread, IMHO. It's not just those poor kids--it's their parents who are kind of voiceovering their children's stories and they're crying the whole time but the kids are laughing and being brave and such. Those get me hysterical.

This thread is like a massive onion-chopper. Or something. Well, you get what I'm saying.

I hate Wal-Mart, but this commericial gets to me. A group of boys (about 8 years old?) sitting around the school lunch table, trading food, passing it around.

One little pinch-faced boy is sitting there sadly, not participating, because he doesn't have any food at all to eat, never mind trade.

Nothing gets to me like hungry little kids. The ad is for Wal-Mart's participation in a food bank.

help me lucy sez

I read somewhere that this commercial is based on a letter that Cheerios got from a customer, telling them about how Cheerios means to her and her family.

The ad that really used to get me was for the ASPCA or somesuch and had a little lost and lonely kitten wandering down some railroad tracks mewling for someone...anyone...while the song "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted" played in the background. Oh, I wept.

You want sap? I can't even watch that Budweiser ad with the colt trying to pull the wagon. I have to go feed the cat, or get a glass of water, or something when it comes on.

The Folger's "Peter" commerical tears me up too. So does the Chase "A Hundred Years" commercial.

The one that gets to me is these anti-drug ones. One has a little girl going too close to the pool and the voice-over says, "Just tell her parents you weren't watching her because you were getting high. They'll understand."

The other is this old lady sitting at a nicely set table waiting patiently for her grandson and the voice-over says, "Just tell your grandma you forgot her birthday because you were getting high. She'll understand."

Oh, that one kills me. Because not only is the grandma just sitting there, it also flashes to the granddaughter taking money from the grandma's purse. And then the grandma keeps fixing everything so the table is perfect...(sobs.)

That one gets me, too, but the song is totally cheating. For some reason it makes me misty no matter when I hear it.


Oh, man, I've never seen that one, and I'm glad, because I want to burst into tears just thinking about it. And I don't even like old people. Dammit! (I think I just miss my grandma.)

I'm not sure if this counts as mini-tearjerkers but I'll give it a shot. For some reason I tend to side with the villain in things- movies, tv, books, etc.

So my mini-tearjerkers come from, and I'll admit it, roach spray commercials. It's not just roaches, they did this with weeds, foot fungi, rats, etc. but roaches are the best example I can think of. They show these little animated creatures. They don't seem particularly bad or malevolent. They have families, they have lives, they're just doing what they're meant to do. Then they see some brilliant light or some tasty little treat and they go for it. And the next thing you know, they're dead. And we're supposed to be happy, I guess. It doesn't make me feel happy, it makes me feel cold inside and depressed for like the next five minutes. (A little aside: Robert Smigel did an excellent parody of these commercials in his shortlived TV Funhouse where they even show the creature in a hospital bed.)

The most depressing one I saw was one for this weed spray and the two claymation weeds are like cowboys and the living weed is talking to his dying friend weed as he slowly dies. It makes me shiver thinking about it.

Just thinking about the Folgers commercial with "Peter" makes me cry. Just the way Mom says "Peter!" I am a sap for Christmas commercials like that. McDonald's is good at making those too.

I wonder how successful these type of ads are. Do more people buy Folgers coffee after Peter comes home.

A few years ago, there was a series of ads for a food bank or something to deal with hungry children. The first showed a little boy in the bathroom with his sister. He was obviously sick with the chickenpox or something nasty, and was complaining that he didn't feel well enough to go to school. The sister, who was busy covering up his spots with makeup, just sighed sadly and told him he had to go to school so he could get some food (I'm assuming they qualified for free lunches). The second ad showed a mother sneaking free ketchup packets from McDonalds and using them to make "tomato soup" for her hungry children. I'm tearing up now just thinking about them.

The other ones that always bother me are the Mastercard ones showing Baxter the dog's journey back to his family. Especially the first and last ones, where get gets left behind and then finally makes it home (the little boy calling out, "Baxter!" gets me every time).

I completely forgot about little Baxter! Hell, I'm a cat person and even I wanted to take this precious pup home!

There was a sweet little ad for some Internet or computer company some years ago -- two kids, one is on a school bus, the other is being picked up by the bus. The kid being picked up is deaf, and the other kid watches his mother saying goodbye in sign language and then watches the deaf boy get on the bus and sit down all alone.

When the other kid gets home, he gets on the computer and does a Google search for "sign language."

Then the next day, the deaf boy gets on the bus again, and the other boy walks up to him and signs, "hello, my name is Tommy." The other boy signs back, and they start a conversation.

Aw.

I thought his name was Badger. And totally seconded. He was so darned cute, and seemed to take his unexpected road trip in cheerful stride.

What were the ads for, when the guy would leave a lamp out in the rain for the garbage and then the voiceover would say, "You're feeling sorry for the lamp, aren't you? It's a LAMP! It has no feelings!" or something along those lines. You know? I really, really felt sorry for that lamp.

Oh man, that one made me bawl.

Did anyone else see this Hallmark commercial where the little girl wanted to send a card to her dead father? The mother and grown daughter are talking about buying a card for her grandfather when the daugher says she wants to send a card to her daddy (who died right after she was born) to tell him how much she loves him. The mom starts to tear up when she tries to explain that you can send cards to heaven, then the store clerk comes over and helps them put a card on a balloon and send it up to heaven. I was in a public place and I bawled.

The lamp ad was for Ikea, McKay. And they did that ad perfectly- because the music starts- all melancholy and sad. And the lamp is rained on...and you do feel sorry for the lamp and then the voiceover guy starts in with the line about feeling sorry for the lamp. To this day, we say "The lamp has no feelings" (with a sad, sad attempt at a Danish accent) whenever we start feeling bad for inanimate objects. Very funny ad.

I've never seen the chicken pox one. That's sounds awful. It always breaks my heart in the ketchup one when the little girl refuses to eat the ketchup soup and the mom tries to coax her to eat it. Another Food Bank one that gets to me is one where a landlord goes to this apartment and the mother is pleading with him to give her more time to come up with the rent because she had to buy food.


That one tears me up too. Especially the part where the two women demonstrate how they held hands and let the ballon go and watched it go up in the sky.

Oh, Hallmark commercials. They are my downfall. What about the one with the piano teacher, and the card in the music? Tears, people. Tears.

I made a random trip to Kansas City many years ago and visited the Hallmark museum, and let me just say: you can watch all of the old commercials on television. And I cried. In front of total strangers. And it was awesome.

Man, if I ever road trip out that way, I know where I'm stopping.
I am so glad I've never seen those food bank ads, because they would break my heart. I have enough trauma with sexual abuse girl. (If the kid just wasn't so good - honest to god, first time I saw it, I seriously debated with myself as to whether or not she was an actor.)

I recall a McDonald's ad from, I guess it must be the late 70s, which was a bonding moment as I was home from grad school and watching with my father. He, to set the scene, was a longtime TV commercial director in Chicago, and had raised us all to be cynical about the manipulation and techniques that were part of all such ads.

Anyway. This was one of those unusually long 60-second spots, scored to an extended version of the "You deserve a break today" song in slower tempo with some new lyrics about "movin' to a place that's not your own" or something like that. And we're watching the saga of a family moving from its ranch to the big city (12-ish son in cowboy hat looking bravely apprehensive about the whole thing). Teeming streets and sights of the city, full of strangers. First day of school, don't know anybody. Lingering by the locker after school, alone in the empty hall. Then one of the other kids calls out to him from a distance, Hey, wanna come with us? And they're all eating at McD's, having a great time, and the song sounds more optimistic for the last 2 lines as we fade out knowing it's gonna be all right.

Hardly a subtle scenario, but it was SO expertly done in all the details (we don't hear any spoken words till the kids call out to him, yet the whole story is clear). And my cynical dad gulps, "Isn't that the damndest thing? They bring tears to your eyes about buying their stupid hamburgers."

Hee, Rinaldo. That's just all kinds of awesome.

I saw the one with the little boy who has no food to trade at lunch. Man, that little boy looked like a kicked puppy. Damn.

Note to self: don't read this thread at work because it is hard for me to explain to passersby why I am tearing up in my cube ("I'm slicing onions in here!").

I have never seen the ketchup soup or the balloon to heaven ad, but considering that I teared up during that AT&T "Rocket Man" commercial a few years ago (Dad calls mom from the plane while he's on a business trip) I can imagine the massive tears and snot that would run down my face if I actually did see ketchup soup and balloon to heaven. Sigh. There are so many sad things in this world.

Does anyone remember this John Hancock ad that aired during the Lillehammer Olympics? It was a dad telling his son that he (the dad) had a terminal illness and was going to be gone soon, but don't worry, he's taken care of college funding, etc. And the boy was maybe 17 or so, and was totally hot, and just sat there during the commercial and cried.

I've seen the abused kids ads. There's a girl with the words "I can't go home because I have a bad grade" on her shirt.

I don't know if we're talking about the same one, but if we're not, I saw one that was very similiar. Same setup, but then the friends started sharing with him! And he got to trade too! Much wahing ensued.

Hee, Rinaldo. Methinks this topic could use some more of those cute little stories. And it's just a hamburger!

Yep, same one. But still! Sad! Especially since you get the feeling that that pudding he traded for was all he was going to be eating that day. (What chump trades pudding for an orange, anyway? Not that I don't like my citrus, but it was chocolate pudding! That always wins!)

In the Happy Tearjerker category, the A&W commercial with the "Grandpa Burger" get my eyes going every time, even as I sit there with a goofy grin on my face. Probably because that would so have been my grandpa's reaction to finding out about me. And the spoken parts fit so well with the music.

There is a Cheerios ad where this couple goes to pick up their adopted kids in Romania and the kids are all shy until the couple feeds them Cheerios on the plane and everybody opens up. It's so sweet.

Preciosa, did you see the other Cheerios ad where the little boy brings his parents Cheerious in bed really early in the morning because they "have to get some cholesterol off of them." Don't know why, but it makes me tear up every time

Yes. And he's so adorable and the parents are so grateful. Even though it's really early.

There was one I remember from when I was a little angel. for AT&T I think where the father has to fly away on business and the little girl is sad , he tells her to cross her arms then squeeze so it feels like she is being hugged.