“Let me buy a ham – NOW!”

I had the opportunity to do a Focus Point type of opinion poll where one gets paid anywhere from $3 to $200, depending on length of time, to go there and participate by giving one’s opinion. I like being paid for my opinion.  🙂 It’s fun and lucrative.

I’ve done a few of them: cereal boxes, medicine ads, tasting possible new Oreos and being on a mock jury for about 5 hours.   My husband got to test several new options for Burger King Whoppers once. You should look into it sometime.

So, this was a one-on-one where the leader sat with me at a table showing me possible commercials to be used for Hatfield Quality Meats, while a team watched us through a one-way mirror. She showed me a family of four playing outside their home and grilling pork products and having a picnic. I answered a lot of “impression” type questions. But what I most remember was their “holiday” ad and no doubt the team remembers my experience to this day. Bear in mind that my son David had been stationed in Guam with the Navy and I hadn’t seen him in over two years.

There was a large family gathering of 15-20 people. Everyone was scurrying around (in the space of less than 60 seconds) happily bringing all of the foods to the table. Cute kids and grandparents smiled at moms and dads, and I was thinking, “Yes, I like watching this commercial.” On the table was a huge ham, and something with bacon and some side dish that obviously had pork loin slices. There was no dialogue, just music and the ad about Hatfield Quality Meats. Everything looked delicious! They all sat down at the table to start and there was a tiny pause where all heads turned, indicating that the doorbell had rung. The mother walked to the door and standing outside was her daughter in military uniform. They embraced, camera on the tears streaming down the mother’s surprised face, and the commercial faded out.

Well, I wept. I just put my face in my hands and wept and wept, and couldn’t even speak for several minutes. I can imagine that the team behind the window was grinning and high-fiving each other, “Yep, we got a winner!”

When I was finally able to speak, I said, “If I thought that serving some Hatfield products would bring my son home for the holidays, I’d head for the store right now.”

Sniff.