Google’s Latest Search Story Makes Having A Baby Seem Really Depressing
Alexia Tsotsis
Jul 29, 2010



Launched during this year’s Super Bowl with its inaugural “Parisian Love,” Google’s Search Stories campaign is meticulously engineered to be relatable and tug at your heartstrings.

Their latest offering, “New Baby,” portrays the joys and costs of parenting a little too well, heavy on the latter. So you’re clueless, your wife is pregnant and crazy and you have to sell your precious vinyl collection to be able to afford twins, which are an “expensive proposition”?

And on top of it all you have to buy a minivan (and sell the Porsche presumably)! If I was that dad I’d be searching for “how to get a vasectomy” instead of “how soon can we try again?”

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  • Frank Rizzo

    Having a baby would be very depressing.

  • David

    Well you have to take into account, that this search was done by a man. Men are usually more concerned about all that baby-thing compared to women.
    I assume that the female search would look totally different like: “baby clothes” “which color matches josephine?” “how to convince my husband to change diapers” and so on…

  • http://dkworldwide.com/techlife Dave Kaufman – Techlife

    I recently wrote a syndicated column on the My Google Stories, one thing I noticed their ads vs. our DIY ads huge difference in production value. Bordering on unfair. Once again the Baby Story proves the point.

    http://bit.ly/aoxvkw

  • Joe

    That’s funny. I made a search story video quite similar when it first came out, funny that they are so close in similiarity.

    When things don’t go as planned.

  • teko

    Alexia, you’re just overreacting. The video doesn’t sound depressing at all.

  • http://row27.com Jonathan Dusing

    6 weeks, You can try again in 6 weeks.

  • http://www.tiny.cc/750i4 rima20

    baby is the best thing in this life.
    http://www.tiny.cc/750i4

  • http://bebaroo.com Luis Calderon

    You should check out http://bebaroo.com to rent premium baby clothes and save money clothing your baby!

  • ProfessionalGun

    I hate to say this, but “How soon can we try again” in the end sends a chill down my spine. . . as though something went terribly wrong with the birth at the last minute. :(

  • Sebastian

    Alexia, the ad is not depressing at all. I think it’s great. However, your article sounds like you were depressed while writing it.

  • Sebastian

    Getting kids sucks! Porsche rules! Oh, what an incredibly shallow attitude

  • http://www.eatingcleveland.com Mark

    This post was obviously written by someone that doesn’t have children.

  • Raised by Wolves

    Maybe it’s the pedant in me, but ‘try again’ sounds like the first baby was lost. Copywriter should have rephrased that closing tag.

  • grant

    “Google’s Search Stories campaign is meticulously engineering to be relatable and tug at your heartstrings.”

    Sorry, but this opening sentence makes no sense.

  • garrido

    Hey, if you were a dad you would ask about trying again, trust me… You won’t even remember the Porsche :)

  • http://phulogy.com Johnny

    Beautiful video. If that’s depressing for you, then please do us all a favor and don’t reproduce.

  • anon

    baby high

  • kwyjibo

    Where has the report spam button gone?

  • harold campbell

    nope. totally normal – I think.

  • harold campbell

    +1

  • NewYorker

    The last search should be “Life?”

  • Derek Ross

    Apparently you aren’t a parent? Or are regrets of being one.

    I watched the video with a huge smile on my face remembering all of those thoughts and re-experiencing those emotions all over again.

    Amazing video as always Google.

    Can’t wait for my son to watch it in a few years!

  • http://www.tiny.cc/750i4 rima288

    they never had one!
    http://bit.ly/9SpIxI

  • Rahul

    loved the video..but I agree..”how soon can we try again” felt like things went bad..a happy video turned sad at the end.

  • Phil McTimoney

    I had the same reaction. The little baby noise rescues it…but only just.

  • http://www.employee-scheduling.com James

    lol! True..

  • kwyjibo

    Shame.

  • brent

    If you want something that’s more of an eye-opener, then I guess that google darth-vader video, is a welcoming surprise. http://2su.de/hev

  • http://www.pathawks.com Pat Hawks

    And SHOULDN’T have children

  • Josh

    I’ll join with the other dads and say this is not depressing. Having your first child can be overwhelming for some, but it shows the love you experience by the outcome being that you ask “how soon can we try again?” Being a father is a joy that owning a Porsche can’t compare to!!

  • Alexia Tsotsis

    Don’t worry guys, I totally got a vasectomy after viewing this.

  • Alexia Tsotsis

    Exactly.

  • Gabriel

    Great video. Being a father of a two year old, Google has been my best friend. But while I love the little guy to death, I did use Google to search for vasectomies and not “how long until we can try again” LOL.

  • michihi

    do Sergey and Larry have a baby?

  • Yup

    And the data shows it too… Couples with kids are less happy than childless couples.

    Really, consider the impact on one’s retirement savings alone! What if all that money blown on feeding, clothing, entertaining & educating your little munchkin actually went into a fund with just a 5% annualized return….

    And let’s not even talk about the environmental impact of breeding. You think a Hummer is irresponsible?

  • michihi

    I hope you named your son Gonathan or Gteven or Gndrew, so google blessing will be always with him. Galelluah!

  • rahul

    together?..probably..LOL!

  • http://abasov.tumblr.com Mike Abasov

    Loved it.

  • Blake

    Just get your kids a couple of Porches – problem solved.

  • Sebastian

    Alexia, I didn’t know you had balls.

  • Sebastian

    Couple of porches for a couple of rocking chairs?

  • evanc

    Yeah, when I first saw it I thought, miscarriage…

  • Alexia Tsotsis

    It’s pretty obvious.

  • Your Dad

    Alexia please,
    you’ve got no idea of life.

    spending on gadgets is more depressing than spending on diapers.

    hurry up, log off your accounts and fuck a bit, or it will be too late.

    or, wait. better don’t populate your DNA,
    let’s keep the Humanity upwards.

    thanks

  • Nick

    Warning: clicking on the link above redirects you to a site that remotely installs a trojan on your computer.

  • Nik

    Silly.

    Having a baby is priceless. My two boys bring me joy every day. So yeah whatever, there are downsides.

    So I recommend you get all the partying you wanted to do out of your system first. Then, after you get bored of getting drunk and doing stupid things, after you have travelled the world a few times, and maybe added women from every continent to your trophy fucking collection. Then, have kids.

    Best thing you’ll ever have done. Best thing you could ever do, or hope to do.

  • Nik

    LOL absolutely true.

    I can honestly say I searched most of those things when we had kids. What is truly priceless about Google and the internet age though is diseases. I Googled baby coughing, baby high temperature, baby crying, all of that stuff, and usually for anything you can think of, there’s steps of what to do, when to go to the doctor, and when not, etc.

    It’s brilliant. I don’t know how parents did it before the internet.

  • Nik

    Not when you’re breastfeeding. Unless you have an exceptional baby popping machine as partner, breast feeding prevents pregnancy naturally. For 6 at least. Women don’t even have the period during that time so they can’t get pregnant either.

    Breast feeding is highly recommended by the WHO for at least 6 months. The benefits to the baby are too numerous to count – Google it.

  • Nik

    “had” is the right way to say it, yes. Past tense.

  • Nik

    +1 too

    Ok that’s the final word, short and to the point, I’ll stop commenting now.

  • Nik

    I thought the same thing. In the crazy time when you first have a newborn and are learning the techniques for making the baby stop crying at 3 am (5 s-es), you are not going to think about “trying again”.

  • Panos

    Αλεξία, είσαι υπέροχη!

  • RDMneps

    Great video

    I had the top result for “putting baby to sleep” search for some time and it made me happy in some odd way that I could help some stressed out parent at 4 am. New parents, especially Moms are huge internet users.

    If you want to know what it’s like to work at a startup then marry an independent-minded wife and have a couple of kids ! BEST THING EVER !

  • Elena

    LOL. Yeah, we have friends with children one year apart because they believed that one.
    Breastfeeding decreases the probability of getting pregnant but definitely is not a good birth control option!

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