33 ms·

This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and Pakistan

557 points by selmnoo 13y ago

hrasyid 13y ago
So, the oldest sweet shop in Lahore just happened to be owned by Yusuf's grandson? How?
- zhemao 13y ago
  From the initial conversation between Baldev and Suman, it's clear that the sweet shop has been owned by Yusuf's family for several generations. Not sure how Suman knew it was the oldest though, unless Baldev told her that and the subtitles just didn't translate it.
selmnoo 13y ago
This is the ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHGDN9-oFJE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHGDN9-oFJE - be sure to have subtitles on (unless you understand Hindi). One interesting observation about the ad: the search results that the girl deems to be good and informative are almost all Wikipedia hits. It's actually pretty similar to my situation: Google is basically a better Wikipedia searching tool than what Wikipedia provides.
- kulkarnic 13y ago
  Maybe that is to ensure that the results remain stable after people start trying out those searches for themselves (and so Google doesn't endorse another company's services). Wikipedia for results is definitely not the norm for Google searches in India---I just spent a month there and results can be anything from JustDial directory services (for phone numbers, since many local businesses don't have websites) to local newspapers (for reviews etc). The utility of Google in India is that it provides you the best link across different websites. This is really important because India has a growing population of new Internet users (who don't have "go to" sites like Wikipedia and Yelp), and because it still doesn't have clear winners in many verticals (e.g. real estate)
- signa11 13y ago
  > Google is basically a better Wikipedia searching tool than what Wikipedia provides. isn't that true for most sites all around ? i, fwiw, normally just use site specific searches on almost all sites...
- staunch 13y ago
  Yes, Google is basically just a better X searching tool than X provides, where X is most every web site on earth.
  - Dylan16807 13y ago
    Not at all. If you're filtering based on multiple categories, a search that understands them, even barebones, is better than a brilliant generic-text-search.
  - selmnoo 13y ago
    I didn't want to go to far on an off-topic tangent, but basically what I was getting at was that I increasingly seem to be interested in a very limited number of sites -- that is, mostly, sites that I already know of and recognize. I use Reddit search more when I'm doing exploratory searching hoping to land on a site I've never been before, because it serves me already vetted/reviewed sites. In this way, Google is no longer a tool for me to do search, where I'm not sure where I'll end up, it's now a tool to get me where I know I want to go (which happens to be some wikipedia page most of the times).
    - mikeash 13y ago
      It is an interesting point. Google has become as much a substitute for the address bar as a way to find new things.
      - Wingman4l7 13y ago
        (If you don't have bookmarks or don't keep a browsing history / don't know how to use URL autocompletion).
        mikeash 13y ago
        I use autocomplete for commonly-visited sites, but Google plus vague memories of basic search terms have almost completely supplanted my use of bookmarks these days.
- JPKab 13y ago
  Hindi or Urdu? Haha... I always find the "language vs dialect" thing very interesting. The distinction when it comes to Hindi and Urdu is totally political. Two of my old buddies, one an Indian, the other a Pakistani, could completely understand each other, yet both insisted that they spoke different languages (Punjabi/Hindi and Urdu respectively) Another friend of mind, who left Pakistan as a 10 year old, always just shook his head with a smile and said "Dude, that's like a guy from Alabama saying someone from England speaks a different language."
  - nl 13y ago
    Hindi or Urdu? Haha... I always find the "language vs dialect" thing very interesting. The distinction when it comes to Hindi and Urdu is totally political Try Serbo-Croatian[1]. But OTOH, most Slavic languages are fairly similar. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbo-Croatian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbo-Croatian
    - levosmetalo 13y ago
      Well, I would beg to disagree. While the standard Serbian and standard Croatian are very similar, it's more of an artificial. Even when that was one language official, one part of ex country called it Serbo-Croatian, and other one Croato-Serbian, and the versions taught at school were similar, but not the same. There were some language constructs that were in this common language just because they were present in one, and not the other, so that Serbo-Croatian was a strange mix. Not to mention dialects. Being a native south Serbian speaker, I had much better understanding of Macedonian and Bulgarian than those Croato-Serbian dialects spoken in the western or south Croatia. I guess if it weren't for that political push to make Serbian and Croatian language the one language, those language would be much more different today than they are. Not to mention that simply choosing another Serbian dialect as standard Serbian, and another Croatian dialect dialect as standard Croatian would make those two languages unintelligible. Instead, it was a political choice to choose two most similar Serbian and Croatian dialect to be official standard language, and then enforce that at schools. I know that for example in southern Croatia people were forced to use standard Croato-Serbian at schools, and people in southern Serbia were, and still are forced to use Serbo-Croatian at schools, TV and all official institution. Yes, language is a politics, and politics frequently molds languages in the direction it chooses. Orwell was not that far away with reality.
- Benferhat 13y ago
  add &yt:cc=on to the YouTube URL [0] to enable subtitles. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHGDN9-oFJE&yt:cc=on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHGDN9-oFJE&yt:cc=on
- sharjeel 13y ago
  Ironically, Youtube is banned in Pakistan
- mtgx 13y ago
  Really? I counted exactly one wikipedia result that she used. The others were either websites, Google Maps, or Google Now results.
- carlesfe 13y ago
  Also, unless I noticed wrong, there are no ads on the search results.
- tcgv 13y ago
  A bit off-topic here, but I would say the same thing applies to stackoverflow. Everytime I want to search something within stackoverflow I use google and specify the "site" operator[1]. Something like: fast string search algorithm site:stackoverflow.com [2] The results are much better than SO's custom search. [1] https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/136861?hl=en https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/136861?hl=en [2] https://www.google.com.br/search?q=string+search+algorithm+stie%3Astackoverflow.com&oq=string+search+algorithm+stie%3Astackoverflow.com&aqs=chrome..69i57.40034j0j8&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8#es_sm=93&espv=210&q=fast+string+search+algorithm+site:stackoverflow.com https://www.google.com.br/search?q=string+search+algorithm+s...
  - nahname 13y ago
    I believe you get the same effect by doing the following, stackoverflow: fast string search algorithm
  - dublinben 13y ago
    DuckDuckGo also has the !so shortcut.
  - lallysingh 13y ago
    Consider setting up a new "search engine" in chrome. You could alias https://www.google.com.br/search?q=%s+site%3Astackoverflow.com https://www.google.com.br/search?q=%s+site%3Astackoverflow.c... to 'so', and type: so<tab>fast string search algorithm And chrome would do the right thing.
- ChikkaChiChi 13y ago
  Doesn't Google absorb much of the cost of hosting Wikipedia for free?
- deltriggah 13y ago
  This is the ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHGDN9-oFJE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHGDN9-oFJE - be sure to have subtitles on (unless you understand Hindi). Played the clip to some people in the house, they got teary eyed. Don't need a translation to get the message across which just proves it's a very well made ad.
devnetfx 13y ago
This is a beautiful ad and will make you emotional. As a person of Indian background I was able to relate to it easily but I wonder what others think of it? Are you able to feel the strong emotions based on reading subtitles or does language hamper the feelings and it loses its impact. Kudos to the team involved in this and thanks for posting this.
- selmnoo 13y ago
  Being of Pakistani background, I could relate to it a lot. I'm actually just stunned by how well done the ad is in every aspect. I find it a little strange that a big Internet company did this, one wouldn't have expected such a thing. The reaction from my Pakistani friends is overwhelmingly positive too by the way.
  - Nux 13y ago
    It's just marketing. Wonder how well it worked and if they saw an increase in sales. :-)
- barbs 13y ago
  I'm anglo-Australian, and this definitely was very moving, even though it's not something I can relate to on a personal level.
  - chris_wot 13y ago
    Agreed. I am also and I felt quite emotional!
- Fargren 13y ago
  I don't think subtitles were a barrier for the emotions transmitted by the video. At least not for em personally.
- anigbrowl 13y ago
  No, subtitles don't get in the way at all :')
- 13y ago
barbs 13y ago
Great ad. Here's something similar, by Coca-Cola: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts_4vOUDImE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts_4vOUDImE. Not as emotional, but quite good.
capex 13y ago
Behind the division of the sub-continent lies a great debate, that of Jinnah vs Gandhi. Was it the true aspiration of the people to get divided geographically while getting independence from British rule? It seems the divide happened because of some ideology driven people (Iqbal) who convinced other leaders (Jinnah) to pursue it. Today, this is a raging battle in Pakistan, did Pakistan ever need to be an independent country, considering how peacefully muslims are living in India vs the ready-to-cut-throats Pakistanis?
- anigbrowl 13y ago
  For those interested in history, Freedom at Midnight is a great documentary book on the liberation and subsequent partition of India: http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-at-Midnight-Dominique-Lapierre/dp/8125931864 http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-at-Midnight-Dominique-Lapierre... It's a sad fact that the departure of the British Empire from various colonial possessions frequently resulted in a power vacuum followed by deep internal conflicts which remain problematic today - Ireland, Israel, and India being three obvious examples.
  - chimeracoder 13y ago
    > It's a sad fact that the departure of the British Empire from various colonial possessions frequently resulted in a power vacuum followed by deep internal conflicts which remain problematic today - Ireland, Israel, and India being three obvious examples. Let's not be overly generous. I won't speak to Ireland or Israel, but in the case of India, the political strife was not a coincidence - it was the all-but-deliberate result of the British. They actively funded terrorist groups on conflicting sides with the express goal of dividing the region not just geographically (Partition), but ideologically and politically. (This is, of course, not too different from the US funding terrorist groups when it is politically convenient to do so, and then invading foreign countries to overthrow the rulers brought to power by those same terrorist groups, when it becomes politically convenient to do that instead.)
    - vowelless 13y ago
      > They actively funded terrorist groups on conflicting sides with the express goal of dividing the region not just geographically (Partition), but ideologically and politically. Can you give me some specific examples of terrorist groups? From my readings, the British just successfully managed to divide the Hindu and Muslim populations using discriminating policies (like the pig / cow oil on guns in the 1800s), and let the divisions play out. They did support Gandhi and Jinnah, but I never came across them actively funding terrorist organizations.
zakhan 13y ago
The original concept was produced in a video by Pak Sar Zameen Productions on December 12, 2012 http://www.hotpaknews.com/2013/11/did-google-stole-the-idea-behind-the-reunion-ad/ http://www.hotpaknews.com/2013/11/did-google-stole-the-idea-...
- garg 13y ago
  Naw, this goes way back. The group Junoon had Ghoom Taana. And lots more before that. It's not a rip off Sorry. No cc https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=86fVq7iJcG4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=86...
throwaway5832 13y ago
/r/HailCorporate
MarkTee 13y ago
How many of you paused the video to search for "jhajariya" and clicked on the Wikipedia link?
- piyush_soni 13y ago
  Not paused but searched after the video ends :). And 'verified' that the correct definition does appear. :P
- cynwoody 13y ago
  I did. The expected definition appeared. And the first two "Images for jhajariya" were frames from the ad.
kunai 13y ago
For those that don't understand the ad, the partition was, and to be honest, still is a very sensitive issue in India. My grandmother experienced it first-hand: people lost their homes, were separated from their families, and many people died along the migration from Pakistan to Punjab. There was no way for people to get back in touch... until now, which is why this Google ad is particularly poignant. As much as everyone here has loved to hate on Google for the past couple of weeks, the ad shows everyone just how valuable their products can be. It's certainly worth something... and it's a lot more meaningful than whatever Apple is doing with their marketing.
jtchang 13y ago
Amazing work! What strikes me most is how little the language matters. You don't even have to watch it with subtitles to see how solid the editing was. Kudos to the entire team that worked on these videos.
- notatoad 13y ago
  the subtitles might have been a bit more necessary if all the on-screen text wasn't in english. That seemed like a strange choice for an ad produced by Google India.
  - riteshpatel 13y ago
    English is one of the official languages of India and almost all people who are wealthy enough to own a smartphone browse in English. In fact, many kids actually go to schools where English is the primary teaching language - it's not uncommon for kids to not know how to say the days of the week in Hindi.
  - anuragramdasan 13y ago
    I really wouldn't be able to find my way around the internet or on my cellphone if all the text were in Hindi. It stands true for most Indians.
  - guyzero 13y ago
    The official languages of India are Hindi and English.
    - hudibras 13y ago
      And the official languages of Pakistan are Urdu and English. ...And, yes, I just Googled this question and got the answer from Wikipedia.
      - guyzero 13y ago
        Well, yes, yay Google+Wikipedia, but at any rate it's not surprising to see English used in ads produced for India and/or Pakistan.
crystaln 13y ago
A Pakistani girl showed this video to me early this year, and she was in fact very moved. The Pakistan - India divide is a tragedy of religion and politics, foreign and domestic.
elwell 13y ago
Well it's moving someone to tears in the ol' USA too.
primelens 13y ago
They built a nice series of shorter vignettes based on the original ad.[1] These are perhaps less easily translated but they are sure to tug at the heartstrings of a subcontinental audience. Cricket, biryani and street food - who knew power-cuts and diabetes could evoke such nostalgia! Well played, Google. I'll refrain from criticizing you for the next hour or so! :-) [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYVoM8tgbvA&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PL-kIBfSqQg3uMx9Z1fOpc7WPw2wDvbhFu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYVoM8tgbvA&feature=c4-overv...
harichinnan 13y ago
As a fellow Indian, I just want to point out that this video and any other efforts to develop people-to-people relationships between India and Pakistan have zero effect on the ongoing conflicts between the nations. Indians love Pakistani singers, cricketers, food, their language(Weird, I'm not a native Hindi speaker. But people tell me that Pakistani's speak better Hindi than most Indians). I've heard from Pak friends that they too love Bollywood and many things India. Even Pak government doesn't wish any ill on India. However the Pak army and ISI have vested interests in keeping conflicts alive. They also fund terrorist organizations in every neighboring country possible. Lack of democracy in Pakistan(Elected governments get routinely overthrown in coups) is a greater problem than religious extremism. By that extension, lack of democracy in Saudi Arabia, and Egypt was the root cause of all Islamic terrorism. Saudi's actively promote a version of Islam that promotes religious discord in muslim populations across the world. I think the US missed a huge opportunity in encouraging more democracy during Arab spring and even the Iranian uprising.
- 77ko 13y ago
  The longest running head of the Pakistan Army in recent decades, General Musharraf, who was also the military dictator of the country for a good portion of that, made a lot of overtures towards some semblance of improving relations. Just pointing out that the Pakistan Army has people in it who think more about than just conflict with India. Ironic as Musharraf instigated and led the last major Pakistan/India skirmish/war, then moved on to talking peace.
  - eklavya 13y ago
    Yeah right, he was the mastermind behind the bloody Kargil war. He is a nutcase like all the other Pak Army/ISI agents who dream about the demise of India, no matter if they burn their homeland to ashes in the process.
- pknerd 13y ago
  You for got add your RAW and Indian army, mate.
thrownaway2424 13y ago
Yes I was suitably manipulated. Good job, mass emotional manipulation team! But I am surprised they showed people searching for flight status and weather. Google Now is supposed to already know you're going to Delhi and just show you the weather there without you asking. Same for the flight status.
- wrongc0ntinent 13y ago
  "Yes I was suitably manipulated. Good job, mass emotional manipulation team!" - thrownaway2424 Just agreeing with your sentiment, might as well share the downvotes.
- piyush_soni 13y ago
  It is supposed to know only when you have the itinerary sent to your Gmail. And some people might just disable Google Now and/or 'location services' altogether.
- chris_wot 13y ago
  Hiding behind a throwaway account, taking anonymous potshots? Goodness!
stewartjarod 13y ago
Well... They got me.
sjtgraham 13y ago
This ad makes me tear up every time and the music is what takes it over the edge for me. The ad is scored so beautifully, the melodies and arrangements are incredible. Even though I can't understand what the singer is saying, I can definitely feel the emotions in his voice.
mmhemani 13y ago
Very Interesting Ad and as being a Pakistani I can actually feel it. Although, technically finding places in Pakistan using Google Maps is not as easy as shown in the video. There are still many problems with wrong land marks and more. But as a whole the content of the ad is very strong and positive that it can touch million more hearts!
nowarninglabel 13y ago
I wish Google could also improve the visa process for India which gets a brief cameo in the video. I've been trying for weeks to obtain a visa now and have been thwarted by the Indian government and its designated consultant's computer systems at every turn. It's to the point I've given up and am going to pay for a service to do it.
- bruceb 13y ago
  Are you from Pakistan? or somewhere else? For Americans getting a visa seems to be easy. Maybe not for some other countries?
deleted 13y ago
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scrrr 13y ago
Just wondering if reactions would be as positive if the product wasn't Google but, I don't know, Glock pistols or Royal Dutch Shell (aired 7 days after an oil spill). You could change the story to fit almost anything, after all.
saumil07 13y ago
I grew up in and around Mumbai...the ad is (unsurprisingly) quite disconnected from the facts on the ground but holy cow. Great production values, great storytelling, relevant tie-ins to Google products. Just great.
r0h1n 13y ago
Colour me cynical, but when a corporation is under fire from consumers, regulators and activists, a soppy and heartstring-tugging ad is exactly what the doctors order. It is literally Google saying, "Oh look, cute puppies!" when faced with a global barrage of criticism about its disdain for user privacy or its own past promises.
- philthesong 13y ago
  We'll promise you that we won't be evil...;) = We have too much dangerous information that will turn us into a monster, so don't blame us when that happens
- basyt 13y ago
  Yeah, I agree. here I am watching the ad, getting all emotional (I have some family in Pakistan, who moved their out of their own volition frankly) and I suddenly realize, wow I fell for this nauseatingly sweet ad! You got me (almost) Google. And since when did they start showing ads in India?
- wrongc0ntinent 13y ago
  (I feel strangely outsmarted again by them.) What would be interesting to know is if India is basically virgin territory as far as Google (marketing) ideology. In other words, is Google free to start from scratch there, without (some clearly outlined) lofty promises?
- psbp 13y ago
  Um, large consumer companies release ads all the time, and google is always under fire by consumers, regulators and activists.
  - r0h1n 13y ago
    a. Google isn't just another "large consumer company" b. Google being "always under fire" by consumers, regulators and activists is no reason to start letting it off the hook. In fact, it should be the converse.
veritas213 13y ago
great ad..well done google. Maybe it takes a neutral 3rd party to make bothers start talking. Can we get a north korean version next?
denzil_correa 13y ago
The Ad also has short sequels as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0lzSb0m1cs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0lzSb0m1cs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYVoM8tgbvA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYVoM8tgbvA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltXy9tGqlT0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltXy9tGqlT0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI_Ke3iyfac https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI_Ke3iyfac
- kranner 13y ago
  Thanks for these links. Just a bit unlikely that Ali would be able to read 'saunf' in Devanagari, isn't it?
  - audreyt 13y ago
    The romanized form "Saumfa" is also shown in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYVoM8tgbvA#t=0m26s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYVoM8tgbvA#t=0m26s .
    - kranner 13y ago
      Ah, yes. It's just that I'd expect Ali to search for "fennel in urdu", which does show the same word in Nastaliq.
  - asadlionpk 13y ago
    yes but it said saunf in Roman below the huge Devanagari :) he had to search in hindi because they were in India and maybe saunf is called something else there.
    - kranner 13y ago
      Right, that makes sense.
  - denzil_correa 13y ago
    > Just a bit unlikely that Ali would be able to read 'saunf' in Devanagari, isn't it? Why?
deleted 13y ago
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mankypro 13y ago
Hell, I'm just some random white guy in the US and the ad made me tear up. Yes, it was made for effect. Whether it was made by the newest evil corporation or not is irrelevant. The feelings it invokes are genuine.
sonabinu 13y ago
Great ad !!!
narrator 13y ago
No ad will ever beat this diet coke ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmBDeswu2dI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmBDeswu2dI Now diet coke, IMHO, is crap and I won't drink the stuff but I can watch this ad over and over again. Can one of you marketing geniuses in the audience tell me why it is so awesome? :)
sidcool 13y ago
The India Pakistan separation has left a scar on the hearts of several generations. Power hungry and religious fanatics caused this separation. Today's youth view the separation as a boon, but the million people killed in the riots and other millions made homeless still haunts and affects the geopolitics of the region.
MilesTeg 13y ago
Google seems to be the expert in heart-warming commercials. Remember their first super bowl ad? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ4unnMgiSQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ4unnMgiSQ
ankurdhama 13y ago
I hope this is still hacker news rather than some emotional fools forum who ignore realities.
- marshray 13y ago
  Don't worry, I'm sure someone will come along to comment on the web design on some computer screen in the background. And that will be OK.
  - ankurdhama 13y ago
    Better would be if someone discuss how we can bring up http://extendedsubset.com http://extendedsubset.com ;)
    - marshray 13y ago
      How important is it for you that we bring back the old content?
- chris_wot 13y ago
  Well that's a remarkably narrow view of what should appear on HN!
  - ankurdhama 13y ago
    I didn't say what should appear on HN (that would make the the set narrow), I just expressed something that shouldn't be here (that leave it wide wide open to many things)
    - chris_wot 13y ago
      You still narrowed the set of things that should be on HN. By expressing the set of things that should not appear on HN, you actually do dictate what should appear on HN. i.e. anything can appear on HN except xyz.
deleted 13y ago
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rmoriz 13y ago
I like the "south park episode with ancient aliens" part most. http://i.imgur.com/ZDoYFdR.png http://i.imgur.com/ZDoYFdR.png
WasimBhai 13y ago
Oh yes, we have the best sweets, and the most awesome Curry in Lahore. That is one thing we are extremely proud of. So people on Hackernews, next time you plan on taking a trip, come over to Pakistan for some of the most awesome culinary delights!
techtivist 13y ago
The sad part is as an Indian myself I know that the reality is much different. If I started calling Pakistani phones the government will probably start investigating me for being a suspected terrorist and the old gentleman from Pakistan will never get a visa so swiftly. It's perhaps true the other way around. Even if people want to come closer the state and politics always gets in the way.
pknerd 13y ago
Let's not forget it's an Ad only. Emotional Marketing? God bless Capitalism!
benched 13y ago
I don't care about emotionally manipulative film for its own sake. However, if this did actually do anything significant to improve Indian/Pakistani relations, I really would forgive Google for its asinine product design decisions for as much as half a year.
cs02rm0 13y ago
Superb advert. Slightly amused after realising that the first thing I then did was use Facebook search to find Google's page to share it.
chris_wot 13y ago
Is it true that Apple doesn't have a single store in India?
- unhappyhippie 13y ago
  No.
- swatkat 13y ago
  http://www.apple.com/in/buy/shop/ http://www.apple.com/in/buy/shop/ http://www.istoreindia.com/index.html http://www.istoreindia.com/index.html
yitchelle 13y ago
I love to see similar Adverts with divides between - Israel and Lebanon. - North Korea and South Korea - East Berlin and West Berlin etc... For me, this is one of the areas where technology can enrich our lives.
pitchups 13y ago
The most interesting aspect of this video - other than the clearly emotional storyline - was how closely it reflects the way most of us use the web, smartphones, and yes - Google - to manage our day-to-day lives. A search for a landmark, a shop, to answer a quick question, to check the weather, to book a flight. Even more remarkable how almost none of this was possible a mere 10 years ago - at least not from the palm of our hand.
lakwn 13y ago
You don't need to be Indian or Pakistani to be moved to tears by this ad...
sanoli 13y ago
I'll probably get downvotes, but here goes: I liked the ad, it moved me, it didn't bother that it was from a big corporation (re the discussion below). What bothers me in ads, and in movies etc, is how the men can always be some regular looking man, sometimes even ugly, while the women always have to be very attractive. I know I'll get called on for being too P.C. for this but c'mon, does it always have to be a very attractive indian girl? Does Virginia Woolf need to be played by Nicole Kidman? Salma Hayek as Frida Kahlo? The biopics about men aren't always played by Tom Cruises.
nirbhay 13y ago
i am from india and i can tell you that no one i talked to found this ad 'moving'. its the same cheesy bullshit that we see all day.
- linux_devil 13y ago
  I am from India and lot of my friends find this one moving.
known 13y ago
Are these Actors from Pakistan?
- swatkat 13y ago
  No, they're are Indians. It's made by Ogilvy & Mather, India. Cast info: http://www.missmalini.com/2013/11/15/have-you-watched-the-google-search-reunion/ http://www.missmalini.com/2013/11/15/have-you-watched-the-go... Production info: http://www.ogilvy.com/News/Press-Releases/November-2013-Campaign-for-Google-Search-by-OM-India-celebrates-emotions-of-reunions.aspx http://www.ogilvy.com/News/Press-Releases/November-2013-Camp...
VLM 13y ago
So half a day later, and no one on HN noticed the most interesting fact about the ad was its THREE AND A HALF MINUTES LONG? I mean I've had mythtv and commercial skipping for I guess over a decade now and I adblock all browsers etc but do people "out there" really sit thru almost four minute long advertisements? Back when I used to watch them, commercials were long enough for a bathroom break, sounds like commercial breaks are approaching "short workout followed by a shower" or perhaps "cook and eat some hot pockets" length of time.
- DanBC 13y ago
  There are plenty of long ads around. Sometimes they're good, and I don't mind sitting through them. There's one featuring a British Bi-Athlete (skiing, shooting). I have no idea what it's advertising. I looked up the gun he was using and they do a really neat laser & target system. Like Tin Can Alley but for adults. Long ads are much less impressive when they're repeatedly something I have zero interest in ("It's showtime, you've been coding like a beast "[SKIP]) or when they're lousy ads created by people who don't know what they're doing. I usually leave them running in another tab until the content is ready. I understand why other people would hate them and want to ad block them. Also: I have zero interest in gambling, and I never want to see a gambling ad, but I get loads. I wonder what recovering alcoholics or addicted gamblers could do to prevent those ads from appearing, other than using ad-block?
  - VLM 13y ago
    "I understand why other people would hate them and want to ad block them." Its not hate so much as being an unactionable distraction that interferes with buy the perry the platypus wooden action figure it does nothing... oh wait see how annoying that interruption was and how little it added to the conversation? Personally I prefer paid promotional product placement. So I was working on a S-100 circuit board in my basement "lab" last night using my Hakko model 937 digital temperature soldering iron with 1/16th inch tip (or whatever millimeters it is) and my Kester no-kleen #235 flux 0.02 dia solder (well you get the idea) Like how most hollywood computers happen to be Apples.
- JoeAltmaier 13y ago
bane 13y ago
It doesn't hurt that the acting is also phenomenal.
known 13y ago
But for Bania Gandhi, implementing 'separate' electorates as per https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communal_Award https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communal_Award would have prevented India-Pakistan partition.
leoc 13y ago
It's a pleasant ad, though it also reminds me of http://www.stevenlevy.com/index.php/05/08/the-sophie-choice http://www.stevenlevy.com/index.php/05/08/the-sophie-choice : "There were no actors seen in the Super Bowl commercial, and that was part of its charm: even though it broke one taboo, it maintained the company’s geeky dignity of logic and verifiability. The star was the stuff that appeared on the computer screen. But “Dear Sophie” is more of a classic form of Madison Avenue pitching. It’s probably something that Don Draper would come up with if Larry and Sergey were his clients. They would tell him that their product, the Chrome browser, has a lot going for it over its competitors, like speedier response and a single box to type in addresses and search queries. It runs Web applications more efficiently than other browsers, they’d tell him, and if everyone used it, it would hasten a new paradigm of cloud apps. Draper would say that all that stuff is well and good. But for our commercial, we’re going to show a tear-jerking evocation of a father compiling an online scrapbook for to his daughter as she grows up. Straight out of the Kodak playbook–don’t brag about your specs, but play that song about Where Are You Going My Little One, and out will come the handkerchiefs. It’s also a stratagem used by banks and insurance companies." Mind you, that was two years ago and feels somewhat like ancient history now.
dluu001 13y ago
Very moving and and this article really helps everyone understand the history of the partition that occurred.
swamp40 13y ago
Reading the subtitles reminded me of a dream of mine I would like to see realized some day: A live audio-to-text translation to English scrolling across the bottom of a Google Glass screen. Talk about bring the world together...
prakashk 13y ago
Here's the story of Saroo Munshi Khan finding his home/family 26 years after he lost them with the help of Google Earth: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-long-way-home-with-help-from-google.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-long-way-home-with-... He wrote a book about his experience: "A Long Way Home" (http://www.penguin.com.au/products/9780670077045/long-way-home http://www.penguin.com.au/products/9780670077045/long-way-ho...)
zaidf 13y ago
On the topic of top notch commercials out of India, here's a memorable series from Vodafone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtDYZHGzGLE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtDYZHGzGLE
san86 13y ago
"This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and Pakistan" Probably not all across India. I am from the south and neither me nor my ancestors have any personal experiences from the partition. Don't get me wrong.. this is a great ad and I understand the emotion behind it. but this is only as moving as a similar story on the Israel-Palestine border(ok maybe a little more because of my high school history books and representation in popular culture). Culturally, South India is more seperated from the North compared with North India (Punjab, Delhi, Kashmir) and Western regions of Pakistan. To me this is a well produced ad which highlights the troubles of a particularly cruel time in India's history. Nothing personal about it.
oo 13y ago
Why hadn't they had a video chat and let the two old friends see each other before they could meet in person? Their network speed looks good enough for FaceTime or Google Hangouts.
irfan 13y ago
Interesting point is that no sweet shop owner knows any sweet by the name of 'Jhajaria' in Lahore. Even 'Fazal Sweets' shown in this ad doesnt know about it. Same seems to be the case in India: http://thedailyretard.in/demand-for-jhajariya-on-the-rise-after-googles-reunion-ad-goes-viral-sweet-shops-owners-confused/ http://thedailyretard.in/demand-for-jhajariya-on-the-rise-af...
fivesquare 13y ago
an ad with a value.
sq1020 13y ago
Like many of you said, it's true that Urdu and Hindi are pretty much the same when it comes to the colloquial, spoken form of the languages. However, when you experience more advanced usages of the languages, they begin to sound totally different. Watch a news broadcast in Hindi and Urdu and you'll see what I mean. The formerly seemingly identical languages diverge sharply in academic settings and literature because Urdu borrows it's more advanced words from Persian which in turn borrowed these words from Arabic whereas the more advanced Hindi vocabulary is based on Sanskrit. Not to mention the script is totally different.
r0muald 13y ago
The thread where all HN users reveal their nationality, hometown, family status and what not. So good! PS fuck NSA

557 points by selmnoo 13y ago

hrasyid 13y ago

So, the oldest sweet shop in Lahore just happened to be owned by Yusuf's grandson? How?

zhemao 13y ago
From the initial conversation between Baldev and Suman, it's clear that the sweet shop has been owned by Yusuf's family for several generations. Not sure how Suman knew it was the oldest though, unless Baldev told her that and the subtitles just didn't translate it.

selmnoo 13y ago

This is the ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHGDN9-oFJE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHGDN9-oFJE - be sure to have subtitles on (unless you understand Hindi). One interesting observation about the ad: the search results that the girl deems to be good and informative are almost all Wikipedia hits. It's actually pretty similar to my situation: Google is basically a better Wikipedia searching tool than what Wikipedia provides.

kulkarnic 13y ago
Maybe that is to ensure that the results remain stable after people start trying out those searches for themselves (and so Google doesn't endorse another company's services). Wikipedia for results is definitely not the norm for Google searches in India---I just spent a month there and results can be anything from JustDial directory services (for phone numbers, since many local businesses don't have websites) to local newspapers (for reviews etc). The utility of Google in India is that it provides you the best link across different websites. This is really important because India has a growing population of new Internet users (who don't have "go to" sites like Wikipedia and Yelp), and because it still doesn't have clear winners in many verticals (e.g. real estate)
signa11 13y ago
> Google is basically a better Wikipedia searching tool than what Wikipedia provides. isn't that true for most sites all around ? i, fwiw, normally just use site specific searches on almost all sites...
staunch 13y ago
Yes, Google is basically just a better X searching tool than X provides, where X is most every web site on earth.
- Dylan16807 13y ago
  Not at all. If you're filtering based on multiple categories, a search that understands them, even barebones, is better than a brilliant generic-text-search.
- selmnoo 13y ago
  I didn't want to go to far on an off-topic tangent, but basically what I was getting at was that I increasingly seem to be interested in a very limited number of sites -- that is, mostly, sites that I already know of and recognize. I use Reddit search more when I'm doing exploratory searching hoping to land on a site I've never been before, because it serves me already vetted/reviewed sites. In this way, Google is no longer a tool for me to do search, where I'm not sure where I'll end up, it's now a tool to get me where I know I want to go (which happens to be some wikipedia page most of the times).
  - mikeash 13y ago
    It is an interesting point. Google has become as much a substitute for the address bar as a way to find new things.
    - Wingman4l7 13y ago
      (If you don't have bookmarks or don't keep a browsing history / don't know how to use URL autocompletion).
      - mikeash 13y ago
        I use autocomplete for commonly-visited sites, but Google plus vague memories of basic search terms have almost completely supplanted my use of bookmarks these days.
JPKab 13y ago
Hindi or Urdu? Haha... I always find the "language vs dialect" thing very interesting. The distinction when it comes to Hindi and Urdu is totally political. Two of my old buddies, one an Indian, the other a Pakistani, could completely understand each other, yet both insisted that they spoke different languages (Punjabi/Hindi and Urdu respectively) Another friend of mind, who left Pakistan as a 10 year old, always just shook his head with a smile and said "Dude, that's like a guy from Alabama saying someone from England speaks a different language."
- nl 13y ago
  Hindi or Urdu? Haha... I always find the "language vs dialect" thing very interesting. The distinction when it comes to Hindi and Urdu is totally political Try Serbo-Croatian[1]. But OTOH, most Slavic languages are fairly similar. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbo-Croatian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbo-Croatian
  - levosmetalo 13y ago
    Well, I would beg to disagree. While the standard Serbian and standard Croatian are very similar, it's more of an artificial. Even when that was one language official, one part of ex country called it Serbo-Croatian, and other one Croato-Serbian, and the versions taught at school were similar, but not the same. There were some language constructs that were in this common language just because they were present in one, and not the other, so that Serbo-Croatian was a strange mix. Not to mention dialects. Being a native south Serbian speaker, I had much better understanding of Macedonian and Bulgarian than those Croato-Serbian dialects spoken in the western or south Croatia. I guess if it weren't for that political push to make Serbian and Croatian language the one language, those language would be much more different today than they are. Not to mention that simply choosing another Serbian dialect as standard Serbian, and another Croatian dialect dialect as standard Croatian would make those two languages unintelligible. Instead, it was a political choice to choose two most similar Serbian and Croatian dialect to be official standard language, and then enforce that at schools. I know that for example in southern Croatia people were forced to use standard Croato-Serbian at schools, and people in southern Serbia were, and still are forced to use Serbo-Croatian at schools, TV and all official institution. Yes, language is a politics, and politics frequently molds languages in the direction it chooses. Orwell was not that far away with reality.
Benferhat 13y ago
add &yt:cc=on to the YouTube URL [0] to enable subtitles. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHGDN9-oFJE&yt:cc=on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHGDN9-oFJE&yt:cc=on
sharjeel 13y ago
Ironically, Youtube is banned in Pakistan
mtgx 13y ago
Really? I counted exactly one wikipedia result that she used. The others were either websites, Google Maps, or Google Now results.
carlesfe 13y ago
Also, unless I noticed wrong, there are no ads on the search results.
tcgv 13y ago
A bit off-topic here, but I would say the same thing applies to stackoverflow. Everytime I want to search something within stackoverflow I use google and specify the "site" operator[1]. Something like: fast string search algorithm site:stackoverflow.com [2] The results are much better than SO's custom search. [1] https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/136861?hl=en https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/136861?hl=en [2] https://www.google.com.br/search?q=string+search+algorithm+stie%3Astackoverflow.com&oq=string+search+algorithm+stie%3Astackoverflow.com&aqs=chrome..69i57.40034j0j8&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8#es_sm=93&espv=210&q=fast+string+search+algorithm+site:stackoverflow.com https://www.google.com.br/search?q=string+search+algorithm+s...
- nahname 13y ago
  I believe you get the same effect by doing the following, stackoverflow: fast string search algorithm
- dublinben 13y ago
  DuckDuckGo also has the !so shortcut.
- lallysingh 13y ago
  Consider setting up a new "search engine" in chrome. You could alias https://www.google.com.br/search?q=%s+site%3Astackoverflow.com https://www.google.com.br/search?q=%s+site%3Astackoverflow.c... to 'so', and type: so<tab>fast string search algorithm And chrome would do the right thing.
ChikkaChiChi 13y ago
Doesn't Google absorb much of the cost of hosting Wikipedia for free?
deltriggah 13y ago
This is the ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHGDN9-oFJE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHGDN9-oFJE - be sure to have subtitles on (unless you understand Hindi). Played the clip to some people in the house, they got teary eyed. Don't need a translation to get the message across which just proves it's a very well made ad.

devnetfx 13y ago

This is a beautiful ad and will make you emotional. As a person of Indian background I was able to relate to it easily but I wonder what others think of it? Are you able to feel the strong emotions based on reading subtitles or does language hamper the feelings and it loses its impact. Kudos to the team involved in this and thanks for posting this.

selmnoo 13y ago
Being of Pakistani background, I could relate to it a lot. I'm actually just stunned by how well done the ad is in every aspect. I find it a little strange that a big Internet company did this, one wouldn't have expected such a thing. The reaction from my Pakistani friends is overwhelmingly positive too by the way.
- Nux 13y ago
  It's just marketing. Wonder how well it worked and if they saw an increase in sales. :-)
barbs 13y ago
I'm anglo-Australian, and this definitely was very moving, even though it's not something I can relate to on a personal level.
- chris_wot 13y ago
  Agreed. I am also and I felt quite emotional!
Fargren 13y ago
I don't think subtitles were a barrier for the emotions transmitted by the video. At least not for em personally.
anigbrowl 13y ago
No, subtitles don't get in the way at all :')
13y ago

barbs 13y ago

Great ad. Here's something similar, by Coca-Cola: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts_4vOUDImE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts_4vOUDImE. Not as emotional, but quite good.

capex 13y ago

Behind the division of the sub-continent lies a great debate, that of Jinnah vs Gandhi. Was it the true aspiration of the people to get divided geographically while getting independence from British rule? It seems the divide happened because of some ideology driven people (Iqbal) who convinced other leaders (Jinnah) to pursue it. Today, this is a raging battle in Pakistan, did Pakistan ever need to be an independent country, considering how peacefully muslims are living in India vs the ready-to-cut-throats Pakistanis?

anigbrowl 13y ago
For those interested in history, Freedom at Midnight is a great documentary book on the liberation and subsequent partition of India: http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-at-Midnight-Dominique-Lapierre/dp/8125931864 http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-at-Midnight-Dominique-Lapierre... It's a sad fact that the departure of the British Empire from various colonial possessions frequently resulted in a power vacuum followed by deep internal conflicts which remain problematic today - Ireland, Israel, and India being three obvious examples.
- chimeracoder 13y ago
  > It's a sad fact that the departure of the British Empire from various colonial possessions frequently resulted in a power vacuum followed by deep internal conflicts which remain problematic today - Ireland, Israel, and India being three obvious examples. Let's not be overly generous. I won't speak to Ireland or Israel, but in the case of India, the political strife was not a coincidence - it was the all-but-deliberate result of the British. They actively funded terrorist groups on conflicting sides with the express goal of dividing the region not just geographically (Partition), but ideologically and politically. (This is, of course, not too different from the US funding terrorist groups when it is politically convenient to do so, and then invading foreign countries to overthrow the rulers brought to power by those same terrorist groups, when it becomes politically convenient to do that instead.)
  - vowelless 13y ago
    > They actively funded terrorist groups on conflicting sides with the express goal of dividing the region not just geographically (Partition), but ideologically and politically. Can you give me some specific examples of terrorist groups? From my readings, the British just successfully managed to divide the Hindu and Muslim populations using discriminating policies (like the pig / cow oil on guns in the 1800s), and let the divisions play out. They did support Gandhi and Jinnah, but I never came across them actively funding terrorist organizations.

zakhan 13y ago

The original concept was produced in a video by Pak Sar Zameen Productions on December 12, 2012 http://www.hotpaknews.com/2013/11/did-google-stole-the-idea-behind-the-reunion-ad/ http://www.hotpaknews.com/2013/11/did-google-stole-the-idea-...

garg 13y ago
Naw, this goes way back. The group Junoon had Ghoom Taana. And lots more before that. It's not a rip off Sorry. No cc https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=86fVq7iJcG4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=86...

throwaway5832 13y ago

/r/HailCorporate

MarkTee 13y ago

How many of you paused the video to search for "jhajariya" and clicked on the Wikipedia link?

piyush_soni 13y ago
Not paused but searched after the video ends :). And 'verified' that the correct definition does appear. :P
cynwoody 13y ago
I did. The expected definition appeared. And the first two "Images for jhajariya" were frames from the ad.

kunai 13y ago

For those that don't understand the ad, the partition was, and to be honest, still is a very sensitive issue in India. My grandmother experienced it first-hand: people lost their homes, were separated from their families, and many people died along the migration from Pakistan to Punjab. There was no way for people to get back in touch... until now, which is why this Google ad is particularly poignant. As much as everyone here has loved to hate on Google for the past couple of weeks, the ad shows everyone just how valuable their products can be. It's certainly worth something... and it's a lot more meaningful than whatever Apple is doing with their marketing.

jtchang 13y ago

Amazing work! What strikes me most is how little the language matters. You don't even have to watch it with subtitles to see how solid the editing was. Kudos to the entire team that worked on these videos.

notatoad 13y ago
the subtitles might have been a bit more necessary if all the on-screen text wasn't in english. That seemed like a strange choice for an ad produced by Google India.
- riteshpatel 13y ago
  English is one of the official languages of India and almost all people who are wealthy enough to own a smartphone browse in English. In fact, many kids actually go to schools where English is the primary teaching language - it's not uncommon for kids to not know how to say the days of the week in Hindi.
- anuragramdasan 13y ago
  I really wouldn't be able to find my way around the internet or on my cellphone if all the text were in Hindi. It stands true for most Indians.
- guyzero 13y ago
  The official languages of India are Hindi and English.
  - hudibras 13y ago
    And the official languages of Pakistan are Urdu and English. ...And, yes, I just Googled this question and got the answer from Wikipedia.
    - guyzero 13y ago
      Well, yes, yay Google+Wikipedia, but at any rate it's not surprising to see English used in ads produced for India and/or Pakistan.

crystaln 13y ago

A Pakistani girl showed this video to me early this year, and she was in fact very moved. The Pakistan - India divide is a tragedy of religion and politics, foreign and domestic.

elwell 13y ago

Well it's moving someone to tears in the ol' USA too.

primelens 13y ago

They built a nice series of shorter vignettes based on the original ad.[1] These are perhaps less easily translated but they are sure to tug at the heartstrings of a subcontinental audience. Cricket, biryani and street food - who knew power-cuts and diabetes could evoke such nostalgia! Well played, Google. I'll refrain from criticizing you for the next hour or so! :-) [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYVoM8tgbvA&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PL-kIBfSqQg3uMx9Z1fOpc7WPw2wDvbhFu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYVoM8tgbvA&feature=c4-overv...

harichinnan 13y ago

As a fellow Indian, I just want to point out that this video and any other efforts to develop people-to-people relationships between India and Pakistan have zero effect on the ongoing conflicts between the nations. Indians love Pakistani singers, cricketers, food, their language(Weird, I'm not a native Hindi speaker. But people tell me that Pakistani's speak better Hindi than most Indians). I've heard from Pak friends that they too love Bollywood and many things India. Even Pak government doesn't wish any ill on India. However the Pak army and ISI have vested interests in keeping conflicts alive. They also fund terrorist organizations in every neighboring country possible. Lack of democracy in Pakistan(Elected governments get routinely overthrown in coups) is a greater problem than religious extremism. By that extension, lack of democracy in Saudi Arabia, and Egypt was the root cause of all Islamic terrorism. Saudi's actively promote a version of Islam that promotes religious discord in muslim populations across the world. I think the US missed a huge opportunity in encouraging more democracy during Arab spring and even the Iranian uprising.

77ko 13y ago
The longest running head of the Pakistan Army in recent decades, General Musharraf, who was also the military dictator of the country for a good portion of that, made a lot of overtures towards some semblance of improving relations. Just pointing out that the Pakistan Army has people in it who think more about than just conflict with India. Ironic as Musharraf instigated and led the last major Pakistan/India skirmish/war, then moved on to talking peace.
- eklavya 13y ago
  Yeah right, he was the mastermind behind the bloody Kargil war. He is a nutcase like all the other Pak Army/ISI agents who dream about the demise of India, no matter if they burn their homeland to ashes in the process.
pknerd 13y ago
You for got add your RAW and Indian army, mate.

thrownaway2424 13y ago

Yes I was suitably manipulated. Good job, mass emotional manipulation team! But I am surprised they showed people searching for flight status and weather. Google Now is supposed to already know you're going to Delhi and just show you the weather there without you asking. Same for the flight status.

wrongc0ntinent 13y ago
"Yes I was suitably manipulated. Good job, mass emotional manipulation team!" - thrownaway2424 Just agreeing with your sentiment, might as well share the downvotes.
piyush_soni 13y ago
It is supposed to know only when you have the itinerary sent to your Gmail. And some people might just disable Google Now and/or 'location services' altogether.
chris_wot 13y ago
Hiding behind a throwaway account, taking anonymous potshots? Goodness!

stewartjarod 13y ago

Well... They got me.

sjtgraham 13y ago

This ad makes me tear up every time and the music is what takes it over the edge for me. The ad is scored so beautifully, the melodies and arrangements are incredible. Even though I can't understand what the singer is saying, I can definitely feel the emotions in his voice.

mmhemani 13y ago

Very Interesting Ad and as being a Pakistani I can actually feel it. Although, technically finding places in Pakistan using Google Maps is not as easy as shown in the video. There are still many problems with wrong land marks and more. But as a whole the content of the ad is very strong and positive that it can touch million more hearts!

nowarninglabel 13y ago

I wish Google could also improve the visa process for India which gets a brief cameo in the video. I've been trying for weeks to obtain a visa now and have been thwarted by the Indian government and its designated consultant's computer systems at every turn. It's to the point I've given up and am going to pay for a service to do it.

bruceb 13y ago
Are you from Pakistan? or somewhere else? For Americans getting a visa seems to be easy. Maybe not for some other countries?

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

scrrr 13y ago

Just wondering if reactions would be as positive if the product wasn't Google but, I don't know, Glock pistols or Royal Dutch Shell (aired 7 days after an oil spill). You could change the story to fit almost anything, after all.

saumil07 13y ago

I grew up in and around Mumbai...the ad is (unsurprisingly) quite disconnected from the facts on the ground but holy cow. Great production values, great storytelling, relevant tie-ins to Google products. Just great.

r0h1n 13y ago

Colour me cynical, but when a corporation is under fire from consumers, regulators and activists, a soppy and heartstring-tugging ad is exactly what the doctors order. It is literally Google saying, "Oh look, cute puppies!" when faced with a global barrage of criticism about its disdain for user privacy or its own past promises.

philthesong 13y ago
We'll promise you that we won't be evil...;) = We have too much dangerous information that will turn us into a monster, so don't blame us when that happens
basyt 13y ago
Yeah, I agree. here I am watching the ad, getting all emotional (I have some family in Pakistan, who moved their out of their own volition frankly) and I suddenly realize, wow I fell for this nauseatingly sweet ad! You got me (almost) Google. And since when did they start showing ads in India?
wrongc0ntinent 13y ago
(I feel strangely outsmarted again by them.) What would be interesting to know is if India is basically virgin territory as far as Google (marketing) ideology. In other words, is Google free to start from scratch there, without (some clearly outlined) lofty promises?
psbp 13y ago
Um, large consumer companies release ads all the time, and google is always under fire by consumers, regulators and activists.
- r0h1n 13y ago
  a. Google isn't just another "large consumer company" b. Google being "always under fire" by consumers, regulators and activists is no reason to start letting it off the hook. In fact, it should be the converse.

veritas213 13y ago

great ad..well done google. Maybe it takes a neutral 3rd party to make bothers start talking. Can we get a north korean version next?

denzil_correa 13y ago

The Ad also has short sequels as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0lzSb0m1cs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0lzSb0m1cs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYVoM8tgbvA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYVoM8tgbvA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltXy9tGqlT0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltXy9tGqlT0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI_Ke3iyfac https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI_Ke3iyfac

kranner 13y ago
Thanks for these links. Just a bit unlikely that Ali would be able to read 'saunf' in Devanagari, isn't it?
- audreyt 13y ago
  The romanized form "Saumfa" is also shown in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYVoM8tgbvA#t=0m26s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYVoM8tgbvA#t=0m26s .
  - kranner 13y ago
    Ah, yes. It's just that I'd expect Ali to search for "fennel in urdu", which does show the same word in Nastaliq.
- asadlionpk 13y ago
  yes but it said saunf in Roman below the huge Devanagari :) he had to search in hindi because they were in India and maybe saunf is called something else there.
  - kranner 13y ago
    Right, that makes sense.
- denzil_correa 13y ago
  > Just a bit unlikely that Ali would be able to read 'saunf' in Devanagari, isn't it? Why?

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

mankypro 13y ago

Hell, I'm just some random white guy in the US and the ad made me tear up. Yes, it was made for effect. Whether it was made by the newest evil corporation or not is irrelevant. The feelings it invokes are genuine.

sonabinu 13y ago

Great ad !!!

narrator 13y ago

No ad will ever beat this diet coke ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmBDeswu2dI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmBDeswu2dI Now diet coke, IMHO, is crap and I won't drink the stuff but I can watch this ad over and over again. Can one of you marketing geniuses in the audience tell me why it is so awesome? :)

sidcool 13y ago

The India Pakistan separation has left a scar on the hearts of several generations. Power hungry and religious fanatics caused this separation. Today's youth view the separation as a boon, but the million people killed in the riots and other millions made homeless still haunts and affects the geopolitics of the region.

MilesTeg 13y ago

Google seems to be the expert in heart-warming commercials. Remember their first super bowl ad? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ4unnMgiSQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ4unnMgiSQ

ankurdhama 13y ago

I hope this is still hacker news rather than some emotional fools forum who ignore realities.

marshray 13y ago
Don't worry, I'm sure someone will come along to comment on the web design on some computer screen in the background. And that will be OK.
- ankurdhama 13y ago
  Better would be if someone discuss how we can bring up http://extendedsubset.com http://extendedsubset.com ;)
  - marshray 13y ago
    How important is it for you that we bring back the old content?
chris_wot 13y ago
Well that's a remarkably narrow view of what should appear on HN!
- ankurdhama 13y ago
  I didn't say what should appear on HN (that would make the the set narrow), I just expressed something that shouldn't be here (that leave it wide wide open to many things)
  - chris_wot 13y ago
    You still narrowed the set of things that should be on HN. By expressing the set of things that should not appear on HN, you actually do dictate what should appear on HN. i.e. anything can appear on HN except xyz.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

rmoriz 13y ago

I like the "south park episode with ancient aliens" part most. http://i.imgur.com/ZDoYFdR.png http://i.imgur.com/ZDoYFdR.png

WasimBhai 13y ago

Oh yes, we have the best sweets, and the most awesome Curry in Lahore. That is one thing we are extremely proud of. So people on Hackernews, next time you plan on taking a trip, come over to Pakistan for some of the most awesome culinary delights!

techtivist 13y ago

The sad part is as an Indian myself I know that the reality is much different. If I started calling Pakistani phones the government will probably start investigating me for being a suspected terrorist and the old gentleman from Pakistan will never get a visa so swiftly. It's perhaps true the other way around. Even if people want to come closer the state and politics always gets in the way.

pknerd 13y ago

Let's not forget it's an Ad only. Emotional Marketing? God bless Capitalism!

benched 13y ago

I don't care about emotionally manipulative film for its own sake. However, if this did actually do anything significant to improve Indian/Pakistani relations, I really would forgive Google for its asinine product design decisions for as much as half a year.

cs02rm0 13y ago

Superb advert. Slightly amused after realising that the first thing I then did was use Facebook search to find Google's page to share it.

chris_wot 13y ago

Is it true that Apple doesn't have a single store in India?

unhappyhippie 13y ago
No.
swatkat 13y ago
http://www.apple.com/in/buy/shop/ http://www.apple.com/in/buy/shop/ http://www.istoreindia.com/index.html http://www.istoreindia.com/index.html

yitchelle 13y ago

I love to see similar Adverts with divides between - Israel and Lebanon. - North Korea and South Korea - East Berlin and West Berlin etc... For me, this is one of the areas where technology can enrich our lives.

pitchups 13y ago

The most interesting aspect of this video - other than the clearly emotional storyline - was how closely it reflects the way most of us use the web, smartphones, and yes - Google - to manage our day-to-day lives. A search for a landmark, a shop, to answer a quick question, to check the weather, to book a flight. Even more remarkable how almost none of this was possible a mere 10 years ago - at least not from the palm of our hand.

lakwn 13y ago

You don't need to be Indian or Pakistani to be moved to tears by this ad...

sanoli 13y ago

I'll probably get downvotes, but here goes: I liked the ad, it moved me, it didn't bother that it was from a big corporation (re the discussion below). What bothers me in ads, and in movies etc, is how the men can always be some regular looking man, sometimes even ugly, while the women always have to be very attractive. I know I'll get called on for being too P.C. for this but c'mon, does it always have to be a very attractive indian girl? Does Virginia Woolf need to be played by Nicole Kidman? Salma Hayek as Frida Kahlo? The biopics about men aren't always played by Tom Cruises.

nirbhay 13y ago

i am from india and i can tell you that no one i talked to found this ad 'moving'. its the same cheesy bullshit that we see all day.

linux_devil 13y ago
I am from India and lot of my friends find this one moving.

known 13y ago

Are these Actors from Pakistan?

swatkat 13y ago
No, they're are Indians. It's made by Ogilvy & Mather, India. Cast info: http://www.missmalini.com/2013/11/15/have-you-watched-the-google-search-reunion/ http://www.missmalini.com/2013/11/15/have-you-watched-the-go... Production info: http://www.ogilvy.com/News/Press-Releases/November-2013-Campaign-for-Google-Search-by-OM-India-celebrates-emotions-of-reunions.aspx http://www.ogilvy.com/News/Press-Releases/November-2013-Camp...

VLM 13y ago

So half a day later, and no one on HN noticed the most interesting fact about the ad was its THREE AND A HALF MINUTES LONG? I mean I've had mythtv and commercial skipping for I guess over a decade now and I adblock all browsers etc but do people "out there" really sit thru almost four minute long advertisements? Back when I used to watch them, commercials were long enough for a bathroom break, sounds like commercial breaks are approaching "short workout followed by a shower" or perhaps "cook and eat some hot pockets" length of time.

DanBC 13y ago
There are plenty of long ads around. Sometimes they're good, and I don't mind sitting through them. There's one featuring a British Bi-Athlete (skiing, shooting). I have no idea what it's advertising. I looked up the gun he was using and they do a really neat laser & target system. Like Tin Can Alley but for adults. Long ads are much less impressive when they're repeatedly something I have zero interest in ("It's showtime, you've been coding like a beast "[SKIP]) or when they're lousy ads created by people who don't know what they're doing. I usually leave them running in another tab until the content is ready. I understand why other people would hate them and want to ad block them. Also: I have zero interest in gambling, and I never want to see a gambling ad, but I get loads. I wonder what recovering alcoholics or addicted gamblers could do to prevent those ads from appearing, other than using ad-block?
- VLM 13y ago
  "I understand why other people would hate them and want to ad block them." Its not hate so much as being an unactionable distraction that interferes with buy the perry the platypus wooden action figure it does nothing... oh wait see how annoying that interruption was and how little it added to the conversation? Personally I prefer paid promotional product placement. So I was working on a S-100 circuit board in my basement "lab" last night using my Hakko model 937 digital temperature soldering iron with 1/16th inch tip (or whatever millimeters it is) and my Kester no-kleen #235 flux 0.02 dia solder (well you get the idea) Like how most hollywood computers happen to be Apples.
JoeAltmaier 13y ago

bane 13y ago

It doesn't hurt that the acting is also phenomenal.

known 13y ago

But for Bania Gandhi, implementing 'separate' electorates as per https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communal_Award https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communal_Award would have prevented India-Pakistan partition.

leoc 13y ago

It's a pleasant ad, though it also reminds me of http://www.stevenlevy.com/index.php/05/08/the-sophie-choice http://www.stevenlevy.com/index.php/05/08/the-sophie-choice : "There were no actors seen in the Super Bowl commercial, and that was part of its charm: even though it broke one taboo, it maintained the company’s geeky dignity of logic and verifiability. The star was the stuff that appeared on the computer screen. But “Dear Sophie” is more of a classic form of Madison Avenue pitching. It’s probably something that Don Draper would come up with if Larry and Sergey were his clients. They would tell him that their product, the Chrome browser, has a lot going for it over its competitors, like speedier response and a single box to type in addresses and search queries. It runs Web applications more efficiently than other browsers, they’d tell him, and if everyone used it, it would hasten a new paradigm of cloud apps. Draper would say that all that stuff is well and good. But for our commercial, we’re going to show a tear-jerking evocation of a father compiling an online scrapbook for to his daughter as she grows up. Straight out of the Kodak playbook–don’t brag about your specs, but play that song about Where Are You Going My Little One, and out will come the handkerchiefs. It’s also a stratagem used by banks and insurance companies." Mind you, that was two years ago and feels somewhat like ancient history now.

dluu001 13y ago

Very moving and and this article really helps everyone understand the history of the partition that occurred.

swamp40 13y ago

Reading the subtitles reminded me of a dream of mine I would like to see realized some day: A live audio-to-text translation to English scrolling across the bottom of a Google Glass screen. Talk about bring the world together...

prakashk 13y ago

Here's the story of Saroo Munshi Khan finding his home/family 26 years after he lost them with the help of Google Earth: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-long-way-home-with-help-from-google.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-long-way-home-with-... He wrote a book about his experience: "A Long Way Home" (http://www.penguin.com.au/products/9780670077045/long-way-home http://www.penguin.com.au/products/9780670077045/long-way-ho...)

zaidf 13y ago

On the topic of top notch commercials out of India, here's a memorable series from Vodafone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtDYZHGzGLE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtDYZHGzGLE

san86 13y ago

"This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and Pakistan" Probably not all across India. I am from the south and neither me nor my ancestors have any personal experiences from the partition. Don't get me wrong.. this is a great ad and I understand the emotion behind it. but this is only as moving as a similar story on the Israel-Palestine border(ok maybe a little more because of my high school history books and representation in popular culture). Culturally, South India is more seperated from the North compared with North India (Punjab, Delhi, Kashmir) and Western regions of Pakistan. To me this is a well produced ad which highlights the troubles of a particularly cruel time in India's history. Nothing personal about it.

oo 13y ago

Why hadn't they had a video chat and let the two old friends see each other before they could meet in person? Their network speed looks good enough for FaceTime or Google Hangouts.

irfan 13y ago

Interesting point is that no sweet shop owner knows any sweet by the name of 'Jhajaria' in Lahore. Even 'Fazal Sweets' shown in this ad doesnt know about it. Same seems to be the case in India: http://thedailyretard.in/demand-for-jhajariya-on-the-rise-after-googles-reunion-ad-goes-viral-sweet-shops-owners-confused/ http://thedailyretard.in/demand-for-jhajariya-on-the-rise-af...

fivesquare 13y ago

an ad with a value.

sq1020 13y ago

Like many of you said, it's true that Urdu and Hindi are pretty much the same when it comes to the colloquial, spoken form of the languages. However, when you experience more advanced usages of the languages, they begin to sound totally different. Watch a news broadcast in Hindi and Urdu and you'll see what I mean. The formerly seemingly identical languages diverge sharply in academic settings and literature because Urdu borrows it's more advanced words from Persian which in turn borrowed these words from Arabic whereas the more advanced Hindi vocabulary is based on Sanskrit. Not to mention the script is totally different.

r0muald 13y ago

The thread where all HN users reveal their nationality, hometown, family status and what not. So good! PS fuck NSA