A Christmas ad from German Supermarket Edeka that showed an elderly man fake his death to get his family to come home for the festive season has overtaken John Lewis as the the most shared Christmas ad of 2015.
The TV ad has attracted almost 2.4m shares since it was launched last week, according to Unruly, putting it well ahead of John Lewis's ManOnTheMoon which has managed a total of 1.3m shares. Sainsbury's effort is currently in third place with 917,907 shares.
The rather extreme tear-jerking advert generated a flurry of activity on social media, with mixed reviews.
They ranged from the confused:
Mum just showed me the German Christmas ad for edeka and just WTF?!?!
— Ereana (@Jen_B93) December 1, 2015
To the outraged:
@EDEKA_D watched your Christmas ad. Don't know who's more manipulative you or the old man. Using death & loss to promote sales is disgusting — Keila Hawksmoor (@keilahawk) December 1, 2015While others enjoyed the heart-wrenching nature of the spot:
Great stories cross cultural & language barriers. #Germans make great cars and now great #ads. Kudos 2 @EDEKA_Dhttps://t.co/ij1DAuFRq2
— Walter P. Chen (@walterpchen) December 2, 2015
The ad was created by German advertising agency Jung von Matt.
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