Last year the German supermarket chain Penny came out with one of the most heartbreaking spots born in the heat of Christmas . The ad in question, “The Wish” , won the Grand Prix in the Film Craft section at Cannes Lions last June. Twelve months later. Penny repeats the formula of “The Wish. Which x-rayed the wounded soul of. With a spot that is even more shocking (and also darker) than the previous year. “The Rift” (as Penny has named her new Christmas advertisement) puts the divisions that currently plague European society in the spotlight and leaves no topic unresolved. COVID-19. The war in Ukraine, climate change. The energy crisis and immigration make their way into a spot that is impossible to contemplate without a sinking soul.
Generation Z after the pandemi
The ad opens with the scene of an altercation between an elderly woman in a car and a teenager perched on a bicycle in the garage of an category email list apartment block. When the woman heads to her apartment after parking her car in the garage. She comes face to face with a plethora of divisions. Between generations. Between people of different cultures, and between those for and against war. While the viewer witnesses such deep (and apparently unresolvable) divisions. The cracks that break society are also portrayed metaphorically in the advertisement. Where first the lenses of the old woman’s glasses crack and then cracks appear all over the building.
The teenager from the first scene
Signed by the Serviceplan agency. The Anorak production company and the director Seb Edwards, the spot is also accompanied by a “microsite” where those Canada People who wish can obtain advice to maintain “constructive conversations” with others. These tips have been developed by Penny in collaboration with various local German organisations. “We have filled our Christmas advert with social and cultural themes that no one can really ignore. Explains Christoph Everke, creative managing director at Serviceplan. «Opinions collide and literally crack an entire apartment building. The themes of the spot are taken from real life and are portrayed so relentlessly that it is impossible not to feel subjugated by the images.
