BWG Foods’ Spar ‘Finding Christmas’ TV commercial created by Publicis Dublin has been voted Europe’s favourite retailer Christmas ad in a poll conducted by ESM: the European Supermarket Magazine edited by Steve Wynne-Jones. As part of its annual ’12 Ads of Christmas’ contest, ESM put out the call to its readers earlier this month to vote for their favourite retailer Christmas ad. Reader voting closed on Monday, December 19th.
‘Finding Christmas’ is a sequel to Spar’s ‘Finding Trees’ from ten years ago.
The other four retailer Christmas ads making up the top five were Pingo Doce (Portugal) – ‘Era Tão Bom Se Tudo Fosse…’ (”It Would Be So Nice If Everything Was…’), Rohlik Group/Knuspr.de (Germany) – ‘Entdecke Jetzt Alles Für Dein Weihnachtsfest’ (‘Discover Everything For Your Christmas Party’), Lidl GB – ‘The Story Of Lidl Bear’ and Aldi UK’s ‘Kevin The Carrot/Home Alone’ created by McCann Manchester.
The ad showcases structures that naturally resemble or have been altered to look like Christmas trees. The central message remains the same, that “wherever you find the tree, we hope you like what’s under it”, reflecting Spar’s eponymous tagline. The sequel’s cast were augmented with non-actors gathered through street-casting. Two of the original young cast from the 2012 ad again feature, this time as senior secondary school students.
The backing soundtrack is by Water’s Edge, with Meath folk duo and twin sisters Katie and Aoife Lynch on lead vocals in a new rendition of The Raveonettes’ ‘The Christmas Song’, which also featured in the original. It took 100 metres of green silk to wrap the barn as a Christmas tree. The swimmers are a group of sea swimmers from Salthill in Galway. The 11-year-old boy is the youngest licensed and insured drone racing pilot in Ireland.
Produced by Antidote, the ad was shot on location in Galway, Kildare, Wicklow, Meath and Dublin over five days. Spar has a network of over 400 stores in Ireland.
Watch all ’12 Ads of Christmas’ at https://bit.ly/3WacZ3d
