Call your mother - Thomas L. Friedman

From Thomas L. Friedman, Call Your Mother - New York Times:

Whenever I’ve had the honor of giving a college graduation speech, I always try to end it with this story about the legendary University of Alabama football coach, Bear Bryant. Late in his career, after his mother had died, South Central Bell Telephone Company asked Bear Bryant to do a TV commercial. As best I can piece together, the commercial was supposed to be very simple — just a little music and Coach Bryant saying in his tough voice: “Have you called your mama today?”

On the day of the filming, though, he decided to ad-lib something. He reportedly looked into the camera and said: “Have you called your mama today? I sure wish I could call mine.” That was how the commercial ran, and it got a huge response from audiences.

So on this Mother’s Day, if you take one thing away from this column, take this: Call your mother.

Comments

[Jay Waters]

The Bear commercial was created by Luckie and Company in Birmingham (at the time, it was known as Luckie and Forney)

It's posted on their web site.

Go to www.Luckie.com

Click on the About Us button at the bottom left. That will open up a section. Click on the History button in the row of buttons at the top. The Bear spot will be the first one to the right of the video of Bob Luckie speaking.