Stories about living in harmony are common at the holidays, but more Christmas ads lately have been taking stock of the opposite—the rampant division in the world and the fraying social and political fabric seen in countries across the globe.

Penny, the German retailer, excels at this kind of storytelling. But a different German brand, Deutsche Telekom, is the first out of the gate this year with a politically charged holiday epic.

The two-minute spot, created by MUW Saatchi & Saatchi and directed by Alex Feil, tells the story of two girls who are separately by a pane of glass—we later discover they live in adjoining snow globes. Their worlds are clearly divided into red and blue—the snow globes are bubbles in more ways than one—and the girls are unable to fully connect, even though they want to. 

At the end, though, there is a quite literal breakthrough.

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The spot does a nice job of building a fantastical world to mirror the real one, which makes the topic more approachable. (Compare this with the gritty realism of Penny’s spot two years ago.) If the ending is somewhat predictable, it still packs a punch thanks to the emotion built up throughout the piece.

“As a brand, we want to connect people. We want to make it clear that it is important and possible to break down barriers in our minds,” said Ulrich Klenke, head of brand at Deutsche Telekom. “Our company is committed to social cohesion and greater tolerance. It does not tolerate hatred and incitement, discriminatory actions, racism, and extremism in any way. We stand for what connects people, societies and cultures.”

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• Director Lauren Greenfield on teens and toxic social media.
• The best ads of 2024 (so far).

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