Effectively advertise and sell using a real-life story

How's this for effective and inexpensive advertising?

Agence France-Presse:

Dad sells son's $90 video game online for more than 9000

Last updated 01:10pm (Mla time) 12/16/2007

MONTREAL, Canada--After catching his 15-year-old smoking pot, a father sold the hard-to-get "Guitar Hero III" video game he bought his son for $90 for Christmas at an online auction, fetching $9,000.

The sale took place after the father spent two weeks searching for the video game for the Nintendo Wii gameboard.

"So I was so relieved in that I had finally got the Hoy Grail of Christmas presents pretty much just in the nick of time. I couldn't wait to spread the jubilance to my son," the father wrote on the eBay website.

"Then, yesterday, I came home from work early and what do I find? My innocent little boy smoking pot in the back yard with two of his delinquent friends."

The man, a school teacher, who kept his identity private, said he sold the coveted video game to punish his son and discourage him from smoking dope.

The sale was a boon for the family's bank account, since the game the father purchased for 90 dollars (US) was finally sold to an Australian who plunked down 9,100 dollars for it.

The naughty son, however, will not go without a present on Christmas.

"I am still considering getting him a game for his Nintendo. Maybe something like Barbie as the Island Princess or Dancing with the Stars ... I know he will just love them," the father said, tongue-in-cheek.

I've seen similar funny but effective stories on eBay before. But this is one helluva rocker! How I wish people were this empathetic in bettering their governments, their communities, their lives.... Mushy eh? On a really serious note though, I really still couldn't believe how emotionally-filled ads like the one inferred in the story above work. All the while I thought times have changed.