Google India released a commercial titled ‘Google Commercial: Pakistan India Reunion’ relating a tear-jerking story of how the tech giant’s search functions helped two childhood friends, separated due to the Partition of Pakistan India border, are reunited.
The three-and-a-half minute commercial starts with Suman, a young girl in India, listening to her grandfather narrate his memories of Yousuf, his childhood friend he had shared memorable times with, in Lahore.
“Partitions divide countries, friendships find a way,” says the caption below the video, which is one in a series of five videos.
With watery eyes, he explains how the Partition split the two pals apart, with Yousuf staying in Pakistan as his friend crossed into India.
Distraught over the tale narrated by her grandfather, Suman takes a chance and runs a random search on Google.
Suman ‘googles’ the trivia from her grandfather’s story to connect the dots and with just a few keystrokes, pinpoint the current whereabouts of Yousuf in Lahore.
‘An old gate’ and ‘jhajariya’ are all it takes Google to take Suman (girl) to Yousuf (boy) and his grandson Ali, an admittedly miraculous feat by the standards of only one generation ago.
The advertisement is currently going viral and owes its spiraling views to the overwhelming emotional appeal, grossing upwards of 100,000 views and innumerable facebook posts and tweets.
But it is also helping Google reemphasise the importance it assigns to the company’s contribution toward connecting humanity and making actual, tangible effects on lives.
That was one of core elements emphasised in this summer’s Hollywood film “The Internship“, which was in fact derided by many critics as a “two-hour long Google commercial”.
Watch Video on Facebook – Google Commercial: Pakistan India Reunion
Another aspect tying the movie with the commercial is the tech giant’s attempt to shed the association with a certain age group. While ‘The Internship’ portrayed that even two middle-aged outmoded salesmen could create a space for themselves at the company, ‘Reunion’ portrays Google’s service to an age-group two generations older than Suman and Ali.
