Exactly one century ago this year, Europe surged into a war bigger than anyone on earth had ever seen. Buoyed by growing national pride, soldiers marched into battle with zeal, confident in their ability.
People said it would be a war to end all wars. They said it would be over by Christmas.
It wasn’t.
Never before had the hellish reality of war been so magnified. The scale of participants, the new technologies, and the heights of naive hope set the continent up for decades of devastation.
But perhaps you’ve heard the legend of Christmas 1914, when British and German soldiers arrived at an impromptu armistice for a few hours to meet and even play some soccer. UK retailer Sainsbury’s released a new commercial for this Christmas season which powerfully tells the story of the day the guns fell silent. It’s one of the best ads I’ve ever seen.
The Royal British Legion did much of the work on creating this commercial. Here is the story behind the Christmas ad.
And for those of you interested, Sainsbury’s also did a short featurette on the making of the Christmas ad.
What do you think?
