British ennoble Walker

As the "saddest Christmas campaign of the year" describes the portal Thesun.co.uk the spot "Grace", with which the Zurich advertising agency Walker has landed an impressive viral success. The spot has already been viewed more than a million times on YouTube and, according to the latest media reports, this figure is likely to rise considerably. 20 Minuten, Creativity-Online, Adforum.com, Huffington Post... On Mashable.com the spot has already been shared over 30,000 times. Dailymail.co.uk dedicates a very detailed article to the spot (and meticulously explains every scene to the readership). For this medium, too, it is clear that the John Lewis spot "Man on the Moon" - he receives a telescope as a gift from an earth girl (see below) - will have to warm up before the unexpected competition from Zurich in the "battle" for the title of the most heartwarming Christmas spot of 2015. Also Bild.de gives the commercial a lot of space and asks, "Is this commercial any sadder than Edeka Grandpa?"

Walker seems with the story about the demented manwho remembers his wife through a book of photographs, seems to have struck a chord. The spot joins the prominent list of films that have made an audience of millions cry this year - led by the explosively distributed Edeka spot 1TP4Homecomingwhich was viewed over 34 million times on YouTube (and 19 million times on Facebook) just one week after its release.

"We were already hoping that we would also reach our customers emotionally with this Ifolor spot. But we couldn't have expected such a huge response," reveals agency owner Pius Walker to Werbewoche.ch. Walker is particularly pleased that the spot has been so well received in Great Britain: "The public's expectations of advertising are highest in the Anglo-Saxon world. The British press is notoriously merciless. For better or worse." Via the Mashable.com article, the film was said to be on Huffington Post landed and was eventually picked up by portals such as The Sun, The Daily Mail and other titles with million-dollar reach, Walker says. "And it resulted in the first big snowball fight of the year. We are very happy for our client, which is breaking new ground with such courage." (hae)

The lonely man in the moon receives a gift from a distant girl in the John Lewis spot. The spot was penned by Adam&eveDDB, London, and is the follow-up to last year's "Monty the Penguin" Christmas campaign.

Leo Burnett Spain is also stirring - with an animated spot: For the Christmas lottery, for which people in Spain traditionally join together (and share any winnings), the agency shows what communal warmth means:

...a concept that, by the way, already worked brilliantly last year. If you don't have watery eyes yet, this great spot (turn on English subtitles if needed) will surely work - it tells the story of a man who didn't participate in the communal lottery ticket purchase and has to congratulate the celebrating winners with a heavy heart... (P.S. : you've got something in your eye!).