Wilson Phillips told us long ago to “hold on for one more day,” but now, apparently, we need Adele to tell us to as well—being that things have gotten far more dire since 1990. Thus, she has brought us a “snippet”-style preview of her new song, “Hold On.” The catch? It’s contained with an extremely cheeseball Amazon commercial geared toward promoting “kindness” during the holiday season.
Of course, the message Amazon really wants to get across is that “kindness” is only something that can be bought. And perhaps Adele is on board with that if it means somehow reconnecting with her British roots as much as she can from the far reaches of LA by way of this more “.co.uk” version of Amazon highlighted by the commercial’s location. Even though globalization has made every “megacity” a copy of one another. So it that we have a young “millennial type” (since millennials, for whatever reason, still bear the brunt of being deemed delicate “snowflakes” more than Gen Z) ascending the escalator of the Tube and suddenly being overwhelmed by it all. The thought of her school responsibilities, the pressures of existence, what have you.
This is when the opening lyrics to “Hold On” begin, with Adele noting, “I swear to god, I am such a mess/The harder that I try, I regress.” The same seems to be true for the girl at the center of the advert, who, to both Amazon and Adele’s benefit, happens to be Black. Her stress level can’t even seem to be mitigated at the club, when taking in the slew of dancing bodies all around her induces apprehension rather than relief (and rightly so).
Adele continues to narrate through her song, “I might burst, help me/Right now I truly hate being me.” It’s an all too raw lyric for an Amazon promo (though we all hate ourselves a little for using the service), which then tries to get symbolically “artistic” as it flashes to a Hitchcockian (again, need one remind you that Adele is British?) spiral staircase, an emblem of doom and danger in any “Alfred joint.” An additional filmic nod seems to be to yet another badge of Britishness: Love Actually. Not just because of how cornily the commercial wants to convey that we’re all “interconnected,” but because, in fact, this song feels as though it should have subbed out Kelly Clarkson’s “The Trouble With Love Is” for the soundtrack, having a tone as tailor-made to the Richard Curtis hit as “Skyfall” does to the Bond movie of the same name.
As our heroine of the “Amazon story” walks down the hall to her apartment, the camera pans over to an older female neighbor hammering something to her door (no, not a mezuza, but a hook to help with hanging a wreath for her attempt at holiday “cheer”). The younger neighbor pauses at her own door, locking eyes with her elder and conveying a look that says, “Deliver me from this flesh prison.” Adele persists in soundtracking the scene with, “Everyday feels like the road I’m on/Might just open up and swallow me whole.” Yes, to be human is arguably a fate worse than any other. Which is why we try to ignore that difficulty as best we can by filling our lives with ephemerally distracting objects from Amazon.
Like the sort that fill the older neighbor’s dwelling as she goes about her business inside of it, only to be riveted by a report informing her, “In other news, cases of anxiety in young adults are rising, as experts warn of the effects on well-being caused by the pandemic.” The expression of concern on her face as she looks out the window toward the direction of where her young neighbor might be is accented by Adele crooning, “Hold on/I still try/Let pain be gracious, just hold on (hold on)/Let time be patient/You are still strong.”
Then, a park scene. Wherein the older woman is, what else, sitting on a bench and staring attentively at “her” birds, the ones she feeds and nurtures because, obviously, they’re more soothing than humans. This, of course, is where the Pigeon Lady from Home Alone 2 element comes into play. And yes, like the Pigeon Lady, this older neighbor serves as some kind of “guardian angel” figure for the younger girl—the Kevin McCallister of the situation, all alone and lost in the world. Which is why, when the girl sits down on the bench next to hers, she looks over—birds feeding from the palm of her hand—and shares another “knowing” glance. Apparently, one that serves as the deciding factor on the older woman’s part to order this poor soul a “present” from Amazon.
When the box arrives at the young girl’s apartment, she regards it with perplexity before finding out that it’s a bird feeder she can hang in her balcony area. Ergo, the arrival of birds to calm her nerves in these anxiety-inducing times. Or, if one interprets the ad in another way: simply listen to Adele instruct you to “hold on” until the bitter end of this thing called life, and you’ll get through it.
For the denouement, our emotionally fraught heroine stands out on her balcony, relishing the presence of the birds as though she might burst into her own rendition of, “Feed the birds/Tuppence a bag.” She looks across the way at her elder and mouths “thank you” while clutching her hand to her heart (Scarlett O’Hara-style, not to use an affronting reference). “Kindness, the greatest gift” is the mantra that then appears at the end to hit its viewer over the head with the capitalist notion that kindness equals expression through material objects. Something Adele will likely have to subscribe to so as to placate her son over quote unquote breaking up his home. Because it’s easier to “hold on” when you have a lovely little trinket in hand, says neoliberalism.
