“Move to a Better Christmas,” by McCann for Ikea Spain, depicts a family organizing a complex, multilingual holiday schedule that feels like a cross between the Met Gala’s seating chart and a royal wedding. It’s not fun to watch, and that’s the point. “What if less Christmas was more Christmas?” the work wonders. It stems from the insight that 50 percent of Spaniards feel stressed about yuletide planning.

To promote its Double and Triple Burgers, McDonald’s and DDB in Romania partnered with standup comedian Mihai Bobonete to make “Whispered Temptation.” A guy realizes more is, well, more thanks to McD’s Doubles and Triples, so he tries applying this knowledge to other parts of his life. Why not ask for double the salary? Things don’t go as well as hoped.

More McD’s here, this time from Nord DDB. The brand promoted its McDelivery service in Norway by creating outdoor ads featuring takeaway paper bags hand-cut into classic Norwegian apartment building styles.

Meanwhile, in Sweden, Nord DDB Stockholm has given McDonald’s Big Mac an autograph. The entire history of robotics and AI has led us here—to a hamburger that can sign things, and whose signature was informed by 256,000 fans. So glad we were alive for this.

In France, insurance brand Axa and Publicis Conseil depict police dogs and other emergency workers relaxing on the outskirts of a feasting world. In one instance, a firefighter hears an alarm and runs … for his baked goods. The ad closes with a man who unplugs his Christmas lights before watering his illuminated tree. All this is to say, staying safe is the best gift you can offer on-call workers. (This also means pointing the champagne away from you, and others, when opening it. Seriously. That’s how a lot of New Years emergency room visits start.)

More lotto love, this time from the Dutch State Lottery. Created by TBWANeboko, “Believe In Luck” follows a fellow who quantum-leaps through a future with a woman he hasn’t met. Things end with one of fortune’s fave tricks: He buys a lotto ticket, then is jostled by … well, you know. The ticket flies out of his hand and in the opposite direction, leaving him with a choice to make: Love or riches? Both are only potentials. What’ll you gamble for?

A googly-eyed Rembrandt portrait, measuring 286m2, has gone up in London to promote the London Mural Festival. The latter’s happening in August next year, and the mural—where modern insouciance meets the historical, much like the very art of paintng on old walls—was hand-crafted by Global Street Art, which reinvests profits into community initiatives. For the 2020 London Mural Festival, and in the midst of Covid, the ad firm produced murals by over 200 artists, across 75 different sites in 13 London boroughs.

This isn’t technically European. It’s by Wieden+Kennedy São Paulo for Sea Shepherd Brazil. The music video was produced by Fromm, a British studio, which … okay, is also not European. But wait! Megadeth drummer Dirk Verbeuren is Belgian, and he’s involved, so we’re allowing it. Guess what this is? It’s a heavy metal band, created to raise awareness about heavy metal contamination in the sea.

You can’t work in advertising if you’re not a sucker for the occasional pun. Plus, this video is so distressingly, toxically, glamrockishly pretty, it’s irresistible. 

Happy holidays, all. See you on the other side. We wish you so much beauty.

In Aldi France’s “Christmas Before Christmas,” TBWAParis gives us a Santa we’ve never seen. He doesn’t live in a palace with elves, perpetually catering to the fantasies of children. This guy has a chic winter home, plays vinyls and doesn’t think about work off the clock. In this tale, he pulls a classic freelancer move, delivering gifts a day early so he can throw a Christmas Eve dinner bash (with ingredients sourced at Aldi). This story continues the brand’s modernized fairy tale vibe and reinforces its “fresh local produce” focus.

For the city of Hamburg, Jung von Matt Sports leveraged live team grouping draws for the UEFA Euro 2024 tournament. (Hamburg is among 10 cities where matches will be held in Germany, the host nation, next year.) Using huge shipping containers, the agency set up a 40-foot-high installation, dubbed “The Final Draw,” that replicated the actual draw in real-time. This required 25 containers, 12 forklifts and 70 port workers to accomplish. It was simulcast at Elbe Philharmonic Hall, and kicked off a larger campaign titled “Hamburg. Great Things Start Here.”

French NGO Terre de Liens depicts a woman living in a space shuttle, eating holographic food. It ends with her finding terra nova: The land we’re still on. Created by agency Strike, “Come Back Down to Earth” is designed to make the world of agriculture more appealing. In France, 200 farms vanish weekly, and 50,000 hectares of fertile land are paved over each year. One in three farmers will retire in 10 years without replacements. The ad marks 20 years of agricultural preservation for Terre de Liens, and arrives in the lee of a new law dubbed PLOAA, designed to trigger generational renewal in agriculture, partly by making sector jobs more attractive.

By now we’ve all heard that Ikea U.K. and Mother London have launched a limited edition turkey-sized meatball, “the ultimate Christmas dinner showstopper.” (It is not mammoth, but rather mostly chicken.) At over 9 pounds, the meatball comes boxed, accompanied by lingonberry jam and creamy sauce. You can either win one on Ikea’s social media or wait until Dec. 11 and hunt one down. For the herbivores (’cause you know this is not what PETA meant when it said “don’t eat turkey”), Ikea’s got a Veggieball Christmas Tree kit, too. 

Lack of dog blood donors is a problem for vets. Who knew? For client Bâtard (yes, “bastard”), a quarterly lifestyle dog-lovers magazine in France, We Are Social launched #BatardDonneur, whose premise is simple: When people Instagram dog-selfies with that hashtag, and include zip codes, local vets seeking blood can add those doggos to a volunteer donor database. 

“Long live the earth.” We hear that, and it’s a restful way to wrap the week. The ad in question, “An Homage to the Soil,” is for Swedish agricultural coop Lantmännen and makes use of BBC Green Planet cameraman Tim Shepherd, whose oeuvre shines here. The campaign acts as a gentle reminder that Earth is our source of food and life, and we need to take care of the soil for future generations. Work by Nord DDB.

Toblerone’s got a new brand signature, “Never Square,” created by Le Pub Amsterdam. The identity went live in the Netherlands and the hero ad is inspired by luxury codes. In it, a woman at a posh party wears a single diamond-shaped Toblerone truffle at the nape of her diamond-frosted neck. You can be sure a heist follows.

Sometimes, getting away brings couples back together. That’s the premise behind “Retrouvez-vous,” by Rosa Paris for French transport entity SNCF Connect. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before. Yet, its oldie-but-goodie feel suits the holidays, when romcom yearnings spike. Sometimes, you want a romcom experience that feels like your relationship once felt.

Swedish truck manufacturer Scania’s first global campaign comes from Åkestam Holst and is titled “New Energy,” referring to the brand’s electric trucks. The ads have a workplace-sitcom feel and depict the vehicle as a gigantic and silent new office employee. To the guy who tried: Be thankful that truck didn’t fist-bump you back. Eight ads were made in total, and five appear here:

For grocery conglom Carrefour in Belgium, Publicis Brussels gets downright “SCANdalous.” A lady picks up a pineapple in a grocery store, then uses her phone to scan a QR code to see if she might win a trip to TuSCANy. Doing so zaps her into a Tuscan eatery, where everyone is suitably SCANdalized. (Pineapple does NOT belong atop Tuscan pizza!)

Krispy Kreme is coming to Paris! And just as it accompanied Burger King into France, Buzzman’s been tapped for this delicate cultural integration gig. Then again, nobody comes to Buzzman for delicacy. The outdoor ads are a direct assault on pastries so beloved in the City of Lights. “Macaron Démission!” is a play on “Macron, quit!” except with macarons, the confections favored by Marie Antoinette. “The best croissant in Paris” depicts a doughnut with a bite missing, leaving it crescent-shaped. A massive métro ad reads, “Number of pastries that are better than our doughnuts: 0” (the zero being a doughnut, natch). You get the idea.

For the return of its chocolate coins, Cadbury created a Leeds-based billboard that it couldn’t stop decorating with Christmas lights and holiday baubles. It also hunted down deco-happy locals and helped them overdo their houses, too. Work by VCCP London.

In yonder Spain, a car rental company called Mimowi is taking a different tack from its peers. “Open Relationship” depicts a man and a woman who seem to be telling their significant others that they need more freedom. It turns out they’re talking to their cars. Think of that: With rentals, you could slide your hands across a new steering wheel every day. Work by Los padres de la criatura.

The JD Sports holiday ad, “Forever Forward,” created by Uncommon, is hailed by The Drum as a standout in terms of relatability. Starring the retailer’s plastic duffel, it nails the diverse ways young people use the item (not to mention the diversity of British life in 2023). Also, there’s a guy on a horse, and we are suckers for that.

Celio in France made billboards that show random men whose images were captured by Google Maps. The prices of the Celio stuff the guys happened to be wearing also appear. Creepy … but a great coup because they were able to do it, which proves their core point. Brought to you by Buzzman.

For the opening of a CitizenM hotel in Rome, KesselsKramer London created ancient-Roman-style busts of modern Roman citizens, then displayed them all over the city. Quite a vis-à-vis. 

With “Born for Now,” Swedish startup Emulait intros its debut product: a baby bottle resembling the maternal nipple in color, texture and shape. Heck, Instagram might censor it. So smart. Work by B-Reel.

Sephora dropped its holiday ad, “Let There Be Sparks,” by BETC Paris. Weeks ago, we saw Boots’ festive ad and said it does something Sephora can’t. Specifically, Boots has a vulgarized self-care vibe going on, while Sephora’s preoccupied by beauty (easily mistaken for luxury, even by the brand). Having seen this, we stand by what we said, with some gradation. “Let There Be Sparks” is beautiful. Everyone in it is beautiful. But the message is that you can elevate banal, even frustrating, moments to beauty. So yes, Sephora’s about beauty. But it’s not exclusive or elitist. Both approaches seek to welcome a wider world into their arms, and both succeed without compromising their core identities.

What’s that expression people use for when the cat’s away? In this case, it’s Santa who exits, leaving his elves to mind the home front as he departs to distribute their year’s labors.

And off-duty elves can party! The work, set to Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” was created by Leo Burnett for travel and leisure company Tui. In it, you’ll find Elf on a Shelf-type dolls setting off for a sun-soaked holiday jaunt the minute Santa’s reindeer hit altitude.

There’s something creepy about dolls with mostly inanimate faces getting into hijinks, but the minute-long spot quickly invests us in the fun. There’s a zeal here of shaking off the well-mannered employee shtick and cutting loose with peers. Two elves find love (or at least a memorable hookup), and there’s a moment of pure glee when one ignores Santa’s check-in call.

“Shaking up the yearly offering of Christmas clichés, our first Christmas campaign celebrates the feeling of downing tools and soaking up some much needed ‘me-time’,” says Sara Ali, director of brand and content at Tui U.K. and Ireland. “We are always looking for different ways to engage with our audience as part of our ‘Live Happy’ promise, so we’re very excited to spread some festive cheer this year.”

Ten custom puppet elves were created by London-based model-maker Andy Gent from Arch Model Studio. His bonafides include Wes Anderson works like Isle of Dogs, Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Grand Budapest Hotel, plus Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride.

Directed by Alex Boutell of Rogue, Tui’s Christmas ad went live yesterday on Channel 4 in the U.K., during The Great British Bake Off finale and I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! To support it, elves-gone-wild will take over Tui’s social channels, sharing “Elfies” of their adventures. A sweepstakes will see 12 people win a Tui getaway, and an “Elfie AR filter” will rock Instagram and Facebook.

“We all know how hard Santa works, but what about all his little helpers? Surely they deserve a well-earned Tui holiday for all their efforts!” says chief creative officer Chaka Sobhani at Leo Burnett U.K. and global. “As we enter the cold winter months, we hope this campaign gives us something to look forward to and plan for the summer.” 

Ah, summer. We’ve already forgotten that was a thing.

CREDITS

ADVERTISING AGENCY: Leo Burnett   
CCO: Chaka Sobhani   
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Mark Elwood   
CREATIVE DIRECTORS: Rob Tenconi, Mark Franklin   
COPYWRITER: Matt Wood   
ART DIRECTOR: Tom Loveless   
PLANNERS: Aileen Baker, Beth MacKenzie    
BUSINESS LEAD: Lauren Martin    
ACCOUNT TEAM: Robert Ellen, Daisy Jackson, Libby Matthews, Selen Demirel, Ruben Forde   
CHIEF PRODUCTION OFFICER: Emily Marr   
AGENCY PRODUCER:  Dominique Strouthos   
MEDIA BUYING AGENCY: Essence Mediacom   
MEDIA PLANNER:  Mehr Chughtai   
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Rogue   
DIRECTOR: Alex Boutell   

EDITOR: Leo King – Stitch Editing   
PRODUCER: Tom Farley  
POST-PRODUCTION COMPANY: Black Kite Studios   
AUDIO POST-PRODUCTION COMPANY: Wave Studios    
MODEL MAKER: Arch Model Studio    
PHOTOGRAPHER: Rob Tenconi   

TUI:  
GLOBAL BRAND AND CONTENT DIRECTOR: Toby Horry 
DIRECTOR OF BRAND AND CONTENT UK&I: Sara Ali 
HEAD OF GLOBAL ADVERTISING/MEDIA: Felicity Walker
GLOBAL HEAD OF CREATIVE/BRAND ID: Christian Torres
SENIOR GLOBAL ADVERTISING/MEDIA MANAGER: Jennifer Litherland 
GLOBAL ADVERTISING MANAGER: Jessica Briggs

Nobody tees us up for the holidaze like U.K. grocers and department stores. Waitrose doesn’t disappoint. “It’s Time for the GOOD Stuff,” by Saatchi & Saatchi London and directed by Autumn De Wilde, is flanked by Depeche Mode’s “Just Can’t Get Enough.” It sports a Graham Norton cameo and is jam-packed with corny, besequinned enthusiasm. A feel-good endorphin spike to prime viewers for the commercial barrage to come. Bring on the gravy-thick emotions, the Mariah Carey covers, the complicated Santas!

We love seeing a jinn-like fire in people’s eyes. There’s lots of that in “Follow Your Spark” by Digital Cinema Media for BAFTA, promoting the U.K. org’s bursary program for young creatives. “A single spark can light the way, so our reality can catch up with our vision,” says charismatic actor Micheal Ward. Money is means. When it flows into certain hands, it’s a vote for a different kind of world.

The best thing about “Open a World of Possibilities,” for the Kia EV9 by Innocean Berlin, is the song—Låpsley’s “Painter”—and the tundra, both of which lend a sense of the epic. Does the EV9 merit such treatment? I’m sure it does to someone. Regardless, this wouldn’t be the first time vast landscapes and an esoteric bop were used to make a car feel pregnant with meaning.

“Festive Farm,” the Christmas ad for TK Maxx by Wieden+Kennedy London, brings back a stylish goat from its 2020 spot. It’s got new friends: a stylin’ alpaca, ducks sartorially inspired by Harry Styles and a hedgehog in cashmere. The beat-drop comes courtesy of Eve and Gwen Stefani: “Let Me Blow Ya Mind.” We’ll take any excuse to rock to this, even this one.

Lionel Messi won his eighth Ballon d’Or. Lay’s is very proud, and wants some of that GOAT halo, so it created a strange mixed-reality video featuring a celebratory chips bag, Messi’s likeness and the Eiffel Tower. The whole thing feels like a photobomb, but what is bombing what, exactly? Messi posted it on his socials like a good sport.

KFC’s “Forever Crispy” by Havas Paris features a bespoke track by HRCLS and depicts a retro-futuristic KFC Universe. Directed by Romain Chassaing, Havas dubs it a “crossroads between Blade Runner and The Fifth Element.” We were thinking Minority Report (for the hologrammery) and Demolition Man (the kids are literally jamming to a jingle). But we get that KFC might not savor that in less than 30 years, its entire raison d’être might be subsumed by Taco Bell. Anyhow, great world-building here.

Get a load of “All the Calls” for Britain’s Gala Bingo by Neverland. We’ve never seen a bingo ad before, and are surprised by how beautiful this one is. We blame the song—what is that? We can’t put a finger on it—and the production strategy: a heavy slowdown of neighborhood life. After a time, we start feeling weirdly heartbroken. Maybe it’s because seeing life at this speed (or lack thereof) illustrates how earnestly we strive to live, even when we’re not doing it consciously.

This strategy is also functional: Viewers are invited to “find all 90 bingo calls.” The work was shot by attaching a super-high-speed camera to an electric bike, which sped through the carefully choreographed action at 30 mph.

There’s leftover Halloween work to get through. You probably don’t need anyone to tell you “Not All Horror Is Fiction,” but agency at-thetable doubles down on that for Belgian animal rights organization Gaia. Its campaign reprises the style of old horror film posters to emphasize the nightmarish treatment animals suffer for our sakes. “Castration Chamber” appears below, but also see “Force-Fed” and “Labrats.” (Extra credit: Pair this with the insouciantly gluttonous Waitrose work!)

With agency Buzzman, Burger King in France gives us nightmarishly Daliesque AI renditions of people eating burgers, or possibly becoming them. “Happy a.i.lloween!” We’ve seen the approach before, but it never stops being creepy.

“This is not an ad; it’s a warning.” Actually, this is an ad—a rhythmically rich, vibey spot for Andalucia Tourism by Ogilvy Spain. It’s got so much duende that it pounds in our blood, like Paco de Lucía’s devilish strumming. The narrator also appears at the end, a chef’s-kiss cameo. A heady digestif to finish the week!

Fascinating, how a little peace of mind can change your life. 

That’s the insight at the heart of “New Friendships,” a short film created by Dude London for Trainline, which intros a fresh brand platform.

If you’ve traveled through multiple countries in Europe, you know that booking rail, bus and other transport can be an overwhelming experience. Trainline lets you do it all through one service, so you don’t have to deal with each country’s providers and languages. 

While the ad’s premise is a little wild—a guy on a trip forms an unlikely bromance with a Bigfoot-style creature—it’s got a sound core. You become more open and relaxed when stress is lifted from your shoulders. Things seem possible that didn’t before, like friendships, or even love!, over unlikely frontiers. This message feels well timed for the politics of the moment.

“How you start your trips can significantly affect how they unfold,” observes Jo McClintock, Trainline’s VP of brand and marketing. “So when it came to bringing ‘Great Journeys Start With Trainline’ to life in one of our most European markets, we wanted to create a campaign that shows how a great and effortless start to your trips can lead to amazing, wonderful and limitless possibilities.”

Digital out-of-home support for the work runs from Nov. 26 in Rome and Milan, followed by a second phase later in the year.

CREDITS 

Client: TRAINLINE

CREATIVE AGENCY: DUDE LONDON
Executive Creative Director: Curro Piqueras Parra
Creative Director: Tomás Gianelli O’Ryan
Head of Art: Pietro Soldi
Art Director: Daniela Gonzalez Lavalle
Copywriter: Matt Yeo
Client Lead: Hamish Day
Senior Account Manager: Jeanine Vette

PRODUCTION AGENCY: DUDE MILANO
Integrated Production Director – Matteo Pecorari
Senior Producer – Maria Chiara Muglia
Producer – Elisabetta Carli
Head of Physical Production – Simone Raddi
Post Producer – Miriam Ottina
Online Editor – Federica Ruggeri

PRODUCTION
Director – Matthew Swanson
DOP – Pawel Pogorzelski 
1st AD – Аntony Tanev 
Casting – Lesley Beastall Casting
Production Service – Solent Film
Solent Film MD – Magdalena Staneva, Alex Momchev
Solent Film Service Producer – Konstantina Manolova, Petra Trendafilova
Prod Designer – Momchil Tasev
Stylist – Ina Damyanova
Editor – David Whittaker (Tenthree)
Editor’s Producer – Clelland Allen (Tenthree)
Color grading – George Neave (Coffee&TV)
Flame – Rory Whittle (Coffee&TV)
Nuke – James Belch (Coffee&TV)
Post producer Coffee&TV – Pete Burch
Music and VO – Operà Music

Photographer – Paula Patocka

What if your entire day, indeed your whole life, took place in spaces measuring one square meter? This is the case for the hero of HeimatTBWA’s latest visual stunner from Hornbach.

At the start of the :60 below, he awakens in a constricted world. He climbs a narrow passage with toast in his mouth. It’s a scene akin to Alice falling into Wonderland, but in reverse. He stops to spritz his mushrooms. Under a low slanted roof, he tries his hand at pottery. Then he slides away from the wheel, creation in hand, to savor a meal with company. The uneven pot now holds flowers.

The vibe’s claustrophobic and dreamlike. Stuff slides about, scenes shift in odd ways.

The ad is a creative response to the cost-of-living crisis that’s spread like a plague, making it harder to find adequate living space. “A square meter seems small, yet it is an endless space of ideas,” the YouTube description reads. And indeed, as the man progresses through spaces he lives in and shares, the walls never exceed that measure (a square meter is about 10.76 square feet).

Hornbach’s grittiness manifests beautifully here, and that madcap quality we’ve come to love shines in the protagonist’s eyes. But the subtle hand of Heimat can also be felt, which is what gives the DIY shop its unique brand identity: It’s a place for creativity unhinged, the stuff of too much time alone with a hammer, staring at something whose “artistic constraints” have begun to drive you a little mad—enough to push past barriers of convention.

You’ll find no neat Ikea aesthetics, clean lines interrupted only by the quirky accent marks of the furniture’s Swedish names. Instead, Hornbach’s world is rooty, wild, imperfect—a garden gone full English.

“We want to encourage and inspire people to creatively rethink and design rooms and spaces, both within their own four walls and beyond,” explains Thomas Schnaitmann, Hornbach’s head of international brand. “Particularly in places where affordable living space is becoming scarcer, the number of ideas per square meter needs to be even bigger.”

The work is fun to watch, each scene opening like a palimpsest you can live in, revealing layer upon layer of life. It must have been fun to make. Director Steve Rogers of TDF Berlin worked with set designer Steven Jones-Evans, whose team handcrafted everything you see.

“This film is the embodiment of the Hornbach brand. We’ve built everything by hand, from the bed to the vertical dining room. No special effects, only ideas,” says Guido Heffels, agency founder and CCO. 

The results speak for themselves. In a well-shot minute, the rooms we move through are compact while conveying scale. The ambiance possesses a liminal quality: Space seems to go on forever, holding endless potential. But it also feels a little too tight, evoking the times we’ve had to make do in tight quarters.

At the end of the ad, the protagonist tumbles out of the labyrinth and emerges, as though from the head of John Malkovich, onto a stage before an applauding audience. The background brasses play at their peak. This line appears: “Every square meter deserves to be the best in the world.”

Designers and artists from eight European countries—including Germany, Sweden, Slovakia, Austria, and the Netherlands—produced actual square-meter artworks for the supporting campaign, which will roll out from mid-September onward. They have evocative names like “The Square Farm,” “The Memory Room” and “BBQ Tower.” Their stories, and those of their designers, will also be told on social and digital supports.

Out-of-home, radio and event promotions will accompany the work.

CREDITS

Creative Agency: HeimatTBWA
Media Agency: Mediaplus
Director: Steve Rogers
Music Composition: Benjamin Woodgates, LELAND Music, London
Music Supervision: Ed Bailie, LELAND Music, London
Sound Design: David Arnold/ LOFT Berlin
Film Production: TPF Berlin
Producers: Michael Duttenhöfer, Florian von der Heydt