For weeks I've been entranced by the Liberty Mutual Ads, specifically the 30 second spot that begins with a mysterious and stunning black woman saving a slacker pizza guy from a truck. (There's a 60 second spot - a bloated and extravagant director's cut stuffed with over-the-top scenes in a laundromat and by a parking meter, altogether adding nothing to the story. Reminiscent of the bank-busting movie musicals of the late '60s that signaled the end of the studio system's heyday.)
Here is the lean, crowd-pleasing version:
Who is this woman at the beginning and end? She's clearly sophisticated, a woman who rarely, if ever, raises her voice. She doesn't need to. I believe that her name is Nadine. She is from Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), in French-speaking West Africa. Naturally Nadine speaks both French and English. After receiving her B.A. from McGill, she took a job at an Import-Export Bank in an American city. (I'm not quite sure in which city. My vision is still hazy on this count.)
Nadine sets the chain of good deeds in motion. It's a moving sequence, set to Indie folk-rock band Hem's hit song "The Part Where You Let Go."
But after watching this commercial 67 times, three questions loom:
Here is the lean, crowd-pleasing version:
Who is this woman at the beginning and end? She's clearly sophisticated, a woman who rarely, if ever, raises her voice. She doesn't need to. I believe that her name is Nadine. She is from Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), in French-speaking West Africa. Naturally Nadine speaks both French and English. After receiving her B.A. from McGill, she took a job at an Import-Export Bank in an American city. (I'm not quite sure in which city. My vision is still hazy on this count.)
Nadine sets the chain of good deeds in motion. It's a moving sequence, set to Indie folk-rock band Hem's hit song "The Part Where You Let Go."
But after watching this commercial 67 times, three questions loom:
