What are your thoughts on this German Christmas commercial?

fatalrendezvous

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You might have seen it already, maybe on Facebook or some other form of social media.

Some folks have criticized it for being insensitive, while others are praising it for highlighting the importance of family and how we so often take for granted the time we have with those we love and care about.

What do YOU think? And do YOU spend time with your family for the holidays?
 
Eh.

Seems like one of those 'controversial' commercials designed by companies to be passed around. It's nothing special really.
 
As a commercial I think it's more dumb edge than super offensive/insensitive, etc. I mean the idea of family growing further apart in the modern world isn't a bad one, but they just had to go with a fake death. If such a thing happened in my family, I'd have my Christmas dinner elsewhere. In the commercial though, again, I just see it as dumb edge and a cheap method to pull heartstrings. Kinda amateurish more than anything if you ask me.
 
Replace "Family" with "Loved Ones" and I completely agree with the message.

People constantly have their lives absorbed by stuff like work (by choice or economic circumstance) that their ability to spend time with loved one's get's messed with completely.
That being said, like I detailed in the brackets it could be due to economic situation, so although there are the individuals who choose to obsess too much on their work (cause prestige, fame, money etc.) part of the responsibility also falls on the employers to make sure their employee's can still enjoy time with those they care for.

That being said though, there are some jobs which are vital even on the holidays.
So giving those people a day or so off in the surrounding days and being covered would work as well in those cases.
 
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I laughed my ass off!

What a bastard of an old troll. Love it.
 
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I understand the meaning and message just the way it was carried out I think was crude and if someone were to do that to me, I'd probably just leave.
 
I'll agree that such a stunt done IRL would be a dick move.

But I don't think it was used in the trailer to say "You should do this" but rather go "You'd rush to them after they're dead, but not to see them while they're alive".
 
My family is around 900 miles away, so it's just me and my mother (who I'm living with, to take care of her), most of the time.

Regarding the commercial itself? Good on that old guy for coming up with a way to bring the family together.
 
Well, they made a commercial that got people actually sharing the thing and talking about it, so whatever else it did that's a win. Anyone sharing it on social media because "OMG SO SAD AND REAL, LUV UR FAMILY!!!" or "OMG SO CRUEL FUCK THIS SHIT!!!" is giving them free advertising. Well done as far as that goes.

I find it funny that it was apparently a commercial for a German supermarket chain. Would've made more sense as a commercial for an airline or something similar, with the "we can get you home for the holidays at a reasonable price" sort of angle.
 
I find it funny that it was apparently a commercial for a German supermarket chain. Would've made more sense as a commercial for an airline or something similar, with the "we can get you home for the holidays at a reasonable price" sort of angle.
Probably either just trying to attaching their brand to something controversial, therefore more people know of them and might go later on just cause of that.

Or they're trying to show themselves as a moral business that supports family life, as to appeal to people who want to support business that 'value' such things.
 
Since Christmas is one of the very few times a year that I get to see my dad, I kind of get the idea behind this thing even if I don't understand any of that chibberish.

Though I still can't help noticing how much of an asshole that old guy is. Making your family think you're dead so they'll come eat with you? Threatening them with a gun would've been a better plan if you ask me.
 
[fieldbox=Christmas, red, solid]

Let's talk about Christmas.
[/fieldbox]​
[fieldbox=Christmas, red, solid]
Christmas
/ˈkrɪsməs/

noun
  • 1.the annual Christian festival celebrating Christ's birth, held on 25 December in the Western Church
This is it's definition, in modern society it is considered a Christian Holiday that has been picked up and celebrated over hundred of generations, but what has the world made it mean to us?

Over the years (Particuarly in the colder parts of the world) Christmas is a time of:

- Warmth and light in the bitter chill of dark and cold winters.
- A time to share with the ones you love and remember.
- Fun.

This points have been ingrained to our brains since our childhood through media and traditional practice; two sources named of the top of my head, Scrouge (and/or the Muppet's Christmas) and Dr Zeus, the Grinch, but there are many, many more.

Everybody's heard of the phrase "You don't know what you have till it's gone." To those people who have the audacity to phone your old dad up every year after planning a lovely dinner for you and the rest of your family saying you can't make it repeatedly. I understand sometimes circumstances are hard but for that wide of a family to neglect something so beautiful like remembering to take a day to spend with people you care about? then doing something as extreme as that man had to do may be appropriate.

Because we've all done it, we've called up places we can't go to because life was on the line. Made ourselves busy when we shouldn't, but I look at this an think "I wouldn't want to die alone either."

People rarely have the empathy to step into the shoes of another person, if anybody did this to me I would cry. It's only a dick move if you choose to ignore the sentiment behind the action, which was done out of love. Running away from situations like this one and 'leaving' is not an answer that helps anyone.

One could argue that it's no more than a holiday. That might be so, but so is Thanks Giving, Easter, Halloween... They're all just Holidays to brighten up the year. Okay, so in life you have to work to help society develop and evolve, but if you can't have fun, spend time with the people you love and
just be live for one day of the year, what's the point? The old man might as well be in the coffin.

If people are truly offended by this advert then they need to have a reality check and assess their priorities in life, if they are happy with them fine. Something is only ever considered wrong if society decided upon it as collective.

I see a lonely old man wanting to live a little with his family before he dies. Good on him.[/fieldbox]
 
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