A Polish Christmas advert about a grandfather learning English is melting hearts online
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A screenshot from the advert depicting a grandfather learning English.
PHOTO: YOUTUBE
A Polish Christmas advert about a grandfather learning English is melting hearts worldwide.
The ad, for online auction website Allegro, has been viewed more than 2.7 million times on YouTube.
It starts with the elderly man receiving an English For Beginners audio set from the website.
He then sets about becoming fluent, by putting stickers on household objects and reciting phrases out loud.
The advert, shows the man reciting English during a series of amusing scenes - including saying "I love you" to a surprised woman sitting on the bus in front of him.
Eventually, he orders items for travelling and makes his way to an airport, all the way repeating the phrase "Hi, I am…"
He then arrives at a house and is greeted by a man presumed to be his son, and his son's wife.
The advert culminates in the real reason the man decided to pick up a new language - meeting his granddaughter for the first time.
"Hi. I'm your Grandpa," he tells the little girl.
The advert has touched people around the world, said Britain's Independent.
One Twitter user wrote: "Real tears were shed watching this."
A YouTube viewer said: "My gosh, that was a beautiful ad, I got tears in my eye."
A spokesman for Allegro told BuzzFeed News said they wanted the advert to reflect the lives of the millions of Polish people who have left the country, but have family in Poland.
"For years, we've strived to make both Allegro - the largest e-commerce platform in the CEE region - as well as our communication to customers bring joy, touch the heart and cause a smile.
"Such is this ad: about a grandfather who overcomes obstacles to reunite with his loved ones living abroad. Many Polish people share the same experience. Nearly one million Poles have decided to leave the country in search of a job, mainly heading the United Kingdom.
"Despite the relatively close distance between the countries, family ties tend to weaken. Therefore, Christmas for many is a difficult time in which we yearn for more. But the story we are telling is all-purpose and can be easily understood by any other nation or community who can easily link the happy ending of a smile and tears of emotion to their daily human experience.
"We also put a fundamental question of what we look for in life, 'what are you looking for,' as the slogan of our campaign. In this way, the reality mingles with the feelings of each of us."
