If your once-loved, coldly discarded belongings could share their feelings of loss and exile, what would it sound like? Like Foreigner, that's what.
In this Leo Burnett spot for British TV service Freeview, a bunch of "left behinds"—mainly unsold toys and figurines—spring to life after a parish rummage sale and sing along with Foreigner's 30-year-old power ballad "I Want to Know What Love Is."
The church's janitor looks appropriately amazed, and kind of horrified, at this unexpected display of free entertainment. A voiceover attempts to explain the brand proposition: "Ninety-five percent of the nation's top TV, no monthly cost. Entertainment—it's even better when it's free."
The memorably offbeat clip was directed by Sam Brown through Rogue Films. It's both charming and slightly unsettling, much like Freeview's singing cat and budgie a while back. This vague creepiness, noted by several YouTube commenters, is actually a big plus. It makes the spot more compelling than if it had been only cute or sentimental.
The #SingingToys, as they're known, really are a rag-tag lot. You've got, among others, a tattered teddy bear (cousin to this scruffy scamp, perhaps?), a worse-for-wear baby-doll, some menacing pro-wrestling action figures, a weird ceramic schnauzer (or maybe it's a Scottie; here, it's green) and what appears to be a wounded G.I. Joe.
Frankly, it's not hard to see why they'd get left behind. Thankfully, at this magical time of year, there's always hope that misfit toys can find a home.
