Thank You Kohl’s, for a Beautiful Christmas Ad

ads, Blogging, business, music 1 Minute

Last week I wrote that I was not that impressed with the batch of Christmas ads coming out of the UK this year, and so I opted to play an oldie but goodie from John Lewis.

But thanks to a listing of several Christmas ads at HuffPost, I came across one that left me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.

I like ads that tell a bit of a story and have beautiful music to go with them. This ad checks off both boxes.

The ad is from Kohl’s, a U.S. department store chain, and is part of its holiday campaign this year that is encouraging customers to “Give With All Your Heart”

Here’s a brief description from iSpot TV:

As grandma opens up her presents on Christmas morning, a nervous grandson walks up to her and asks her to dance. Grandpa plays Ane Brun’s “From Me to You” on the record player and grandma and grandson enjoy a heartfelt dance.

Ane Brun is a Norwegian songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist of Sami origin.

Here’s the video:

*image from Ad Age

Published by Jim Borden

A 60-something guy trying to figure out the world, and his place in it. Happily married for 40-plus years, three wonderful sons. Accounting teacher, fitness enthusiast, blogger, reader.

Published

64 thoughts on “Thank You Kohl’s, for a Beautiful Christmas Ad”

  4. Ok. I am a vocal conscious objector to all things holiday related. That said, I really enjoyed this commercial for the following reasons:
    1. The only product placement was on the insanely large box on grandmas leg so they weren’t beating you over the head with product placement. The lack of overt connections to the store makes it exponentially better.
    2. The grandson actually looked like he could be related to grandma. And their dance was just terrible enough that it is believable.
    3. The grandfather. I don’t know why, can’t explain it. He just felt nice to me. Like a grandpa of a friend kind of thing. Can’t explain it.
    4. A record player. Khols doesn’t sell record players, or never has when I’ve been trapped in one. MP3 players, sure. For the shower, the washing machine, the dishwasher, your refrigerator, probably even the toilet. But not record machines. I could be wrong though…
    5. That song was just beautiful. I love her voice and that version, although they tried to play up the sap factor by a trillion, but it still worked for me.
    6. (Final one!) the people on the couch behind them as they dance. They’re sitting in a way that’s relaxed and supposed to be all warm and Christmasy. Their faces though. It’s like every real Christmas. Your sitting back bored to tears while someone else tries to take as long as possible to either hand over or open their gift. Since you helped wrap it, you’re extra bored. That was their faces.

    A++ for the Christmas commercial listing!

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      1. No it’s not. Mine is the Grinch version of what makes this particular commercial choice by you exceptional in my mind. Yours is why it’s exceptional in yours. I’m just a grinch 😂

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  9. An OK ad, nothing special. The singer sounds like Dolly Parton and I think she’ll find that is a Beatles song despite her apparently being a singer-songwriter. Maybe she saw the ‘Yesterday’ movie…

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      1. There was a twang there, wasn’t there?

        I’m not sure if you had the same release sequence over there but here it was their third single, after discounting an early release with Tony Sheridan. First was Love Me Do, then Please Please Me. This was their first UK #1.

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      3. At least you know now! I think it was very disingenuous of her to let that go out seemingly as her song. I looked her up: she is 45 and has made quite a few albums. I hope she gave due credit to all the original songwriters for her covers – or maybe she thought that as Norway is a small market no one would notice?

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      7. A young wannabe singer-songwriter has a road accident, comes round and plays Beatles songs. The twist is that no one else remembers them, so he becomes famous. I think Ane might have missed the boat…

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  10. very sweet, Jim. you found your Christmas ad fix! I don’t think an ad has to directly relate to what a product/store sells, it’s just to leave you with a good feeling about the place and this does that –

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  11. Ads are either spot on our fail miserably… But boy, when they get it right, I’m always like “wish I came up with that!”

    What do you think the formula is? Illustrating what everyone is thinking? Igniting some form of nostalgia? Pulling at the heart strings? 🤔

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  13. Lennon & Macartney 1963. Not as good as your previous John Lewis ad, but it sure stirred up a few emotions in the comments here 😂 Worth it just for those!

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