Each Christmas, Unicef sell Christmas gifts in their webshop. Field products such as vaccine, medicine, nutrition and school material. The things you buy are sent to children in need, and you get a gift card to give to your friend. Our job was to promote these gifts.The biggest challange was to break through during the busiest and most commercial time of year. At Christmas, people have so much to think about, and so many things to do. We needed something that would burst that Christmas bubble.Our solution was to fire up a debate, using a thought provoking film that explains the big inequities of the world. And there’s no better example of inequity than Santa. In a TV spot, that was also put online, Santa explains he only deliver toys, not medicine or needles. And he admits that he doesn’t 'do' poor countries.

The film got a very mixed response, both from media and the public. Some saw it as an effective eye opener, whilst some got offended and upset. And so the debate began.The film got a huge amount of exposure on TV, radio, news sites, blogs and social media. And Unicef broke their sales goals by 130%.This campaign belongs in PR Lions because it raised big questions, such as, ”is it okay to treat Christmas this honestly?” and ”do we really want to save lives by all means necessary?”. It was not just a commercial. It was a conversation starter.


We just put it on YouTube.

The campaign was highlighted by some of the biggest news channels such as Fox News, NY Daily News, Washington Post, Huffington Post, Forbes, Adweek, US Daily Review, The Week, News Busters, The Washington Times, and many more.It was also a hot topic in radio shows and social media. A rough count shows more than 200 press clippings, 1,270 blog posts, 146,000 YouTube views and thousands of tweets and Facebook posts.The campaign was also a great success sales wise. Unicef raised 23m SEK, beating the sales goals, that was 10m SEK, by 130%. They also beat last year's sales record by 57%.