It’s that time of the year again when advertising agencies and brands are putting all their best shots into producing some of the coolest and most memorable Christmas ads. And when it seems like tugging at people’s heartstrings is getting more and more difficult, since these days everyone has seen what a good commercial is (John Lewis, anyone?), German pharmacy DocMorris is getting us really heckin’ emotional.
A 2:55-minute TV Christmas commercial made by ad agency Jung von Matt/ SAGA shows a grandpa dusting off a rusty old kettlebell for what soon becomes his daily morning exercise routine. In his days full of—quite literal—ups and downs, grandpa is getting stronger, but the clip titled “Take Care Of Yourself” totally gets us at the very end.
Hailed as the biggest tearjerker of this year, the ad has been going viral on social media, amassing more than 12 million views since it was first posted on DocMorris’ YouTube channel on November 30. And you can totally see why right below. Yep, I am not crying, you are.
This viral TV commercial for the German pharmacy has been leaving everyone in tears and people hail it the best ad of this festive season
It seems like DocMorris’ “Take Care” TV commercial that caused such a buzz on social media was not, in fact, an original idea. A strikingly similar commercial for Italian Valle Camonica Servizi was directed by Paolo Tresoldi and aired back in 2017.
On December 20, the original author Tresoldi wrote on AdsOfTheWorld that the situation was resolved. He thanked friends and colleagues for all of their support and stated: “In recent days, we had the opportunity to meet with the @JungvonMatt agency, we found an intelligent, honest and professional interlocutor, thanks to their collaboration the situation was resolved amicably.”
It turns out that the German ad agency JvM/SAGA, whose DocMorris commercial was a take on Tresoldi’s idea, has “recognized the copyrights.” Tresoldi further stated that “the agency worked with us to resolve this unfortunate situation.”
To find out what an expert had to say about this viral DocMorris TV commercial that has been making everyone tearful, Bored Panda reached out to Karthik Srinivasan, an award-winning communications strategist, book author, and LinkedIn India “Top Voice.”
According to Karthik, the “aspect that connects with most people in this ad is the fact that a man of that age, who need not put in such efforts, is seen going out of his way against his own will, his neighbors’ prying eyes and against his own age-related frailties.”
It gets us curious about what the man is really up to. “I had assumed it may be something to do with a new woman in his life, but it turned out to be his adorable little granddaughter and one tiny task that makes her so very happy. That his strenuous effort was towards a child, and that too, towards making that child happy for a few fleeting seconds (and giving her a lifetime worth of memories about her grandpa and about Christmas) is the clincher.”
Karthik, who previously worked as head for digital strategies in Ogilvy, Flipkart and Edelman, explained that “making others happy is the best way for you to find the goodness inside you can never go wrong, and this has been true for a long time, if you remember O. Henry’s classic story, The Gift of the Magi.” This is what makes the Christmas message in this TV commercial so captivating and beyond moving.
When asked about the possible plagiarism that the two advertising agencies sorted out between them, Karthik said that it does plague the advertising industry. “The original German film, while being incredibly bland and plain in comparison, is the exact same story right up to the final pay-off.”
Karthik says that crediting sources for advertising ideas would be a way to avoid such situations. “Like it happens in music where we have legitimate cover versions and artists credit the original artists officially, we could have advertising ideas legitimately crediting their sources and then telling the same stories in a different way.”
And people praised the commercial for how sweet it is
The post German Christmas Ad Is Getting People Really Emotional first appeared on Bored Panda.
from Bored Panda https://ift.tt/3nz6Ufc
