Anomaly gets in on the “sadvertising” trend with a new spot for Duracell, entitled “The Teddy Bear.”
The 90-second spot, based on a true story, shows how a teddy bear helped keep a military officer and his daughter close while he was away. At the beginning of the ad, he ships her a bear that plays a recording of him saying “I love you, baby girl” when squeezed. Throughout the rest of the ad, the girl squeezes the bear for comfort while playing outside, before bed, and even takes the bear to school. Even when she gets frustrated while talking to her father online, she still takes the bear to bed with her. “The Teddy Bear” ends with a familiar twist, by now employed in several similarly-minded ads. Still, the message is tied to Duracell’s promise of long battery life and the brand skirts accusations of emotional manipulation by promising to donate to the USO Comfort Crew for Kids, and asking viewers to do the same.
Duracell brand manager Ramon Velutini told Mashable the brand chanced upon the story while visiting a California home for market research. “We were basically in the house of this family and we asked the daughter to show off her favorite toy,” Velutini told the publication. “We were expecting regular toys — remote control cars and all this — and they came running with this battery-powered bear.”