How Sadvertising Becomes Inspirational and Viral

Thai Life’s “Opportunity” stirs YouTuber reactions around the world

Thai Life Insurance, one of the country’s biggest insurance brands, is renowned for its heart-wrenching, moving video ads that inspire millions of viewers worldwide. Last year’s “Opportunity” appeared to be another tear-jerker, but it ultimately turned out to an inspirational lesson in how people who have been knocked down can turn things around.

And its universal message of recovery and redemption has inspired another global web trend—a flurry of reaction videos where YouTubers watch the video and share how the story made them feel.

“Opportunity”—which you can see above—follows the story of a middle-aged woman seen through two contrasting perspectives: privileged and underprivileged. The film opens by posing a question: “How do you think opportunities arise?” First, she appears to be a smartly dressed, self-made woman. But as the film goes on, we learn the real path our hero has taken to create her own opportunities in life. And it is a tale of sadness, redemption and letting things go to see newer things.

Like many Thai Life videos, “Opportunity”—created by its agency Ogilvy & Mather Bangkok—has attracted many millions of views. But it is the new wave of reaction videos by YouTubers that really gets at why this video is so inspiring.

Consider some of these video responses:

“I thought it would be another standard sad Thai ad. Instead, they showed something that was not made purposely for sadness, but for you to get motivated and work hard.” From Kyopropaganda in Malaysia. 

“Sometimes you can’t just wait for the opportunity to come to you. When they do come for you, you have to embrace it with an open mind.” From Trevmonki in Singapore. 

“I got goosebumps everywhere….She decided not to suffer anymore. That’s how you get opportunities. It rises from within you.” From PrinceTV in the U.S.

“Opportunity could be given by others, which means, we can also create opportunity for others.” From Kevin Hendrawan in Indonesia.

What says connection more than that? And that’s been the goal of Thai Life Insurance: Use emotional storytelling to touch people in ways a typical ad cannot and do so in a way that supports one of the brand’s core beliefs: value of life.