When Writing Works

It never occurred to me that I would write a blog post titled “When Writing Works” about a TV ad. Especially since creating a memorable commercial may be the toughest job of all when it comes to being a writer. We’re all so ready to fast-forward through them when possible or to mute them. But occasionally, a commercial cuts through the noise, rises above, and actually triggers a genuine, positive reaction.  That happened to me when I saw a recent iPhone 14 commercial.

The camera spotlights a young boy, somewhere around 8 to 10 years old, in a red hoodie, getting ready to run a race against a number of his peers. You would assume that the commercial would focus on him. You would be wrong.

The camera cuts away to a woman, obviously his mother, elbowing her way through the crowd to get a picture of him. The boy gives her a thumbs up as she crouches down and points her phone’s camera at him. He focuses on the start line. She focuses the camera on him.

When the whistle blows and the kids start running, so does the mom. The music track, “Get Out of My Way,” reflects her battle to videotape her son’s race. Her camera gets up and down and sideways as she jostles her way through the crowd and splashes through the puddles along the race course.

Shaky camera, stable video, reads the text as the boy runs.

Relax, it’s iPhone 14, concludes the caption just after the boy wins the race, trailing the ribbon behind him as he crosses the finish line.

I’m not even an Apple person. Despite the fact that my niece works as a video editor for the company, I am all about my Android phone. For that matter, I’m all about PCs instead of Macs. But if anything was going to make me switch, it would be a commercial like this.

What makes this commercial work is worth noting when it comes to any kind of writing. It’s unexpected. It’s funny. And it’s heartwarming.

I know that not all writing aims to achieve any of these goals, let alone all of them. I just know that when writing works this way, it works for me.