This video from Thailand has been spreading on Kaixin001 (a popular Chinese social network):
Comments from Youku:
gongfan2008:
As a big man, I have to honestly say that I was really moved. I was not moved by the story, but rather completely moved by the commercial. You cannot see any business intent whatsoever, because the commercial was made to the highest level. Just this point alone is worth of admiration. One word ~~ awesome/great!!
wj85812:
This was just a commercial? If all commercials were like this, I would no longer watch tv shows.
砰砰砰砰:
Canon is a good song ~ the commercial is also a good commercial ~
But from an economic benefit angle, this commercial is actually not a good commercial, because no one will remember Pantene and will only remember this story. Moreover, the commercial is too long, and very expensive!
nenett200:
Why!!!
Why is the commercial for China such trash??
It is also a commercial for Pantene!
But in China it is just a pretty girl standing their throwing her hair,
but in Thailand it is such a moving and deep commercial?
I used to think only commercials in the West were good.
dapao0516:
This is the difference, if you are making an advertisement for shampoo in China, you will only see a pretty girl throwing her hair around, while this commercial reflects life. I most liked the exchange between the deaf girl and that old street performer: “Why am I different from others?” “Why do you have to be like others?”
12456798:
Because I am a healthy [not handicapped] person, it did not resonate very strong with me. However, it truly shook me. Because at the climax, the hair blown by the wind was very beautiful…I had goosebumps.
lvbijun:
So fake, like watching a Korean drama, anyway I was not moved.
冰的等待:
Good video, completely ruined by the advertisement at the end.
與伱相伴:
There is one thing I am certain of, the cost of advertisements in Thailand are definitely not as expensive as China.
Did you like this commercial? Did you expect it to be a commercial for Pantene shampoo?
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am i the first?!
This was really touching, I couldn’t figure out what it was promoting, until the final. Great CM, which makes one aware of the society from a different perspective.
yes i am the first and i will post whore by adding a 2nd post.
wtf this commercial is too damn long. those koreans must have inflicted serious brain damage to the thai’s with this idea of a commercial
I did wonder why her hair was so shiny
I still don’t know what it has to do with Pantene.
This commercial is quite old too. Saw it last summer 2008.
I thought it was a good idea. Before knowing what it was advertising, the whole time I was thinking she had really beautiful hair. So it works in that way. Also, people who watch this will feel Pantene is a really nice, caring company which showed them a touching short movie. So it works on that level too.
It is long so I imagine they probably show it at cinemas with movie trailers.
Fuck! A commercial for Pantene?!
High-end ads are always made in different length. 4 minutes are for cinemas or internet, 30 sec for beginning of tv campaign and shorter for the most of campaign and its end.
I would be better they actually hired some actors who actually knew any thing at all about how to play the violin.
“[Pachelbel's] Canon is a good song”: a bit of an understatement…
This advert moved me in two ways: half to laughter and half to tears. Without the music, it would have been 100% to laughter. (Well maybe %95, “why do you have to be like others?” was a pretty good ‘line’)
Music is certainly not “a visible thing”. (unless you have synaesthesia – though you’d still have to be able to hear it before you could ’see’ it)
(and for those like the Chinese commenter who thinks the west have ‘good’ hair product adverts, take a look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUUrvbCEWEY )
I liked it except the ending effects of her hair going crazy. I guess air time in Thailand is really cheap. You definitely won’t see commercials like that in the US. Would cost too much and the average attention span of an American is like 20 seconds..
There have been commercial (not quite as long as this) in other Western countries. It’s about advertising companies seeing their market as people and not mindless idiots. Maybe in America it’s different.
LoL! Yeah, I actually thought the ending where she started gyrating like mad with her hair flying all over the place was actually kinda disconcerting and freaky. I thought the video was about to turn into some kinda of slaughterfest or something. Maybe it just looked too CG or the pacing was just too fast.
Anyway, the ending revealing it to be a commercial for Pantene was completely unexpected and thus freaking hilarious to me. I actually didn’t notice the hair at all and the sudden connection at the end was like an epiphany, enough so that I went back to see if the hair was really emphasized. The wild flinging of hair thus made a bit more sense but was still kinda scary. Anyway, I loved it, and even if the story is a bit trite, it’s still very touching and overall done with amazing production values for a commercial. Great stuff.
Oh, and the two Chinese netizen comments that seemed really annoyed that all China gets is a pretty girl showing off her hair were kinda amusing too. While I think it is possible for people to only remember the story to the exclusion of the Pantene brand, I think plenty of people will actually remember this as the uber-Pantene commercial and thus mission accomplished.
before i thought that the chinese consumers arent ready for commercials like this. but upon noticing the comments of the chinese people im beginning to think that maybe they are ready now.
their comment of commercials here consist of just pretty girls waving their hair is an example of a less mature advertising scene. it might be that people still want to see hot girls waving their hairs as to seeing deaf girls slamming the violin so that her hair can fly… lol
wtf is a ‘mature advertising scene?’. the goal of advertising so to deliver a message or create awareness about a product, a brand or whatever else a company is trying sell. and that should really be the only goal of an ad.
to me that ad is way too over the top and rather confusing as to what marketing message or even product its trying to push. grant it might seem touching/moving/emotional/whatever, but that misses the point. if, like kai said that you have to actually go back and watch it again to get the message, then the ad has essentially failed in what its suppose to do.
the reason why there are so many ads filled with pretty girls waving their hair is not because certain audience are ‘mature’ and other are not, it is because pretty girls work and they get the job done. and that, in the commercial world is what counts.
This kind of commercial are normal in Thailand. If you really search.. there’s a lot and even more touching than this one.. to me.. this is just an appetizer! Try Thai Insurance commercials.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=thai+insurance+commercials&btnG=Google+Search&aq=1&oq=thai+insurance
The Thai Life insurance ads are really amazing – but my all time fav is the heartbroken dog in this Bridgestone ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3a6rPodqec
The best advertisement for any hair product is from America. Soul Glo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktl6L3ZwvL4
U mean from “Coming to America”. U know that, right?
“Coming to America” was produced in America thus being from America. Retard.
Disppointing at the end thats it’s just a shampoo commie !
I thought it was to ask for some more attention for deaf people.
Kinda exploits handicapped people and that music is way too overused, couldn’t they find something from their own culture? whats left of it.
She sounds like a whole orchestra.
According wikipedia: “Beethoven’s hearing gradually deteriorated beginning in his twenties, yet he continued to compose, and to conduct and perform, even after he was completely deaf.” and “Beethoven used a special rod attached to the soundboard on a piano that he could bite—the vibrations would then transfer from the piano to his jaw to increase his perception of the sound”. So, it is possible for deaf to play music.
Anyway, violin patched with scotch tape is hilarious. It sounds like Stradivari!
I use Pantene on my pub hair and oh my, it does make it shiny and flowy like the girl’s hair in the commercial! Yay, Pantene for life!
I don’t believe you, show us!
All commercial should be like this.
Next they will do a commercial about a blind painter.
“You can shine”
The word melodramatic comes to mind. Well, ok, the word melodramatic doesn’t merely come to mind. It is pounded forcefully into the brain with extreme prejudice. Moreso in light of this being a shampoo commercial.
So what we have learned here is that Korean drama is on the level as Thai commercials.
a bit melodramatic but excellent message – moving – and I will remember Pantene
Maybe the first and only “nice” oriented material on this forsaken url
unfortunately its a shampoo commercial, well atleast she is a han and automatically special in my book
would love to play piano duet for such a wonderful special
Believe it or not, every so often chinaSMACK actually does have a rather heart-warming tale to tell, such as the severely handicapped guy who tries live independently or the handicapped beggar who draws amazing art on the sidewalks somewhere in China.
The thing is, chinaSMACK’s modus operandi is to just share whatever gets play on China’s discussion forums, and like most places and media in the world, “negative” news and topics tend to get more attention. chinaSMACK is just a representation of a representation of the human condition.
thailand has some great commercials. some are really funny. check them out on youtube
ah yes, but do “good” commercials actually influence sales and increase sales volumes? as compared to an ad thats simple or even annoying. what is the return on investments (ROI) for good and bad ads and how can we even monitor them? discuss.
btw, wtf would u play an instrument if you are deaf? what would be the point, other than to impress others?
This should be made into a movie!!! Any producers up for it?
I thought this was a commercial for a movie, then I realised it was pantene. Darn, if anyone made a movie with the same storyline, I bet it can go further than titanic ever did to move people