...my kids will grow up - why does a Toyota Sequoia commercial have to play that emotion card? Do they really think that this kind of commercial heart-tugging is going to make me want to buy their vehicle?

Some advertising executive apparently thinks so. They think wrongly.

I am well aware that my daughters will someday walk down the aisle...

...that they'll be in college...

...that they'll be taking their kids (my grandkids!) to the same places that I took them. Wherever that is that remains to be seen.

Why do they have to use 6, 7, 8 year olds to convey this? Why can't they use older kids - after all, older kids are closer to those landmarks than younger kids... Ah, but it's the great emotion and income situation. You want to tug the heartstrings of those parents who don't have looming college and wedding costs and whose kids' days of sweet innocent childhood are waning. You want to hit the pocketbooks of those parents with young children, no immediate large bills (other than maybe a mortgage), and who can still pack up the kids and say "Hey! We're taking a family vacation on the top of a mountain with our new Sequoia!"

They're not succeeding in attempting to convince me that I need to buy a new car. They've succeeding in convincing me that I might need to spend a little more time with my kids because they're not going to be this age forever. They've succeeded in reminding me that I need to save for college and for weddings. They've succeeded in telling me that I'm going to be older someday with grown up kids.

They've succeeded in convincing me that they're smarmy to be playing the emotions card, and that they may not care how that comes across to people.

They've succeeded in telling me that I shouldn't be spending my money on a new car, but for all these other things that I need to take care of in the future.

My kids will grow up right before my eyes, yet I will blink, and most of it will be gone - as if I missed it. I didn't need to be reminded of that when one of my nieces just celebrated her 10th birthday, and B is on the verge of turning 7.

They've reminded me that hugging my kids and spending time with them NOW while they're young is way more important than any car could ever be...

...*makes a note to hug her kids twice as hard after picking them up from school and to play a game with them tonight*