Google's Emotional Chrome Commercials Go Viral [VIDEO]

Google's latest ad for its Chrome browser has received 169,000 views on YouTube and is number one on Unruly Media’s Viral Video Chart on the strength of a heartwarming story.

The ad, called “Dear Sophie,” shows a father using Google products to catalog his daughter’s life events from birth to a hospital stay for an unnamed illness, to the loss of her baby teeth. He writes her notes using Gmail, for instance, and posts videos of her on YouTube.

Although some might see it as slightly creepy (Are those YouTube videos public? Does the girl know?), the story of a child’s first years boiled down to 90 seconds is bound to evoke the specter of time’s passage and life’s ephemerality. Not bad for a TV commercial. The extended length (most TV spots are 30 seconds) also seems to help deliver more of an emotional effect.