The Rift

The wait is over. One year after PENNY's emotional Christmas spot ‘The Wish’ moved people in Germany and around the world, and won multiple awards including a Grand Prix at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the eagerly awaited new PENNY Christmas film is now available online and on social media.

The 2022 PENNY Christmas film – ‘The Rift’ - is again highly topical and no less emotional than its predecessor. ‘The Rift’ addresses the divisions that are increasingly running through our society, and implores viewers to encourage an open dialogue with their neighbours. The campaign is an urgent call to listen to each other again. A plea for fewer barriers and more empathy: a clear message, even beyond Christmas and more explosively topical than ever. The film was conceived and realized by the lead agency Serviceplan Campaign in Munich, and directed by Seb Edwards (ANORAK Film).

"Can we talk?" a boy asks his neighbor in the final seconds of the new PENNY Christmas film. Just a few minutes earlier, we watched him yell at her in anger. It's a question people have been asking their neighbours less and less in recent years – and one they should ask much more often. War, COVID, the climate crisis and many other disagreements, large and small, have dominated discussions in recent years. Society is more divided than ever. Yet wasn’t Christmas supposed to be the time reconcile?

After three years of conflicts that have divided friends, acquaintances and families, it's now time to start reaching out to one another again. That's the compelling plea of the eagerly awaited new PENNY Christmas film. The film uses powerful images to show the cracks that run through society: generational conflicts, racism, war supporters vs peace activists, cars vs bicycles, fear of COVID vs pandemic fatigue. The spot shows all this within an ordinary apartment block that is increasingly and literally being torn apart. ‘Silent Night’ plays softly in the background, but all festive understanding of each other seems to be missing. Until the film reaches a climax with a main character extending an olive branch to a neighbor by saying: Let's talk.