Hasta La Creative!

180 LA crafted a holiday effort for Expedia entitled “Santa Flies Coach,” where Kris Kringle ditches the sleigh and travels around the world via more conventional means.

Santa visits Honolulu, Tokyo, Dubai, Paris and Dublin en route to his final destination. Everywhere he goes people are, of course, delighted to see the jolly, white-bearded symbol of Christmas, but viewers may be wondering by now why exactly Santa has ditched his sleigh. The spot takes a heartwarming turn with that reveal as Santa arrives at his final destination: “For one week Santa flew around the world, because now the points we earn traveling can be donated to St. Jude Children’s Hospital” appears onscreen as Santa visits patients at the hospital. It’s a heartwarming message, made all the more so by its unexpectedness in the wake of the cheery beginning of the ad. And the reveal, rather than feeling cheap, offers a satisfactory explanation furthering our understanding of what preceded it. A lot of holiday efforts shoot for this kind of feeling, but few attempt to actually motivate viewers toward specific charitable action, which makes “Santa Flies Coach” all the more admirable. (more…)

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To be fully experienced, this spot has to be watched at your nearest Sony Store or Magnolia Home Theater at Best Buy. That’s because it’s made specially for the 4K Ultra HD TV it advertises, which raises definition to four times that of a standard HD TV.

The ad still looks pretty on YouTube, with its New Zealand ocean setting, bright blue bird, and red-dressed woman. And it doesn’t hurt that filmmaker Garth Davis (a commercial director himself) narrates it all in his soothing Australian accent.

In addition to showcasing new HD technology, the ad features the largest asset ever made for TV: a random looming spaceship, created by VFX company MPC. Pretty sure Sony agreed to it just because they could.

“This is part of our Visionaries campaign for Sony,” 180LA creative director Dave Horton says. “The idea is to bring together two industry leaders to collaborate on a creation that brings Sony’s technology to life.” In this case, Garth Davis worked with Oscar-winning cinematographer Claudio Miranda (Life of Pi). I look forward to seeing who’s next. I watch almost nothing on TV, but this technology is tempting.

Credits after the jump

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