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A blue couch in the middle the street, a friendly man asking people if they want to talk, a montage of people opening up - letting it out - to a stranger and reaching out for a Kleenex tissue, a memorable tag line -

Are people ready to let it out?
Turns out, all it takes is a good listener and a box of Kleenex tissues.

- and an addictive soundtrack - ‘Let It Out’ by Starrfadu -

Do you want to lay your head on my shoulder?
I don’t mind if you cry.
Sometimes we all just need to let it out.

Just let your tears run down my arm,
So I can keep them in a blue jar.
We’ll drink them later, so just let it out.
Let it out.

Let’s take a walk just to clear our heads.
I don’t mind that you’re holding my hand.
You say you love me, so just let it out.
Let it out.

Your smile is a pleasant change from before,
When you thought that you couldn’t take anymore.
Sometimes we all just need to let it out.
Let it out. Let it out.

- the new Kleenex ‘Let It Out‘ ad campaign has a lot going for it.

The US version of the ad (via Patrix via StyleStation) by JWT is more ‘talky’ -

- while the UK version of the ad relies more on the soundtrack -

Starrfadu was started in the fall of 2001 by singer/songwriter Austin Hartley with drummer Brian Moody and bassist Dave Martin.

In 2002 the band released their first four track EP entitled, ‘The Joys in Feeling Sorry for Yourself’. In March of 2005 they released their first full-length album, entitled Narrow Road to Silence.

The band specializes in a meld of acoustic and electric rock, tempered by Hartley’s warm vocals and greatly influenced by Brit rock, Indie bands and faith. In fact, they can be best classified as a Christian Indie Folk-Rock band.

Here’s the story of how Starrfadu was featured in the Kleenex ad -

Kleenex and its marketing team had already come up with the idea for a ‘Let It Out’ campaign and went looking for a song to fit the ads. Hartley says they found Starrfadu via Google and iTunes, where the band’s music is available for download. They contacted the band in April, and the ads began airing in the U.S. and Great Britain this month. (link)

- and here’s the story of how Hartley wrote the song itself -

“My wife used to say, ‘Why don’t you write something sweet and romantic? I know you can do it, but you don’t do it in music,” Hartley says. “And I thought, ‘What’s there to do in a love song that hasn’t already been done?’”

So Hartley sat down to write a love song and came up with ‘Let It Out’, which implores a loved one to open up and let their emotions come out. And he found something that hadn’t been done before. It came in the form of a lyric about tears running down his arm and into a blue jar. (link)

Yet the song almost went unrecorded. It was accidentally deleted after one recording session, and Hartley says the band didn’t even want to put it on the album. But people had responded to it at shows, so they decided to re-record it at the last minute. “Now we look back and say, ‘Oh, man, who knew what a big decision that was at the time,” Hartley says. (link)

Listen to more of Starrfadu - including ‘Let It Out’ - on their website or on their MySpace page.

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