The commercial opens on a baby crying alone in a dimly lit hospital room.
Cue the beginning notes of Sam & Dave’s upbeat “Hold On, I’m Coming,” which plays as a bespectacled man walks confidently down a hallway. Cut to him picking up and cradling the baby in his arms.
The man prominently featured in this new MassMutual commercial is David Deutchman. He became known to the world as "ICU Grandpa" after going viral last year for being a longtime volunteer who cuddles at-risk babies at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
In the ad, an image of Deutchman holding the now-calm child is overlaid with the words “Atlanta, GA. Retiree comforts ICU babies when parents can’t be there.”
The 84-year-old began volunteering at CHOA’s Scottish Rite hospital near his Sandy Springs home more than a dozen years ago, after retiring from working in international business marketing. One day, a nurse asked him if he would like to hold a baby. The baby put her head on his shoulder, and he fell in love.
“That was it. I’ve been falling in love with babies for the past 13 years,” he said. “That’s the story of my life.”
When Deutchman was approached about doing the commercial via email, he thought it might be junk mail. Then he got a call from a man in California, and met with a manager from a public relations firm.
“One thing led to another and I began to realize it was for real,” he said Monday in a telephone interview.
“I’m expecting to go into show business any minute now,” perhaps as an older version of George Clooney, he joked.
Deutchman said the offer came out of left field, especially because he thought the attention he got from becoming an Internet celebrity would eventually die down. That initial hullabaloo prompted him to join Facebook, where he started reconnecting and going on luncheon dates with the women he calls “my moms:” the mothers of babies he’s cared for in the past.
“The response I care about mostly is the people who work (at CHOA) and the moms,” he said.
The insurance company’s national ad began airing on Thanksgiving and will continue into the New Year, a company spokeswoman said.
The commercial’s concept was to “celebrate ‘unsung heroes’ all around us and cultivate feelings of optimism and hope,” Jennifer Halloran, MassMutual’s head of brand said.
“The genesis for spotlighting stories of real people helping real people at this time of year was that the season of giving thanks is essentially the most ‘mutual’ time of year,” Halloran said in a statement.
The ad highlights other “acts of mutuality,” including, an Alabama mom who bought her child’s teacher a car; a Mississippi a couple who unexpectedly hosted a wedding that was about to be rained out; and a Texas engineering student who created a device for a girl without an arm allowing her to play violin. Toward the end, there’s a closeup of Deutchman and the baby staring into each other’s eyes.
Deutchman still volunteers at the hospital twice a week, and said he plans to continue doing so as long as his health and energy allows. Originally from the Bronx before living in Boston for a decade, he’s lived in the Atlanta area for 45 years.
“Without living here, I never would have had all these babies in my life,” he said.
See the ad below:
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