Surf Excel continues their Ramadan tradition of releasing thought-provoking, emotional and evocative ads with this year’s entry, centered around the theme of “Ek Mukammal Jahan (home for all)”. As in past years, Surf Excel continues emphasizing the importance of good deeds and charity, choosing to focus this year, on people united by experiences of grief coming together to find hope and joy together.
The ad follows a group of young children visiting an old age home for the first of Ramadan, and setting off across the home, playing, joking and talking with the initially reluctant residents, until together, both young and old, play and laugh the day together. As the children prepare to leave, we realize the children are orphans – that like their new friends, they too know heart wrenching loss. With this realization, one pair turn to the orphans’ chaperone and asks if the children might stay.
You can watch the full heartwarming TVC below:
Surf Excel arranged a Zoom call for select influencers, bloggers, media personalities and journalists to come together and share their reactions on the video and their broader thoughts on the theme of “home for all” in the midst of social distancing and the Coronavirus pandemic. The call featured Aamna Isani, Faiza Saleem, Maliha Rehman, Amna Niazi, Momina Ali Munshi, Hunaina Rasool, Daniyal Sheikh, Hassan Choudary, Manahyl Shafiq and Humna Raza amongst others.
On the call, participants shared their immediate reactions to the evocative ad and how they personally related it. Amna Niazi highlighted how the timeliness of the ad added to its emotional weight, as it dealt with themes of loneliness and grief. Speaking of his own experiences, Hassan Choudary highlighted how he “had to stay in his room for 14 days, and the loneliness one feels in that isolation for 14 days” is something that is evoked when thinking of the elderly or orphans, both living away from families or loved ones.
Comedienne Faiza Saleem echoed those thoughts, highlighting that the ad’s effectiveness came from this teasing this relatable emotion from the audience, saying how she liked, “that they haven’t played on those emotions the way some ads pointlessly try forcing sentimental value and it doesn’t mean anything” as compared to Surf Excel’s ad, which in Maliha Rehman’s words “triggers emotions naturally.” Humna Raza agreed, highlighting the superb acting by both the children and elderly, which combines with the music of the ad to send viewers on an emotional journey.
For Hunaina Rasool, a key part of the ad’s impact came from her own memories with her grandmother, who would always chide her to talk to her and spend more time with her. This point was shared by Daniyal Shaikh, who shared the joy from his own memories of listening to his grandparents talk about their youth, as he remarks how even though it is the same stories repeated all too often, it is in the tradition of that storytelling and the beauty of their repetition that is so important, especially as he feels his generation’s relationships with their grandparents grows distance as he and his friends grew out of childhood.
Indeed, Aamna Isani highlighted the larger message of this cross-generational interaction and the memories it evokes, speaking of the need, “to build these spaces where the elderly are safe and happy and the children are connected” through community service and supporting one another. It is precisely this message poignantly captured at the end of the video, when two unlikely friends – an elderly man and a young orphan child – highlight the bond that unites them, with the old man telling the childrens’ chaperone that, “they have lost some near and dear ones, and so have we,” to which his new young friend, tightly clutching his hand, exclaims how, “if we stay together, neither will be lonely anymore.”
As families and friends are forced to endure a second Ramadan apart, all too many families find an empty chair at their Iftaar table this year. Keenly aware of this, Surf Excel’s message this Ramadan highlights how all of us – even those who have faced loss and adversity – have a role to play in spreading the joys of family and companionship this Ramadan, and making everyone feel that they have a “home for all”.
