This tear-inducing video may actually sell you on Google Glass
YouTube
A man packs a red duffel bag, bids his young wife goodbye, and embarks on a journey from San Francisco to India, where he surprises his mother.
It's a touching video that brought me to tears (shocker!). But as the last card reveals, it's actually a Google-Glass produced short film called Seeds. And before you feel duped and disregard it as just a schmaltzy commercial, the video is actually... impressive.
The first-person perspective feels urgent and personal, as though you are checking your bags at the airport, hailing a rickshaw, dangling your feet off of a fast-moving train, climbing into a canoe, and tapping a sari-clad woman on the back.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Whether the story is real or not doesn't matter. The video allows you to imagine how you might capture the heartwarming moments in your own life. Glass has created similar videos before (there's one called "Marry me [through Google Glass]" that luke-warms the heart). But Glass has learned from its mistakes. Seeds excels by omitting shots of the wearer. You're not reminded of how idiotic you'd look wearing the high-tech headgear. It's marketing brilliance. Watch below for yourself. --Lauren Hansen
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Lauren Hansen produces The Week’s podcasts and videos and edits the photo blog, Captured. She also manages the production of the magazine's iPad app. A graduate of Kenyon College and Northwestern University, she previously worked at the BBC and Frontline. She knows a thing or two about pretty pictures and cute puppies, both of which she tweets about @mylaurenhansen.
-
Puffed rice and yoga: inside the collapsed tunnel where Indian workers await rescue
Speed Read Workers trapped in collapsed tunnel are suffering from dysentery and anxiety over their rescue
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
More than 2,000 dead following massive earthquake in Morocco
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Mexico's next president will almost certainly be its 1st female president
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
North Korea's Kim to visit Putin in eastern Russia to discuss arms sales for Ukraine war, U.S. says
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Gabon's military leader sworn in following coup in latest African uprising
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Nobody seems surprised Wagner's Prigozhin died under suspicious circumstances
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Western mountain climbers allegedly left Pakistani porter to die on K2
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
'Circular saw blades' divide controversial Rio Grande buoys installed by Texas governor
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published