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Scene from the Penny commercial
Photo: PENNY Markt GmbH / obs
I am a victim of advertising, especially around Christmas (and as you know, it starts at the beginning of September).
Even as a child I enthusiastically bent over the brochures from the cheap chains that came with our daily newspaper, cut out photos of the toys of my dreams, stuck them on my wish list - and hoped.
Often in vain because my dreams were bigger than my parents' wallet.
A lot has changed since then. Personally, I couldn't say where the big difference lies between brands like Aldi, Lidl, Netto and Penny, except that the mango flown in from Peru is ten cents cheaper for one and, to my amazement, the other is fashion too can buy with their own label. You would wear them ironically, a style-conscious man once tried to explain to me, and that makes it
iconic
again
. But how, please, I still wonder, do you
wear
a shirt
ironically
? By running backwards? Nothing seems impossible anymore to charge your brand with a narrative.
In order to be distinguishable, i.e. recognizable, as a brand, almost every means seemed exhausted.
Nearly.
A few years ago, Edeka had a hit with customers: with an advertising film during the Christmas season in which a lonely grandfather managed to finally get his family together at one table again for the festival by faking death.
Great emotions.
Great success.
A flood of tears - but also anger about the corona measures
Since then something like a new genre has developed, sometimes more, sometimes less original. In the »emotional Christmas advertising film« category, however, »Penny« has now set new standards. Since the four-minute film »The Desire« went online at the weekend, it has garnered several million views on YouTube. And if you can trust the discussions in the social networks, a flood of tears set in motion - but also anger about the corona measures and their consequences.
In the story, a mother and her adolescent son sit in lockdown at the kitchen table at night, and when he asks her what she wants for Christmas, they go on a cinematic dream trip through a youth that has been missed due to corona.
She wishes that he would let school slip (the word skip is deliberately avoided), argue with his parents, run away from home for a party, have to be picked up drunk, find and lose his first love, travel with his best friend: "I wish that you get your youth back".
In addition, a few lines musically gently covered at the end: "I just wanna live forever".
Hach, and under the veil of tears you can see at the very end that Penny is raffling off juvenile adventures as a small reparation.
The stirring piece is played and filmed great and apparently not only hits the nerve of many parents.
The paradox works: The parental horror ideas of puberty and letting go are transformed into a painful zone of loss, nightmares into dreams, fear into longing.
The film leaves the question of who is responsible for this unanswered.
But the viewers, who were obviously intensely touched, use the online forums all the more to reduce their emotional congestion.
A discounter apparently has more heart than politics, Penny against the evil manipulating corona forces, etc. etc. and of course: Vaccination opponents and vaccination advocates (male, female or diverse) again verbally argue against each other.
more on the subject
Supermarket chain Tesco: Christmas commercial upsets anti-vaccination opponents
Viral advertising: super awesome?
I do not care
Penny cannot be assumed that these discussions were provoked, they can now be found under almost everything that says Corona or is even implied, including at SPIEGEL.
The great emotions that the film evokes are looking for a goal, but cannot find one.
Who is the villain in this melodrama?
The politic?
The virus?
The vaccinated or the unvaccinated?
The schools?
Penny could be accused of giving free rein to this great emotion, which can also be dangerous.
But maybe that is exactly the strength of this artifact: Penny has no offer on its shelves against it, everyone has to find and decide for themselves.
A stroke of genius in terms of emotionalising a brand.
Penny has the whole nation lying on the couch crying out.
You sense the dizziness, but it drowns in emotion
I haven't noticed discounters as trendsetters so far, on the contrary.
I have the faint suspicion that up until now, opportunistic in the fight for market share, every actual or suspected trend has been chased as quickly as possible with ever new offers: from supposed sustainability with own organic lines to travel, telephone contracts, diversity in the models in the brochures and even educational valuable toys - please cheap, but somehow socially acceptable.
Everyone buys there, you just can't get caught by your own peer group.
Of course, marketing has always tried to play with an emotional touch ("Baking is love").
But now the last bastion has also fallen, the very last trend, our holiest: the really big feelings.
Why is there still such a great unease with such a short but successful film?
You sense the dizziness, but it drowns in emotion.
I have no idea whether Penny is a particularly family- or mother-friendly employer;
In view of the opening times and the predominantly female staff, in my opinion, I suspect: nope, the working conditions in retail are not a make-a-wish.
»The wish« probably doesn't want to be a motivational movie for the next staff meeting.
The Penny dream factory is looking for young talent, you can win apprenticeship positions in the campaign (in addition to trips, counter tickets and party equipment);
So not everyone, a school leaving certificate is assumed, after all.
This ambivalence when looking at it can somehow get you down: knowing and recognizing that it wants to manipulate you - and still being touched, spellbound, surrendering. Isn't that how toxic relationships work too? Consumer capitalism and its associated mechanisms have finally triumphed: The oscar goes to - Penny! The surrender of the buyer in front of the emotional grabber table definitely deserves recognition for the professionalism of the producers. And no matter how this text evaluates the film, that it appears and brings »Penny« into conversation emotionally, its strategy is completely sufficient.
So now there are great feelings at the discounter, catharsis through consumption.
Emotions in XXL packaging?
Please stock up!
Because harder times could come.
I have now watched the four-minute dream film repeatedly, if only out of a professional interest in storytelling.
Every time I have resolved to fight again: you won't get me, you won't get me, you won't get me.
But at the end?
Shit, yes.
Where can you get cheap handkerchiefs?
