Edeka's Christmas ad goes viral and overtakes John Lewis in online shares

December 07, 2015

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Edeka's Christmas ad goes viral and overtakes John Lewis in online shares

A controversial Christmas ad for Edeka, the German supermarket, has eclipsed John Lewis' festive campaign in online shares.

Data from Unruly showed that Edeka’s "#HeimKommen" ad, by Jung von Matt, had been shared 2.39 million times, topping its list of Christmas ads.

John Lewis’ "man on the moon" ad, by Adam & Eve/DDB, was second place with 1.3 million shares while Sainsbury’s "Mog’s Christmas calamity" (by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO), was third place, with 917,000 shares.

Edeka’s Christmas ad has been viewed more than 34 million times on YouTube since it was posted on 28 November and has been called "heart breaking" by journalists from The Independent and Fortune, among others.

Like the John Lewis ad, Edeka’s Christmas ad addresses the elderly. However, the German ad pushes the boundaries much further than John Lewis by using a storyline where an old man fakes his death to get his children's attention.