Love Is The Greatest Power

Rediet Mekonene

ENGL-102

Prof Stephen A, Bess

04 April 2019

Love Is The Greatest Power

“Life” Is the greatest gift on earth. The Thai insurance company is well known for their emotional and heart touching ads. One if the most popular ads done by this insurance company is “Unsung Hero.” The actors for this ad were real homeless people from the street who were struggling to survive. People who are working day-to-day just to outlive the daylight, not thinking about tomorrow. While the commercial immediately addressed its intended Thai audience to value the gift of life by giving it the protection it deserves. Thed ad was able to reach a wider and global audience by providing subtitles. The advertisement uses pathos to evoke emotion and appeal to the audience that doing good brings happiness to the doer.

The Thai commercial “Unsung Hero” is linked to the traditional norms of the Asian culture, which is Buddhism. Buddhism teaches that inner peace and happiness is found by living in the moment, by avoiding dwelling in the past or the future.

At the beginning of the commercial, the narrator starts with what seems to be a bad day but ends up with a positive outcome. The main character passes through a building that soaks his cloth, but his day is not ruined by this. He instead put a dying plant underneath the water and he walks away. As he goes on with his day, he notices a woman and her child begging for money to send the child to school. Eventhougth the main character didn’t have a lot of money, he shares with them what he has. By showing the little money the man had in his wallet, the ad tries to pass the message that one doesn’t need to have a lot to share. much to share. The narrator is trying to make the world a better place; the narrator is showing that people everyone is capable of giving and sharing, even the poor.

When the man realizes the lady pushing the cart is struggling, he offers to help, when the dog was hungry and asks him for food, he gives him the chicken even though that was the only piece left; he hangs bananas at the door of the old lady apartment because it makes him feel happy. Some people might think that one man can’t change the world or ask what the point of doing all of these good deeds if he doesn’t get anything for his effort is. However, the narrator doesn't know he was getting anything in return. He was not doing all the things he did so that he gets an award or money. Instead, he was doing these to gain happiness and have a deeper understanding of life. The add shows that the man every evening. This is probably an indication that narrator believes in superbeing or that people who have a strong spiritual foundation drive goodness from their spirituality.

The narrator is a very selfless and hard-working person. He lived a simple life nothing lavish is seen in the commercial. The character in the ad is a trustworthy man. He is shown to be a loving, caring, and considerate person. The narrator gives as much as he can to the people around him and remains happy. More or less, this commercial use ethos to persuade us and show us for how one can be a trustworthy person even when they are not wealthy or well-educated. If we are dedicated to helping the community, we will live a simple and fulfilling life. Furthermore, there is a logic to the Thai insurance company ad.

The logos are the essential part of the commercial because if there is no logic to what is happening people won’t relate to it even when it’s sad and emotional. The narrator is evidence or proof of the appeal. He, as evidence, showed people that you would become more content after helping people. At the end of the commercial we see the man walking down the street as usual and looks down to see the child to give her money; however, the little girl he helps starts going to school and smiling like never before. The narrator does not live a prosperous or materialistic life, but he is satisfied with what he has. We see the man praying and becoming more spiritual after giving himself to the helpless people.

The Thai insurance company sends a convincing message to its viewers, not only to the people of Thailand but to all the viewers who care about their society. The commercial tends to make the viewers think about the people who they have to take care of or people who they are taking care of already and what will happen to their close ones if they get into an accident and die. The message is clear; if one has an insurance plane from the Thai company, there will go above and beyond to help your family in the time of crises. Furthermore, the company is almost sending a message that they are not trying to get a profit from the company; instead, they are doing this to gain happiness while helping their society. The insurance company is telling the viewers they are not doing this for recognition, and not because they believe it will enrich them financially, but because they know life is better when you pay it forward.

There is some lesson if one analyze this advertisement thoroughly, if one relates it with the world where we live in. there are some pressing questions that needs to be answered. For example, one thinks that why the world around us today is depressed, deprived, and everyone is finding himself away from the real purpose of the life. The best answer to this is our efforts of finding peace in artificial phenomena’s. Like we cannot get happy by being every time in concerts and in places where things are designed for a less time. We have in ourselves a thing called Soul, this needs our attention. We need to keep that pleasant and peaceful. This is how we can turn ourselves up for the things that are made for human kind and this is how we can end the ways of artificial happiness. We can by this way rise to the apex of our existence. As Kristin that “happiness is what makes you feel comfortable inside you, which then makes your soul and heart dance” ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"2d7CA6pn","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Layous and Lyubomirsky)","plainCitation":"(Layous and Lyubomirsky)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":316,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/JAB54VUQ"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/JAB54VUQ"],"itemData":{"id":316,"type":"article-journal","title":"The how, why, what, when, and who of happiness: Mechanisms underlying the success of positive activity interventions","container-title":"Positive emotion: Integrating the light sides and dark sides","page":"473–495","source":"Google Scholar","shortTitle":"The how, why, what, when, and who of happiness","author":[{"family":"Layous","given":"Kristin"},{"family":"Lyubomirsky","given":"Sonja"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2014"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Layous and Lyubomirsky)

Before reaching to the conclusion, one also need to look into the deep meanings of the actions of that person in the advertisement. What bringing a chicken piece for the dog, or hanging bananas at the door of the old lady brings to that person? Nothing just the inner peace. As Robert Johnson mentions that inner peace is the end product of all the good things, what we do ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"ojhcuZL8","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Johnson)","plainCitation":"(Johnson)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":315,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/YHI9IUQI"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/YHI9IUQI"],"itemData":{"id":315,"type":"article-journal","title":"Happiness as a natural end","container-title":"Kant’s Metaphysics of Morals","page":"317–30","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Johnson","given":"Robert N."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2002"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Johnson). As like the one portrayed in the advertisement, everyone else can experience the same happiness and the same peace, if just the intentions of every one of all turns to be sympathetic and are posed toward finding peace around us. This is just only the way one can get to the purpose of his creation. As every religion have showed the ways for finding calm and peace around us in this material world too.

In conclusion, the add did a good job to inspire people to give and share. It utilized human emotions such as sadness, happiness, vulnerability, empathy and compassion to pass its message across effectively. It showed that doing good can be rewarding. Although the man in the video didn’t become rich or famous, he made deep connection and relationship with the people he was helping in the video and the dog. The video also shows the direct impact of the man helping and sharing. The child in the video was able to go to school. It also shows the daughter trying to teach the mother what she learned. This is a hint that the girl becoming education is going to have a greater to change lives beyond the girl’s life. In addition the women who was selling food started giving bigger portion of food to people. This also serves to indicate that goodness and kindness is infectious. That one good person can have a ripple effect on many more people. By showing the outcome of kindeness, the advertisement agency shows that the man’s giving was not in vain, which encourages people to give. Human beings like reward, especially the age we live in really values making an impact and helping people. So by showing the end results the advertisement is encouraging they can attain what people of this generation are seeking.

Work cite

thailifechannel. “‘Unsung Hero’ [ภาพยนตร์โฆษณา ปี พ.ศ.2557 ] [Official TVC 2014: Thai Life Insurance].” YouTube, YouTube, 3 Apr. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaWA2GbcnJU.