There's an Incredible True Story Behind Google's Powerful Super Bowl Commercial

From Oprah Magazine

• Google ran an emotional Super Bowl LIV commercial last night called "Loretta."

• The ad featured a man asking Google remember certain things about his late wife.

• The Google commercial is based on a true story, according to the company's chief marketing officer.

Amid all the humor-filled Super Bowl LIV ads shown last night, Google's commercial entitled "Loretta" is getting a lot of buzz for its powerful and emotional narrative.

To recap for those of you who were refilling the chip bowl, the commercial begins with a man typing into Google "how to not forget," and then asking his Google Assistant device to show him photos of his late wife named Loretta. The man continues to ask Google to remember certain things about her, like the fact that she hated his mustache, loved going to Alaska, and always snorted when she laughed. At the end, Google recites all of the things the man had asked the device to remember. It closed out with the man saying, "remember I'm the luckiest man in the world."

Turns out, the heartbreaking ad was actually based on the real-life story of a Google employee's 85-year-old grandfather, according to a statement Chief Marketing Officer Lorraine Twohill released. What's more, the voice in the commercial is the man the ad was first inspired by.

The statement also pointed out that the 2020 commercial is very similar to the one that aired 10 years prior called "Parisian Love," which centers around an American man finding love in Paris.

"Both are simple love stories told through the lens of our products. Both were inspired by real people," Lorraine explained.

Go to Twitter, and you'll see that the "Loretta" ad hit home with a lot of people. On the celebrity front, Maria Shriver tweeted, "Bravo to @Google for this incredible ad. Wow," while Hoda Kotb announced, "That @Google commercial melted me."

Safe to say, we'll be crying over this one for the next few days. 😭