--- title: This Skype Ad Captures the Beauty of a Real Friendship description: Prepare to cry canonical: https://time.com/2912145/skypes-born-friends-ad-will-make-you-cry/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-23T16:49:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:31.487Z og:title: This Skype Ad Captures the Beauty of a Real Friendship og:description: Prepare to cry og:url: https://time.com/2912145/skypes-born-friends-ad-will-make-you-cry/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde7e472dfd2fc70b/698698c913c79f0099192c44/skype-girls-hed-2013_0.jpg?branch=production&width=652&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 652 og:image:height: 367 og:image:alt: skype-girls-hed-2013_0 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Skype Ad Captures the Beauty of a Real Friendship twitter:description: Prepare to cry twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde7e472dfd2fc70b/698698c913c79f0099192c44/skype-girls-hed-2013_0.jpg?branch=production&width=652&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch a Rare Friendship Unfold in This Emotional Ad for Skype > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Jun 23, 2014 4:49 PM UTC  Skype Born Friends Family Portrait Ad Skype Born Friends Family Portrait Ad Skype  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Jun 23, 2014 4:49 PM UTC One of the most honored ads at this year’s Cannes awards tells the true story of two girls who grew up with each other over Skype. It’s another in a spate of long-form narrative, [documentary-style spots ](http://creativity-online.com/work/comfort-the-day-i-visited-my-son/35945)that have become popular as the line between content and advertising continues to blur. The story goes like this: Sarah and Paige were both born with only one arm, and though they lived on opposite sides of the world, they helped and supported each other via Skype. The company eventually paid to help the two girls who virtually grew up together finally meet, and their first hug will have you in tears. “The moment that they meet, that wasn’t planned,” PJ Pereira, the creator of the ad, [told AdWeek](http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/story-behind-one-most-beautiful-real-moments-advertising-158478). “We didn’t know what was going to happen. The moment that one gets out of the van and they see each other, after talking for years and years and years, then they run up and hug each other. We were like: ‘Whoah, this is real. You can’t make this up.’ “That single moment told that entire story in four seconds in a way that no actor could have ever told it.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2912145/skypes-born-friends-ad-will-make-you-cry/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2912145/skypes-born-friends-ad-will-make-you-cry/"},"headline":"Watch a Rare Friendship Unfold in This Emotional Ad for Skype","datePublished":"2014-06-23T16:49:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:31.487Z","description":"Prepare to cry","url":"https://time.com/2912145/skypes-born-friends-ad-will-make-you-cry/","keywords":["Living","Advertising","Media","Skype"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde7e472dfd2fc70b/698698c913c79f0099192c44/skype-girls-hed-2013_0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde7e472dfd2fc70b/698698c913c79f0099192c44/skype-girls-hed-2013_0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"skype-girls-hed-2013_0","caption":"Skype Born Friends Family Portrait Ad","creditText":"Skype","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2912145/skypes-born-friends-ad-will-make-you-cry/","name":"Watch a Rare Friendship Unfold in This Emotional Ad for Skype"}}]}] ```