These sad ads are so sad they will make you laugh

An old man sits depressed in his living room, slung over in his La-Z-Boy, because he couldn’t make it to a local store’s furniture sale. It didn’t help that all of his friends are dead so they couldn’t drive him. He also gets an extra kick in the shins from the neighborhood kids, who revel in his misery and make faces at him through the window.

A young lad sits by himself on a rock, by the seashore. He looks longingly at his peers frolicking in the waves and realizes for the first time, that this is his life’s destiny--to be solo, forever. His only companionship? The cup of “Lonely Boy” yogurt sitting in his hand, with a plastic spoon, barely touched, protruding.

A woman dines alone at Fisherman’s Hook restaurant. The edges of her mouth dip downward, her Seafood Smile Platter doing nothing to turn that frown upside down. That’s because in the parking lot, she sees a couple madly in lust. And she will never, ever be a part of that. “She’ll never find lo-ove,” sings the background vocals. “She’ll just keep searching and searching and searching, a whole long life full of pointless searching because she’ll never find love. She’ll always be alone.”

These scenarios bring you down so low, there’s nowhere to go but up.  Which is the point, since they’re actually promoting the Chicago Comedy Film Festival, in the campaign created out of TBWA/Chiat/Day New York and directed by O Positive's Kenny Herzog.

After each depressing scene, a bombastic voice-over intrudes: “Do you feel sad all of a sudden for no reason? Cheer up at the Chicago Comedy Film Festival!” it says, with cloying enthusiasm, directing viewers to the festival’s website. How manipulative!