If you’re still recovering from the tears you cried during Procter & Gamble’s Thank You Mom campaign for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, you’re out of luck. If you haven’t yet seen their latest Pick Them Back Up video, which is a continuation of the former campaign for this year’s 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, get ready to grab your handkerchief and wipe those steamy eyes.

Now, I’m no Olympian, but sports were definitely a large part of my childhood, as they are for so many. My mom woke up at 5am to drive me to practice, made ice packs for my weary muscles, and was always my biggest cheerleader. The campaign is especially bittersweet for me because I grew up in Cincinnati, where P&G is headquartered and has been since its start in 1837. I feel an extra sense of pride when I pour Tide into the washing machine or pop a Duracell battery into my dying TV remote. This commercial is a great example of P&G’s success at “brand equity.” Or, a brand’s power, derived from the goodwill and recognition it has gained over time, to achieve higher perceived worth and sales volume than its competitors.  It’s no longer about selling a product, but selling the brand. Have you ever bought a $4 bottle of lotion instead of the $2 one sitting right next to it, even though both contained the exact same ingredients? Why did you do that? Most likely, you’re emotionally attached to the brand. And this is certainly not the last time we’ll see P&G use these techniques in their advertising, because it works….it really works.

Emotion is hands down the primary decision maker for consumers. It’s not just something we’ve noticed by paying attention, it can literally be seen when studying the behavior of the brain. There’s a great Psychology Today article, “Why Emotions Influence What We Buy,” which discusses what’s really going on inside when we feel that ping in our chest and tears welling up during a 45 second commercial spot. “fMRI neuro-imagery shows that when evaluating brands, consumers primarily use emotions (personal feelings and experiences) rather than information (brand attributes, features, and facts).” Having positive feelings towards a particular brand has a greater impact on our brand loyalty than any other factor we know about the brand, by far. Research also shows that consumers perceive the same type of personality characteristics in brands as they do in other people. And just like with people, they are attracted to some personality types more than others—attraction is emotion based, not rational. Brand personality is communicated by marketers through packaging, visual imagery, and the types of words used to describe the brand. Our emotions can be quite dynamic and complicated, but P&G has done their research and developed the perfect formula for making even grown men cry. They’re on top for a reason.

This particular campaign is interesting because of the universality of a mother’s love combined with how many kids grew up playing a sport. In this way, P&G is reaching a huge audience by playing not only to all mothers but also to everyone who has ever been a child. So yeah … that just about covers everyone (and their mom). Additionally, the execution of the commercial is flawless. The part where it suddenly goes silent and the skier makes the perfect turn around the gate? Queue the flash flood warning, those tears aren’t stopping. So it’s really no surprise the video received over 3.3 million views on its YouTube channel before its first official air during the Golden Globe’s this month. Whether they’re making you laugh, cry, or stand in awe … the brands that invest in our nostalgia and the complexity of our emotions, are the brands that win.