Memelabs Blog

Posted by Nadia Nascimento and Jenn Lowther

Before I get to decking halls and praising trees, I find reflecting on favorite Christmas commercials of yore is a wonderful way to jump start the magic and embrace the ads which have become synonymous to the season. This is a completely unscientifically generated list of what I classify as the best Christmas commercials based on personal humour, recall of childhood memories and an upbringing that brands me the iconic Christmas mush. Its the Scarlet letter that I bear…one which is decorated with candy canes and small, shiny lights.

Update: I couldn’t let Nadia get away with posting this without me putting my two cents in, so I did. I am bringing a well balanced non-gushy slightly cynical viewpoint to the table. Now you can enjoy:)

5. Hershey Kiss

Nadia:

This is a little one to start us off slowly in what I would call a Christmas safe bet. It really exemplifies what the Hershey Kiss brand really is- non offensive, and vaguely memorable. For me, its Christmas clockwork simply based on the release of their commercials which gently nudge me mail cards and bake something. The commercial is released just in time to be wedged between the delightful and disgusting festive mess of advertising that many of you cynics deplore.

Jenn:

I’m not too sure how this made it on our best list. It’s cute sure, it’s in the spirit in the holidays, and it doesn’t make me want to run from the room screaming and waiting in anticipation for the New Year to hit so that I don’t have to watch yet another horrifying example of Christmas advertising, but the best…meh.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=Eg2qVPqUGkI]

4. Coke Polar Bears

Nadia:

Alright Coke. You win. As much as people love the high fructose cornsyrup train rolling into town for Christmas with Type II diabetes, I’ve got to say our pals up North- before they became known as the face of global warming and “HappyFeet”- show us how to bring in the season.
Jenn:

OMG, I love this series of commercials. If this were my list, it would be a strong #2. What’s not to love: cute baby polar bear – check, cute baby penguin – check, cute baby penguin shares with cute baby polar bear – check. Now that I feel all warm and fuzzy inside, I’m going to go and watch this one again while drinking a nice cold glass of Coke.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=9NM6mpINduM&feature=related]
3. Peter comes home for Christmas (Folgers)

Nadia:

Number one for Christmas sucks like myself. Are you kidding me with this? If the sister had a lisp, or maybe Tiny Tim’s crutch, it would be like taking the Christmas season, wrapping it in a manger, and dipping it in elf dust. This ad has all of the makings of a Christmas miniseries starring Jimmy Stewart. Peter comes home from, college?, early Christmas morning with an armful of gifts for the family. His darling sister wakes up and they make coffee together to rise the family for what I can only imagine to be the most magical Norman Rockwell Christmas morning in history. It has managed to completely embrace and exploit all of the Christmas emotions born in Bethlehem and middle America. I love it.
Jenn:

Are you kidding me with this one Nadia? I don’t even know where to start with this one. Beyond it making saccharine seem bitter, the cheese factor in this commercial is off the charts and not in a good cheesetastic kinda way like our #1 entry. This commercial maybe OK if it was only played once on Christmas day, but this commercial and others like it inundate our TV’s as soon as American Thanksgiving ends – let’s all be thankful this Christmas season for streaming commercial free TV on the Internet. Also, adding to my disdain for this commercial is that it has spawned a decade of commercials from Folgers along the same vein – no one should do something this horrible to something as good as coffee, mmm coffee.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=DW1V1tFRcA0]

2. RubberBand Man Santa’s Helper (Office Max)

Nadia:

Not to be confused with the lyrical stylings of T.I., rap GENIUS, the Rubberband man is a track that I would absolutely download and slowjam to, even after the snow has melted. This video features a beloved Christmas Blaxpotation-esque do-gooder delivering solutions to all of your holidays problems: a step stool, so a shorter man can get a kiss under the mistletoe; a paper cutter for the holiday ham; a power strip for the outdoor lights; and a glue stick to keep Santa’s beard in place. It’s hard not to love the stop-motion animation, directed by Chel White of Bent Image Lab in the style of the 1960s Rankin-Bass specials like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. You can also check out the “making of” video here.
Jenn:

Again, I’m not really with you on this one Nadia. The commercial does evoke a certain nostalgic Christmas feeling in the pit of my stomach (and not in the good kinda way) from my childhood via the classic Rudolf the Rednose Reindeer movie, but beyond this, the commercial does nothing for me. If this were on TV, I’d have changed the channel about 5 seconds into the commercial and not have known that the drivel I was watching was a commercial for OfficeMax – which in the overall picture would probably help me not have a small hate on for OfficeMax.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N-Gm4SGUYE]

1. Chrismahanukwanzakah (Virgin Mobile)

Nadia:

This is by far my favorite, and you can bet your pretty Christmas bells that I’ll be celebrating on December 13th. The commercial and the holiday itself is somewhat of a satirization of the effect of political correctness on the holiday season, which often is now seen as a secular series of celebrations rather than the formerly overt religious connotations of Christmas; as the song in the ad proclaims, “what matters most is camera phones for $20 less.”

If you are in the market for a new religion to call home, Virgin Mobile has continued its trend of inventing cultural memes in the marketing campaigns with an entire religion called “Paygoism“, which only has one tenet: restrictive cell phone contracts are a sin. This is a faith that I’d proselytize with pride.

Jenn:

I agree with Nadia on this one, what’s not to love about a commercial that throws all of the political correctness that has inundated our lives out the window all for a good laugh. And they actually made the caveman funny unlike the Geiko commercials that make me cringe every time I see them (by the way, who thought that it would be a good idea to make the caveman commercial into a TV series – really that person should now be in a unemployment line somewhere). I am now making Chrismahanukwanzakah my new favorite holiday – sorry FSM Holiday but you’ve been replaced, it was good while it lasted though.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hzFEy6KfHw&feature=related]