Advertising has always aimed to teach us that happiness and fun is something you find and purchase at a store, but usually efforts are made to skirt around the reality of this fantasy facade.
The stubborn reality that advertising will do anything to distract us from is that true happiness comes from our relationships with people and the world and that most of the most meaningful fun and happiness you can find in life doesn't require buying anything at all.
Well, Toys "R" Us decided to tackle this inconvenient reality head on by attacking one of the most uncommodifiable sources of joy for children there is: nature.
Surely, however, their attempt to cast nature as some boring non-entity that can't compete with the wonders of their store will backfire for most people that view it.
The children that the ad is aimed at however?
In Part 2, Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert tackles the drama in his usual hilarious fashion.