Google's Super Bowl tearjerker tells the story of a man trying to protect his memories of his late wife

Google will air its third consecutive Super Bowl ad, which aims to strike emotion through search and its AI-powered Google Assistant. “Loretta” is about an elderly man who is coping following the loss of his beloved wife. The problem, however, is the man — who isn't given a name — is unsure how he should even begin. So he does what most people do and types his question into Google: "how to not forget." “The ad reflects our goal to build products that help people in their daily lives, in both big and small ways,” Lorraine Twohill, chief marketing officer at Google, writes in a blog post. “Sometimes that’s finding a location, sometimes it’s playing a favorite movie, and sometimes it’s using the Google Assistant to remember meaningful details.” In the 90-second spot, created in-house, Google blends together traditional search with its virtual assistant as the man shares personal details about his wife. “Remember Loretta hated my mustache” and “Loretta loved going to Alaska and scallops,” are among the phrases the man shares through his voice to Google Assistant, to which it replies, “OK, I’ll remember that.” Google declined to share when the commercial would run, but confirmed it would be during the game. The company added that an internal team at Google Creative Lab “conceptualized, animated and edited this commercial. No external agencies or directors were involved.” Last year, Google ran a pair of in-house Super Bowl ads that saluted military veterans and spoke on social issues. The spot itself is similar to Google’s first Super Bowl ad — “Parisian Love” — which aired 10 years ago. Like “Loretta,” the Big Game ad managed to pull on the heartstrings of viewers with something as dull as search. “‘Loretta’ has a few other things in common with our ‘Parisian Love’ commercial from 10 years ago,” Twohill says. “Both are simple love stories told through the lens of our products. Both were inspired by real people—in fact, the voice you hear throughout ‘Loretta’ is the grandfather of a Googler, whose story we drew from to create the ad. At 85, to an audience of millions, he’ll be making his film debut. We couldn’t be happier for him.” Google also released another spot on Tuesday promoting its Super Bowl appearance that had a much more light-hearted tone. The commercial features appearances by Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana and “Sesame Street's” Count von Count. The commercial pokes fun at the notion that each year, “America asks the same Super Bowl questions.” What happens next is a flurry of common questions asked — ”What time does the Super Bowl start;” “How many points is a touchdown;” “Who is the fastest player” and “Where is the Super Owl,” (a very obvious typo). Montana makes his appearance after someone asks the "controversial" question of who is "the greatest player of all time?"

Google's Super Bowl tearjerker tells the story of a man trying to protect his memories of his late wife

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