'Tis the most wonderful time of the year, it is a time for family, lots of yummy delicious food, the gift of giving and the day our saviour was born. I really don’t understand the whole I hate Christmas attitude some people have. The Christmas lights, tinsel and carols should be enough to uplift any mumbling idiot who chooses to be the Christmas Grinch. I for one love Christmas, maybe it is because I am still a kid at heart who loves to put up the Christmas tree, stay up until 12 on Christmas Eve to open up presents and looks forward to eating Trifle on Christmas day. The best thing about Christmas though is the wonderful Christmas campaigns, packaging and commercials big companies put together to entice customers to spend their hard earned Christmas bonuses on purchasing Christmas gifts at their stores.
Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere is not as magical as Christmas in the North; we don’t get snow, decorate our houses or have desperate customers rushing through stores to get limited edition toys. I have never experienced a wintery Christmas but the movies do paint a vivid picture of what Christmas should feel like. It is really difficult to convey the Christmas spirit in advertising here in South Africa. One has to bear in mind that South Africa has Christmas in the middle of summer so companies have to promote the summer holidays without losing the magic of Christmas.
Pick 'n Pay:
Pick ‘n Pay does a great job at this, they recently did a commercial promoting a summer Christmas feast, add a bit of humour and we have ourselves a winner. The only thing I don’t really like about this commercial is that it is maybe too corporate for Christmas and it doesn’t really allow you to connect with the advertisement.
Checkers:
Checkers also did a commercial for Christmas last year; they decided to go with the same campaign for this year. They definitely captured the Christmas spirit more than Pick ‘n Pay did. Their advertisement was also way more creative. They focused on promoting their toys and food whereas Pick ‘n Pay only promoted their food.
Coca-Cola:
The true inventers of the modern day Christmas comes from the powerful Coca-Cola brand. We have all grown to know and love the friendly face of Coca-Cola’s Father Christmas (Santa). Their Christmas commercials and can/bottle designs take on a new form every Christmas. They capture the magic of Christmas in a can. I still have my limited edition Christmas Coke can from the year 2000. I love the vintage style of the design as well as the hand drawn illustrations. Hopefully this soft drink can will be worth something one day.
The Christmas Trucks Coca-Cola commercial is by far the most popular Christmas commercial ever produced. I think Coca-Cola wanted to convey that they bring the Christmas cheer and excitement to everyone. It has over 4 million views on line to date.
You might recognise these commercials by Coca-Cola, they are more recent. The one is an advert done for America and the other was aired in South Africa. I love both these commercials; they are original and give me goose bumps every time I watch it. The ad makes you feel like you in it and the music selection does the advert a lot of justice. The commercial is called Snow Globe:
American:
South African
EA Sports Fifa12:
For the football lovers I also added Fifa12’s Christmas commercial, it is definitely not as great as their other commercial they made to promote the launch of Fifa12 but it is still pretty good, take a look:
Christmas is the time of the year where companies make the most sales so it is only logic that they spend the majority of their advertising budget on year end promotions which allows for the biggest and best campaigns. Therefore every year I am able to witness the new and exciting ideas companies come up with. Yes, it is a very commercial holiday but it is up to you not to forget the true meaning of Christmas. Happy Holidays!
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