iPhone Ad Marriage Proposal
October 20th, 2010 | by Mobile Data Group |Women dream of a marriage proposal that’s “just like in the movies” but Vy Luong had no idea her partner would take the saying so literally.
What seemed like a regular movie outing at the cinema where they had their first date six years ago turned into a surreal affair - and an internet sensation - after Luong’s partner Chad Clay popped the question using a mock Apple iPhone TV ad he played on the big screen, complete with a backing soundtrack he composed himself.
“When the song started, I thought, ‘another phone commercial’. We had already seen two in the past few minutes,” she said.
But then her picture appeared on the screen and Luong wondered if this was really happening to her.
“I tried to hold my tears back as the song continued, but as the sweet lyrics and pictures of us appeared on the big screen, I couldn’t hold it any longer and burst into tears,” said Luong, 26.
“When the words ‘Vy will you marry me’ appeared on the screen, Chad went down on one knee, asked me to marry him and presented the ring, I felt like I was floating on clouds as I said yes.
“The proposal was so sincere and he put so much time into it, a girl could not ask for anything more. It was more than a perfect proposal.”
But for Clay, 30, Luong’s perfect day was the culmination of months of stress and planning. The hobby musician said he knew he wanted to write a song for her but came up with the mock iPhone commercial idea after watching one of Apple’s distinctive ads on TV.
He said the song took several months to write in secret at nights and on weekends, while another few weekends were spent filming his four-minute proposal video with his brother. He used several apps to illustrate the lyrics to his cheesy song and mashed them up with photos of the couple.
The theatre, Carmike 20 in Minnesota, turned Clay down several times before he finally got in touch with a manager who liked the idea and agreed to play it for free ahead of the 7.30pm showing of Going the Distance on September 5.
When the narrator of the video - Clay - asked in the ad “so you want to write a song for your girlfriend?”, Luong squeezed Clay’s hand as a way of nudging him to do something like that for her. Then she realised what was going on.
“For about two seconds she looked really confused. Then she went from confused to pretty much crying straight away because she had figured out what it was - she pretty much cried the whole time,” said Clay, adding there were about 30 other people in the theatre.
“I got down on one knee and proposed to her and then she said yes and everyone who was in the theatre applauded. I was a little bit worried that people would be bothered but they seemed to enjoy it.”
Clay, who co-owns a company that develops software for ambulance and fire departments, published his video on YouTube and the clip has gone viral, amassing nearly a million views. He says he’s not the typical romantic type.
Clay and Luong’s story has been covered by several US TV stations and even media in Vietnam, where Luong left in 1992 to move to the US with her parents.