“The most wonderful time of the year” is coming and retailers have started to launch their Christmas ads. Macy’s is among them. This year, it markets itself as “The Gift Destination” in the holiday commercial, encouraging people to “Believe in the wonder of giving”.
The 60-second spot, aimed at showing that “giving brings people together, no matter how far apart they may be,” features a mother who works as an astronaut on a spaceship and keeps in touch with her daughter and the rest of her family through video calls. During one of them, the woman is asked by her child if she’s taking care of Sunny, the handmade cardboard snowman that her daughter had given her to keep her company. Learning that there are slight chances for her mom to come home for Christmas, the girl gets nostalgic, especially as the holiday is approaching and she starts decorating the house and adorning the Christmas tree. On Christmas day, she enthusiastically asks her mother to get Sunny and open it. Inside there are a snowglobe and hundreds of little beads of styrofoam that lift and surround the woman, making her feel as if it’s snowing. At the same time, back at home, her daughter gets out of the house to feel the first snow and look at the night sky. When her husband tells her “We wish you were here,” the woman answers “I feel like I am”.
The film ends with the line “Believe in the wonder of giving” flashing across the screen.
According to a press release, visitors of all ages will be able to meet astronaut Sunny the Snowpal in the Broadway window displays, on Thursday, November 15 at 6:00pm, when the Macy’s flagship store will unveil its iconic Christmas window. The six enchanted windows, created by award-winning designer and Macy’s National Director of Window Presentation, Roya Sullivan, will be complemented by a custom interactive video game that lets guests zoom Sunny through snowflakes in pursuit of Santa’s sleigh, while LED backdrops and animated characters and scenery bring energy to the holiday scenes. Customers will also be able to take Sunny the Snowpal home in the form of an 11-inch Sunny the Snowpal plush, which will be sold exclusively at Macy’s Herald Square and Union Square.
Last year, the retailer’s Christmas ad, released with the tagline “The Perfect Gift Brings People Together” and set in a Macy’s store, featured a teenage boy exchanging glances and smiles with a girl from his school who is working at the register. On Christmas morning, as he opens his presents, he discovers that all his clothes are the wrong size and needs to exchange them. It turns out this exactly what his mother, who had been with him at the store, had planned, helping him thus to interact with the girl and ask her for a date.
