Crazy Santa is left outside with Rema 1000: a campaign by Try

par Maud Largeaud , AdForum

Øystein Halvorsen
Directeur de la création Try Reklamebyrå
 


How this holiday communication is different from the usual for this advertiser?

A lot of Christmas ads are very cosy and cute – showing happy kids and families. Our goal was to create something different, with a little bit more “bite” and craziness. I guess you don´t find that many other commercials were Santa scares a little girl so much that she cries…

 

What inspired you to approach the campaign this way?

Well, it started out with the idea of making fun of tech and face recognition, as a part of the Smart house campaign for REMA 1000. But quite early in the process we thought that Xmas was perfect to tell a new joke. A lot of people overdo it at this time a year. We wanted to make our hero “Clark Griswold” of the 2019.

 

What’s a “behind the scenes” story that only you know about?

This commercial were shot already in February, when it still was snow in Oslo. The actor had a pretty tough day at work since we had to glue the mask to his face. And he had to change mask pretty often…

 

Are there any holiday ad tropes that you think should be retired by now?

Xmas is all about the cliches. So I don´t think we should get rid of them. But we all should try to show them in a new way, and play with the clichees.

 

What is your favourite holiday campaign of all time?

Oh, that´s a tricky one. I must admit that I am weak for the Dixon “Spare the act” campaign from 2016.

 

What can we expect for the smart home in 2020?

I can´t speak for the technology, but I guess we haven´t seen the last of the main character in our Smart house campaign. But I can´t reveal more than that…