In this cute commercial for Norfolk Southern Rail Lines called “City of Possibilities”, some kid with a simple little toy train on a simple little ovular circuit of track on his floor is put to bed by his father, and while he’s asleep, his whole bedroom comes to life, with the Norfolk Southern train tracks expanding all over the room, and all of the kid’s stuffed animals, action figures, etc., setting up businesses and corporate headquarters all over the room growing up around these new rail lines. And then the announcer says: “Wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life!” And then it makes sense why the economy has been so stagnant for so long: Norfolk Southern is building all of its railroad lines in little kids’ bedrooms and only providing jobs for stuffed animals and dolls! Don’t they care about people? Because apart from denying human beings jobs, this kid is going to wake up the next day and get a big spanking from his parents when his mother slips on one of these trains and breaks her hip! And boy, when his folks demand that he clean up his room, Norfolk Southern has left him a monumental task that will take him all day, as well as destroy the economy for all the soon-to-be-unemployed stuffed animals and dolls!
Plus, won’t his parents wonder where all these toys came from? Will he be accused of stealing some of these toys when they come from other kids’ houses for the new job opportunities with the railroad? This sure is going to be a heap of trouble for this kid! And what if he wants to play with his Hot Wheels cars and track set? Won’t he tear apart a thriving metropolis for his own purposes? Wow, he’ll be detested by all of his own toys from then on, and they’ll plot to kill him in his sleep! Oh, the humanity!
Oh, and Norfolk Southern seems to attract lots of monsters to the city too, like a King Kong-esque gorilla on an Empire State Building-style skyscraper (aided by a disembodied hand, like Mr. Hands from the old Mr. Bill Show on SNL, to cause callous destruction everywhere!), a brontosaurus in the city like in The Lost World, machines operating all by themselves like in Maximum Overdrive, a giant octopus threatening everyone like in It Came from Beneath the Sea, a lion as a mayor who might just attack and eat everyone in sight, etc. How long will it be before all these monsters attack and take over the kid’s room, and the lion eats him while he’s sleeping? And Norfolk Southern is a co-conspirator in all of these monstrous goings on! That’s got to be at least reckless endangerment and depraved indifference right there, risking an innocent child’s life for their own purposes! Oh, my God! Those fiends!
Now, naturally, I am only joking here, because this is one truly inspired TV commercial that’s wonderfully realized to boot! They don’t come along looking this great and with such a terrific concept so well communicated in an entertaining and heartwarming manner all that often. Great job on this one, guys! Wow.
This is surely one for the demo reel for 2010s American ads, don’t you think? It feels like a compressed animated children’s movie, and entertaining as all get-out, with tons of teensy little details in the goings-on that you could keep finding new things in every scene each and every time you see it for its entire run. I always find new things to smile at each time I see it, and I never get tired of this spot. And you can’t say that about many TV commercials, now can you?
Here’s the terrific toy train commerce television commercial:
