Christmas advertising is full of messages about generosity, caring and connecting with family and friends. Children don’t give a rat’s about any of this. For them, Christmas is about getting the presents they want. This is a difficult message to deliver and it takes a brave – and clever – creative idea to walk the tightrope. But for parents, giving children the presents they want is a huge part of Christmas. For online retailer Bol.com, walking that tightrope makes it stand out.
Kudos to Dept Agency and Czar Amsterdam director, Willem Gerritsen. Their Christmas commercial (actually, in The Netherlands it’s a Sinterklaas commercial) deserves to be the one most remembered.
The film appears to follow the classic holiday advertising tradition, a story about Bol.com’s Wish-List-Poster, that allows children to tell Sinterklaas what they most want as gift. A little boy wants a doll. He is given a football instead. This isn’t where the story ends; it’s just the preface. Watch:
The film is sweet, funny, surprising, daring, and its use of sound – a new version of Cyndi Lauper’s True Colours abrupt interruptly that manages viewers’ emotions – is wonderful. The commercial is running on TV in The Netherlands and Belgium.
