Newsletter
'Carol of the Bells' and 'Silent Night' Herald Great Work From Europe
Gems from Erste, Orange McDonald's and more
In a cinematic piece from German financial services firm Erste Group and Jung von Matt Donau, we learn the origins of “Silent Night,” the most recorded song in history. “Your Spark Can Light Up the World” opens with a bleak atmosphere after the Napoleonic Wars, inspiring a young priest to put fountain pen to paper. As the song debuts before its first candlelit audience, we drift forward through history, where it remains a cherished holiday staple. The ad closes by honoring the composers: Joseph Mohr and Franz Xaver Gruber. Is it wrong to call them the Mariah Careys of their era?
In mobile provider Orange France’s holiday rendition of “Carol of the Bells,” young people lobby for a smartphone while their parents refuse, citing cyberbullying, screentime hygiene, etc. The situation escalates into a fight for liberty on the streets, with children vs. parents (“This is a dictatorship!”), until a solution emerges from a man in an Orange jacket. Introducing SaferPhone, a mobile option with child protections. Happy technocrat holidays from Publicis Conseil.
The Hot Ones format has hit French soil, headlined by comedian Kyan Khojandi. Since it’s inspired the French to test their own hot sauce mettle (there is no mettle to speak of; we are a people who put sugar in soy sauce), McDonald’s and TBWA Paris created three super-hot condiments: Hell Piñata, Thai-Toi (a play on “tais-toi,” which means “shut up”), and Embrase-Moi (“kiss me”). They claim these are the spiciest sauces ever offered to the public, and they were also featured in an episode of the show, which airs on Canal+.
“Like a fish!” With those words, a father encourages his small child to swim on a community beach. There is pride as he drifts away, but the father’s expression eventually erodes into something like pain. The child submerges and reemerges in a life vest, in the middle of the sea. “Like a fish,” they keep repeating. The ad is for Sea Eye, an NGO dedicated to rescuing refugees in the Mediterranean, in which 1,500 children have died or disappeared since 2018.
We’ll wrap with “Expulsion” by France’s Fondation abbé Pierre. Created by Fred & Farid Paris, it centers around a boy called Adem, who comes home from a successful soccer game to discover he and his mother are being expelled from their apartment. What follows is an illustration of how such precarity denigrates the morale and energy of a child. Things end on an up note for Adem and his mother—but that’s not always true for everyone. “To regain a home is to grow hope,” the ad concludes.
Angela Natividad is the European markets editor at Muse by Clio. She also writes about gaming and fashion, and whatever else she’s interested in, really. She’s based in Paris and North Italy, so if you’re local, say hi. She might eat all your food.
