Allan Gray Time Flies Commercial Song Forever young by Don’t know yet. (Original version by Bob Dylan)

At Allan Gray we have been focusing on long-term investing since 1974. Time is an essential ingredient to our investment philosophy. Our new advert is an extension of the theme of illustrating the benefits of time, which we began in 2008. Similar to our other adverts over the last few years, it takes the approach of not only focusing on Allan Gray, but on the investor as an integral part of our investment philosophy. This 90 second 'special edition' is slightly longer than the 60 or 70 second ad that will be flighting on TV.

Allan Gray: Forever Young Commercial
Song: Forever young by Don’t know yet. (Original version by Bob Dylan)


Lyrics used in the commercial
May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young... ...

The first half of our lives we spend wishing time would hurry up – life simply moves too slowly. The second half, however, we wish time would slow down; every second counts. This is the simple insight of our new television advert, which uses a fairy tale to illustrate a wisdom of life, while subtly reinforcing the importance of time in the journey of creating wealth.

Song: Forever young by Bob Dylan
Released: 1973
Buy the song on Amazon here.

The advert is set over a 35-40 year period, roughly 1960-2000, somewhere in South Africa. This is the story of an ordinary girl, from a middle class family. As the girl grows older she does well. She studies hard and gets a good job. She marries and moves into a nice suburban home. She has a baby girl who is the apple of her eye.

Advertising Agency: KingJames, Cape Town, South Africa
Executive Creative Director: Alistair King
Creative Director: Alistair King
Art Director: Karin Barry
Copywriter: Paige Nick
Agency Producer: Caz Friedman
Production Company : Velocity Films
Director : Keith Rose
Producer : Grant Davies
DOP: Peter Tischauser
Sound: MADPLANET / Bob Dylan / Medina
Post Online: Searle Street Post Production
Post offline: Searle Street Post Production
Aired: July 2011

Early on in the advert we see the human truth of the impatience of youth. Our little girl is told that her birthday is only five days away. Wishing that 'time would fly' she discovers a way of travelling through time to the point in her life at which she wants to be. The girl uses her technique often in her young life to hurry time along. She time travels when she is not tall enough for a fairground ride; when she can't wait to get married, and when she can't bear to endure nine long months of pregnancy. Read more >>