Sappy Christmas Ads Can Be Good, Sometimes

The Kohls Christmas ad hints at this year's dark times 
while still maintaining the sugary sweet feel of the holiday.

 It's that time of year for sappy Christmas ads. Most are silly, too sticky sweet, or just plain annoying and dumb.  

A few ads do manage to cut through my inner Scrooge and I end up liking them. Despite the obligatory sugary sweet tone. What follows are this year's nominees of ads that actually are OK. 

Oddly, the weight of this terrible year has lead to a large group of good ads. I think this bodes well for the arts when we get out of this pandemic, judging from the creativity of some of these ads. 

Feel free to respond to agree, or disagree, or suggest your own ads. In each video, click on the YouTube logo to watch it there. If you do that, the videos will be bigger on your screen and easier to view. 

One of my favorite comes from Kohls, of all places. Supposedly, ad experts say this is the most effective seasonal ad of the year, taking into account the reality of the pandemic, the isolation, the need to find creative ways to enjoy life, an the need to reach out to each other. 

In the Kohls ad, a young girl trades messages held up against her window with a woman next door.  Despite the limitations of lockdowns and quarantines, the two become fast friends.

But then, the woman stops replying to the girl's messages.  The girl is sad, worried.

Then on Christmas morning, a miracle!  Hint: The hospital band on the wrist hints at our current bad times without hitting us over the head with it. 

Watch:

Just as nice as Kohls is a Christmas ad from the European pharmacy chain Doc Morris.  We see an elderly man - apparently a now out of shape former athlete - deciding he needs to get some exercise and becomes fit agains. 

He carries on, despite disapproving looks from a Karen-ish neighbor.  The man has an important Christmas fitness goal, which beautifully becomes apparent at the end of the video:

Next one  is from Xfinity of all places.  (Why are the most annoying companies putting out the best seasonal TV ads this year?)

Here, Santa runs a North Pole operation employed by elves that really has sort of a start-up corporate vibe. 

Panicked elves in a Zoom meeting after Santa makes
some serious work demands.

Santa abruptly launches an early morning virtual Zoom meeting with his elves and announces, "After the year we just had, the usual gifts are just not going to cut it. So, we have to find something else. And fast. That's all. Figure it out, good luck!"

Santa's corporate minions  elves are terrified of how they are going to fill Santa's tall order. Finally, one elf finds a solution. Santa is skeptical. We watch how this plays out as the Supertramp song "Dreamer" plays in the background. 

By the way, Santa here is played effectively by Steve Carell

The ad has just the right touch of humor, joy, our collective "make it work" attitude and ties to the reality of what a sucky year 2020 has been. Watch: 

From Amazon, a company a hate the most of the bunch, comes this stellar ad. Here, a teenage girl is thrilled to win the lead ballet dancer role in the annual winter performance. Then the Covid pandemic cancels the show, and this girl is devastated. 

Until her family figures out a way to make the show go on. Watch: