''Heimkommen'' (; "Homecoming") and the related

hashtag A hashtag is a metadata tag operator that is prefaced by the hash symbol, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services–especially Twitter and Tumblr–as a form of user-generated tagging that enable ...

#heimkommen is a German commercial video for the supermarket corporation

Edeka The Edeka Group is the largest German supermarket corporation , holding a market share of 25.3%. Founded in 1907, it currently consists of several co-operatives of independent supermarkets, all operating under the umbrella organisation ''Edeka ...

that

went viral Viral phenomena or viral sensations are objects or patterns that are able to replicate themselves or convert other objects into copies of themselves when these objects are exposed to them. Analogous to the way in which viruses propagate, the te ...

in November and December 2015. In the commercial, Arthur Nightingale plays a German grandfather faking his own death to reunite his family on Christmas.

Video

The 1:46-minute commercial shows a well-to-do grandfather receiving messages over the years from his successful children around the world, who call off family get-togethers at Christmas time. Each year he eats his Christmas dinner by himself. Eventually he fakes his own death, and his grieving children and grandchildren travel to his home, only to find him still alive. He tells them, "I had no other way to bring you together". After the family unites in a joyful Christmas dinner, the final shot shows the Edeka logo. Arthur Tulloch Nightingale plays the role of the grandfather and Stella Stocker plays his daughter. The advertising agency is Jung von Matt. Alex Feil directed the clip, which was shot in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

and

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...

. Florian Lakenmacher of ''Supreme Music'' wrote the song "Dad" for it, which is sung by Neele Ternes. The song reached number 43 on the German charts.

Viral phenomenon

Edeka published the commercial on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

and

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

on November 28, 2015. By December 2 it had received 300,000 likes and 500,000 shares on Facebook and over 20 million views on YouTube. , views on YouTube had passed 43 million. (with English subtitles)

Reviews and reactions

British retail chains (compare

John Lewis Christmas advert The John Lewis Christmas advert is an ongoing television advertising campaign released by British department store chain John Lewis & Partners in the build-up to Christmas. John Lewis & Partners launched their first Christmas advert in 2007. It ...

) often use emotional commercials for Christmas, but this had not been the custom in Germany. #heimkommen led on a current chart of such ads with more than 33 million clicks after a week. The video is a showcase for

Integrated marketing communications Marketing communications (MC, marcom(s), marcomm(s) or just simply communications) refers to the use of different marketing channels and tools in combination.Tomse, & Snoj, 2014 Marketing communication channels focus on how businesses communicate ...

on different channels. Parodies have appeared including: a family angry about the deception killing their grandfather and a

Deutsche Bahn (, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). DB was fou ...

image showing Arthur Nightingdale in a train

dining car A dining car (American English) or a restaurant car (British English), also a diner, is a passenger railroad car that serves meals in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant. These cars provide the highest level of service of any rai ...

and the caption: ''Lieber Opa, warte nicht bis sie zu Dir kommen'' (Dear Grandpa, don't wait till they come to you). An Italian PR agency reworked the spot shortly after its release with an Italian background; in their version, the nonno expresses fears about his stock of

Parmesan Parmesan (, ) is an Italian cuisine, Italian Types of cheese#Hard cheese, hard, Types of cheese#Granular, granular cheese produced from Dairy cattle, cow's milk and aged at least 12 months. It is a Grana (cheese), grana-type cheese, along wit ...

cheese deteriorating.

References

External links

* * {{SoundCloud, edeka-404001891/neele-ternes-dad-edeka-weihnachtsclip-heimkommen Advertising in Germany Advertisements Viral videos Culture of Germany 2015 works Hashtags