Christmas Bells (advertisement)
"Christmas Bells" is an American television commercial produced by the Hershey Company promoting Hershey's Kisses. The advertisement, produced with stop-motion animation, features Hershey's Kisses, fashioned as a handbell choir, playing the Christmas carol "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". It debuted in 1989 and is shown in the United States each holiday season; as such, it is the longest-running television commercial for the Hershey brand. In 2012, the ad was redone with a new recording of the audio and the graphics being done entirely in CGI animation. Since then, that has been the version playing each year.Background
In 1989, the Hershey Company began an advertising campaign for their product Hershey's Kisses, which was referred to as the "whimsy" campaign. Ogilvy & Mather was the advertising agency behind the spot and David Apicella served as Creative Director. Television advertisements would utilize "tabletop stop-motion animation and CG product photography." Colossal Pictures was the animation studio, located in San Francisco, who produced the commercial. Carl Willat directed the spots and performed the stop-motion animation with Gordon Clark. John Dunn, Hershey's brands manager, oversaw the production and helped develop the last-minute idea to create the "Christmas Bells" advertisement. Leah Longan, former marketing director for Hershey, told the New York Times in 1994 they continued to run the advertisement because they "don't wear out like normal commercials," as they are only shown seasonally.
