Hasta La Creative!

How do you sell unlimited bowls of pasta and breadsticks? With emotion. Real emotion, the kind you find in real footage, because it’s actually darned difficult to direct something with as much emotion as this. It also serves as a double-viral possibility as the families in the ad will pass it along to their friends. The edit puts together a young girl’s singing, “I’m gonna be a grandma” Ma, and “the day I passed math” Dad’s over-joyed reactions to their children’s news. Babies laughing – which is always amazing – , soldiers returning home, kisses and hugs all around to explain what home really is. Home is family. Home is love. Home is more family. And if all of this emotion leaves you a little verklempt, you know where to go and get comfort food. Since Olive Garden targets families with their appeals to everyone (but Italians) Italian food, this ad makes a lot of sense.

This mix of youtube clips ad-idea is getting so common now that I’m just waiting for the day directors and editors will be shunned all together and creatives can just edit straight on youtube their next campaign. It’ll happen soon.