Saturday 29 November 2014

Advertising Done Right

I just came across an ad and I thought it was one of the best commercials I have ever seen. It's the Sainsbury's 2014 Christmas Ad and it's really worth watching. Check it out below!





The best thing about it: It's based off of a true incident. You've probably already heart about the Christmas Truce of 1914 and if not, I'm going to tell you what happened.

On Christmas Eve in 1914, the first Christmas Eve of World War I, in France British and German soldiers lay in their trenches. It was freezing cold and it started to snow. Suddenly, the Germans started singing "Stille Nacht" and the Brits joint in. They sang christmas carols together. 

After a while, they even started to slowly approach each other. After one single soldier was brave enough to take the first step, all the other soldiers moved into No Man's Land as well. They exchanged christmas greetings, traded gifts like chocolate, newspapers, postcards and alcohol – not really allowed but nobody would have to know and they were already bonding with the enemy – and even had a soccer match. All of that while most of them barely understood let alone spoke the "enemy's" language.

When the generals heard of that, they had to do something. They made the soldiers resume the fighting. The recruits, however, grew so close that even though did start the shooting again but they aimed at the sky.

The Christmas Truce was never repeated. Future attempts to stop the fire on holidays were thwarted by the official's treats of disciplinary action. 


There is also a song about The Christmas Truce. It's called "Christmas On The Trenches" and it's by John McCutcheon. Here's a link to the lyrics and I put a video of John McDermott singing it below.



Happy early start of advent and have a great weekend!


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