Clearly meant for sharing

The video above is an ad, and one clearly made to encourage people to share it. In fact, it’s hard to imagine that this won’t become huge. That’s fine—it’s well-made, clever, and a good ad. But all ads sell something, and people must always be aware of that. In this case, though, I don’t think it’s problem.

The video stars Macaulay Culkin reprising his role as Kevin McCallister in the 1993 film, Home Alone, including recreating many of the scenes in the film. He’s 38 now, and he and others his age literally grew up with the film. Together with the older folks who watched the movie at the time or in the years afterward, this video has a huge potential audience, even if only for its nostalgic appeal (a bigger appeal, I think, than the somewhat darker take on the character three years ago).

The product the video actually promotes isn’t unique—many companies offer similar services, and more things will be voice-activated in the years to come. Whether this particular ad will bring in any new customers or not, one thing that’s certain is that it will appeal to some people, even if only for reasons of nostalgia. This time of year, that’s enough. Good will appeared in a company’s financial accounting, after all.