Bootlog

It’s time to start all sort of Christmas campaigns. They’re mandatory, whatever the cost. And I do not mean the financial side of it, quite often it can be simply brand destroyer or rarely booster. Remember the Coca-Cola convoy? Poland is still haunted by it every year.
It is the tradition that takes priority, be it brand tradition or if there’s no sufficient sober brain cells in agency it must be traditional Christmas crap. Not that the tradition or Christmas are crap. It is the application and combination of brand themed elements, festive season and perhaps too much booze, that make it really tacky. Recently Grolsch
embarrassed themselves with this xmas wank:

Grolsch & the Swingtop Philharmonic Orchestra presents a ‘video Christmas card’ featuring a magical rendition of the classic carol ‘Oh, Christmas Tree’ played exclusively on instruments crafted from Grolsch Swingtop bottles.

On the other hand similar idea: acclaimed musician, famous tune and beer can take a really positive turn. Guinness put the brand in context of actual celebration and pure fun. They way Christmas should be.

P.S.
Grolsch had potential but they seem to have missed the contemporary classical approach to music a la Schoenberg, next time more research would be recommended.

Just got that email and I thought it is worth sharing:

By now you have likely heard of the controversy surrounding DDB Brazil’s “Tsunami Ad.” At this point DDB Brazil has withdrawn the ad and it has been stripped of its merit award. As more facts come to light in regards to the legitimacy of this ad the One Club has decided to implement what we believe to be the most stringent and thorough “fake ads” policy in our industry.

For 2010 and onwards, the One Show will be adopting the following new rules and penalties.

An agency or regional office of an agency network that enters an ad made for nonexistent clients, or an ad made or run without a client’s approval, will be banned from entering the One Show for 5 years.

2. The entire team credited on the “fake” entry will be banned from entering the One Show for 5 years.

3. An agency or regional office of an agency network that enters an ad that has run once, on late night TV, or has only run because the agency produced a single ad and paid to run it themselves*, will be banned from entering The One Show for 3 years.

For those who did miss the whole story please follow this link