An advertisement you remember

An advertisement I still remember clearly is one for a mobile network operator that was shown on TV and YouTube before Eid a few years ago.

I first saw it on YouTube, before a cricket highlights video, and normally I'd skip ads after five seconds, but this one caught my attention immediately and I watched the whole three minutes.

It told the story of an elderly rickshaw puller in Dhaka who saves a little money every day to buy a phone so he can video-call his granddaughter in the village. The ad shows him counting coins at night and getting laughed at in a phone shop. In the end, a young shopkeeper secretly gives him a discount and helps him make the call, and the final scene shows the old man's face when his granddaughter appears on the screen. There's almost no dialogue, just music. The company's name only appears for a couple of seconds at the end.

I remember it because it was emotional without being too dramatic. It didn't talk about data packages or prices at all; it focused on human connection, which is what a phone network really sells. I also remember that lots of people shared it on Facebook, saying it made them cry, which shows how effective it was. Personally, I think it's a good example of how advertising can be clever, but it also made me realise how skilfully companies use our emotions to make us like their brand.