Why is this GE ad outperforming almost every other Olympics spot?

An advertising campaign that has held the attention of Olympics viewers longer than almost any other spot on television does not feature athletes, or their parents, or cars. The GE ads, which appeared on more than 100 million screens in the last two weeks, shows a woman named Sarah building a jet engine. In one version, she explains to a touring family that GE can be "digital and industrial" – it builds machines that talk to each other, but people program those robots. "This is me, using a wrench to build a jet engine," Sarah says. In another spot, when a confused youngster asks if the man working on the next closest engine is a robot, Sarah drills home her point.