One year after PENNY’s emotional Christmas spot “The Wish” moved people in Germany and around the world, and won multiple awards including a Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the eagerly awaited new Christmas film from PENNY markets titled “The Rift” is now available online and on social media.
“The Rift” addresses the divisions that are increasingly running through our society, and implores viewers to encourage an open dialogue with their neighbors. The campaign is an urgent call to listen to each other again. A plea for fewer barriers and more empathy: a clear message, even beyond Christmas and more explosively topical than ever. The film was conceived and realized by the lead agency Serviceplan Campaign in Munich, and directed by Seb Edwards via ANORAK Film.
“Can we talk?” a boy asks his neighbor in the final seconds of the new PENNY Christmas film. Just a few minutes earlier, we watched him yell at her in anger. It’s a question people have been asking their neighbors less and less in recent years–and one they should ask much more often. War, COVID, the climate crisis and many other disagreements, large and small, have dominated discussions in recent years. Society is more divided than ever. Yet wasn’t Christmas supposed to be the time to reconcile?
The film uses powerful images to show the cracks that run through society: generational conflicts, racism, war supporters vs peace activists, cars vs bicycles, fear of COVID vs pandemic fatigue. The spot shows all this within an ordinary apartment block that is increasingly and literally being torn apart. “Silent Night” plays softly in the background, but all festive understanding of each other seems to be missing.
Christoph Everke, creative managing director of Serviceplan Campaign, said, “We’ve loaded our Christmas film with cultural and social themes that really no one can ignore. Opinions clash and literally break an entire apartment block apart. The topics are taken from real life and portrayed so relentlessly that you can’t help but feel caught out. The film gives you goosebumps, a feeling of uneasiness and hopefully makes you rethink. I’m deeply impressed by the way Seb Edwards and ANORAK have brought our idea to life–and by the courage the PENNY team has once again shown in making a painful yet important subject theirs.”
The digital extension of the campaign seamlessly picks up on the idea of dialogue and makes it a reality. In cooperation with the Forum für Streitkultur and with further information material from the Initiative Offene Gesellschaft, the landing page penny.de/lassreden provides ten concrete tips for constructive discussions. In addition, from the time of the film’s release, Influencer and Presenter Jonas Ems will be drawing attention to the film’s conflict topics and how we encounter them in everyday life via his high-reach social media channels TikTok and YouTube.
The PENNY Christmas film can be viewed on the PENNY YouTube, Facebook and Instagram channels starting today and will also be shown in full length in German cinemas. It will be accompanied by extensive campaign assets: digital and print, paid and owned, out of home and in PENNY’s own advertising materials. Since Nov. 7, the first emotional preview videos have been live on social media.
CreditsClient PENNY Markt GmbH Agency Serviceplan Moritz Dornig, Matthias Schuster, creative directors; Katharina King, copywriter. Neverest (integrated within the Serviceplan Group), agency producing/executive producer; Jennifer Meisels, freelance producer. Production ANORAK Film GmbH Seb Edwards, director; Kasper Tuxen, DP; Kave Quinn, production designer; Fritzi Ngenci, costume design. Editorial Trim Tom Lindsay, editor VFX Time Based Arts Stephen Grasso, VFX supervisor. Sound Nicolas Becker, sound design; Ken Yasumoto, audio mix. Music Ben Lukas Boysen, music; Christoph Petzenhauser, exec producer; Bjorn Kruger-Levy, producer. Production Services ICON Films Casting Julia Todorow
NHS England, M&C Saatchi UK, Director Tom Tagholm Team On PSA Highlighting The Overlooked Signs Of A Stroke
National Health Service (NHS) England has unveiled a multichannel campaign, “Act FAST,” to raise awareness of the individual signs of a stroke and get people to call 999 as soon as they suspect they may be experiencing any one symptom. The push, which is part of the ongoing “Help Us, Help You” campaign, was developed in partnership with M&C Saatchi UK.
The campaign depicts everyday situations where everything might seem relatively normal, but where there’s the sign of someone experiencing a stroke.
A key component of the campaign is this :30--directed by Tom Tagholm of Various Films--which sets up the idea that initially, a stroke might not seem like much, highlighting key symptoms: from struggling to use a paint roller, to not being able to smile when watching TV, to slurring your speech when reading a story to your grandchild. The PSA emphasizes that time is critical, ending with the line: “Face or arm or speech, at the first sign, it’s time to call 999.”
Jo Bacon, Group CEO, M&C Saatchi UK, said, “We want to ensure people take action on the first symptom, rather than waiting for more conclusive signs. To help them understand that even when everything seems normal, something serious might be happening.”
Matt Lee, executive creative director, M&C Saatchi UK, commented: “This is important work. We wanted to explore that precise moment when your world shifts, quietly yet powerfully, off its axis during a stroke. We highlight how a tiny external moment can actually be seismic—an extraordinary gear change, framed in a really ordinary way.”
Director Tagholm shared, “My Dad suffered a stroke a few years ago and was saved from the worst by acting quickly, and by the work of the NHS. So there’s... Read More