How Penny Fixed the Rift between Us All
Here’s a Christmas ad worth a few minutes of your time. German supermarket PENNY has put the world in awe at its creative genius for a few years now, taking leaps and standing firmly on foundational beliefs about society that they don’t seem to be stepping away from anytime soon.
Last year it was ‘The Wish’ that not only won a Grand Prix at Cannes among other awards, but also brought tears to audiences’ eyes all over Europe. This year, we are dealing with a whole other bag of worms - war, a cost of living crisis, still the pandemic, and general growing anxieties everywhere across the continent. PENNY took it upon themselves to talk about those, with the same firm tone they have held for the past years.
Many ask themselves, why would a supermarket Christmas spot deal with such major issues, but Christoph Everke, creative managing partner at Serviceplan Campaign is quite clear: PENNY’s brand pillars are and have always been ‘proximity, community and neighbourhood’. All of those are affected by the current societal issues, shaking our world as we know it, and causing major cracks where we have not seen them before. The scary thing is, we might not even notice them until it’s too late.
The film, directed by Anorak Films’ Seb Edwards, follows the story of an apartment building in Germany with each apartment bearing a different but equally heavy burden. As the characters in the building interact with each other throughout the film, we see the ways in which communication has deteriorated between them, reflecting the mould that has grown in society over the past few years. Fights among families, neighbours, and distrust within otherwise stable communities are only a few issues that make ‘The Rift’ an extremely human and raw story.
In fact, upon watching the film, PENNY employees also spoke out on the rift they have noticed in the supermarkets country-wide - the ways in which people interact, or rather don’t interact anymore with each other at the checkout or throughout the store. But, according to the brand, there is one simple way to begin to fix this - ask each other to talk. ‘Let’s talk’ are the magic words of the campaign and, as it seems, the magic words of Christmas. So, before you leave to see your families this winter - remember to talk to each other. But really.
LBB’s Zoe Antonov spoke to Christoph, as well as director Seb about the heavy duty of conveying the story to audiences, PENNY’s role in the crisis, and much more.
LBB> Christmas ads usually go one way - joy and happiness. This one is a lot more raw and realistic - why did you decide to go in this direction and why did you believe it was important to do so?
Christoph & Seb> Many people missed out on a lot of joy and happiness themselves due to the rifts. Every one of us experiences the rifts in their life and we wanted to portray nothing more than the reality, because we sensed that people need to feel understood. We showed empathy without any overpromising, but with a solution that everyone can take: Let’s talk to each other again. Especially as we come together during the Christmas holidays, we long for joy and happiness after another year of conflict – so listening and empathy are exactly the right cues.
LBB> Tell me about how this film is a natural continuation from last year's. Was there a lot of pressure to outdo yourselves after last year's film did so incredibly?
Christoph & Seb> Of course, the expectations were high - especially for ourselves. But the new film is not necessarily a logical continuation of the last one. It is rather the case that the reactions to the last film have encouraged us and the brand to talk about topics that are critical and to show an attitude towards them.
LBB> Do you believe that in times of trouble creative media has a duty to consumers to stay truthful and acknowledge political issues? f so, what is your advice for the rest of the industry to do so?
Christoph & Seb> I wouldn't say we have a duty to take a stand, but we have the opportunity to do so and to make a positive contribution, because of the wide reach we have. But you can't generalise. It always depends on the brand. Regarding this, my advice would be: If the brand is affected by a topic in its core (at Penny it is proximity and community), then it is allowed to comment on it. And then it should also position itself boldly and clearly.
LBB> What significance did the apartment building have in writing the script? Why did you choose that over a street of houses?
Christoph & Seb> An apartment building felt more metaphorical, narratively singular and dramatically intense. In this type of building there are many people from different cultural backgrounds living on top of one another in their own bubbles. This close proximity also helped the idea of the rift spreading, both physically and psychologically.
LBB> Who developed the characters and how did you set on these ones as the perfect representatives of the idea?
Christoph & Seb> We all developed the characters together. We had a list of themes that we wanted to address and built stories around them. It was important that the characters had depth and nuance and for their stories to feel authentic, whilst clearly addressing the relevant themes of social division. It was a tricky balancing act, but I hope we achieved it. It was important to us that the characters didn’t seem superficial or stereotypical in any way.
LBB> You intertwine a lot of storylines to ultimately translate the collective feeling of fear and stress in the world - how did you manage that and what did you want to send as a message to audiences?
Christoph & Seb> We wanted to show that we all play some part in creating this toxic division that currently rages in our society. And how we can all do our bit in resolving it by reaching out to someone, if only in a small way. To do this it was important that the stories and characters we presented felt real and relatable. Everyone hopefully recognises or empathises with someone in the film, enabling us to see that despite our conflicting views we are all just human beings.
LBB> How long did the creation of the film take?
Christoph & Seb> All in all, we worked for around nine months on the whole Christmas campaign.
We started in early March to find the right topic and developed the script for the spot from May onwards. Together with the director and the production crew, we discussed every single detail until the shoot in early September. And as in the last few years, we published the campaign in the first week of November.
LBB> What was the most challenging part of creating the campaign? And what about the most fun?
Christoph & Seb> Finding the right tonality for our message was probably the most challenging part. When you work on a subject like this, the end of the spot is very crucial for the success of the whole campaign. You don’t want to overwhelm the viewer or ask too much of them. The simple call ‘Let's talk’ was therefore exactly the right wording for us.
The most fun was the edit, because that's where all the work of the previous months came together and we immediately felt that the film turned out as we had hoped.
LBB> What are some symbols that we might have missed but were important to delivering the final message?
Christoph & Seb> Except for our main character Max nobody notices the rifts. This also happens a lot in real life. We are so involved in an argument, that we don’t see the consequences, and how we drift apart from each other more and more. But especially in times of crisis, we need to stand together.
LBB> Tell me about how the film resonates with the brand pillars of Penny. Why was it important to them to go through with this project?
Christoph & Seb> Penny's brand pillars are proximity, community and neighbourhood. In this respect, the brand and all 29,000 employees in the stores are affected every day by the many small and large cracks we described in the film. And that is why it was particularly important for the brand to speak out about it. Also, to encourage the employees.
LBB> How did you manage to make the building crumble in the ways that it did, including the rest of the destruction?
Christoph & Seb> Some destruction was achieved in-camera, but most of the effects were created in VFX by the brilliant Time Based Arts. Our art department physically designed & created the destruction within the sets for each scene. Then TBA cleaned it all up in post and skilfully revealed the destruction in the right dramatic moments, adding falling dust and debris so that it looked completely real.
LBB> What have been the audience's reactions so far?
Christoph & Seb> On social media we received loads of positive reactions. Some comments that stuck with us were: “This campaign should be a message from the government”, or “As every year, right on point of the Zeitgeist”. The community also recognises themselves in the spot and admits that it’s time to reach out to each other and talk.
Even PENNY’s employees responded: “Goosebumps. That’s what we experience every day in our store, at the register and on the street – it’s gotten so bad. This spot needs to be spread around. I wish we could show this in the store on a big screen.”
