Jesse Juriga praised for ‘Loretta’ Google ad shown at Super Bowl

Jesse Juriga, creative director at Google Creative Lab in New York City, created a commercial shown on television during Super Bowl LIV that touched the hearts of millions.
Juriga is the son of John and Deborah Juriga of Belleville and a 2005 graduate of Michigan State University.
The ad showed an elderly man talking to his Google Assistant: “Hey, Google, show me photos of me and Loretta. Remember: She always snorted when she laughed.”
Nearly 115 million people watched the ad and felt emotional together for the 90 seconds it took the commercial to run.
“We didn’t set out to make a Super Bowl ad,” Juriga is quoted by Caroline Brooks in a MSU Life article on Feb. 10. “We have a wonderful team that includes film makers, animators, writers – all kinds of creatives. The team was thinking about the Google Assistant and a designer was playing around with a recording of her grandfather’s voice. It quickly came together with the details of her grandfather’s life, and we kept his voice as the voiceover in the final ad.”
According to a Google blog post, the ad reflects its goal to build products that help people in their daily lives, in both big and small ways.
Friends of the family at the Belleville Yacht Club were alerted that Juriga’s commercial would be coming during their party to watch the Super Bowl together. After it was shown on the screen, the BYC erupted into applause and shouts, according to reports.
Juriga’s ads have not only run during Super Bowl games, but also the Grammy Awards, the Oscars, and the Olympics.