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Why a Christmas drinks advert has all of Spain sobbing

Fiona Govan
Fiona Govan - [email protected]
Why a Christmas drinks advert has all of Spain sobbing
Screengrab from the advertisement by Ruavieja.

Christmas advertising these days is all about creating the ultimate tear-jerker, and those behind a Galician liqueur commercial have managed to nail it with a campaign that sends a powerful message about what’s important in life.

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What if we could calculate exactly how much time we had left to spend with the people we love? Would we put down our mobile phones, delay that instagram post, log-off Facebook or lay off binge-watching our favourite series? Would we actually make a determined effort to see more of each other?

These are the questions raised in the short film by Ruavieja, which created a tool to estimate how much time we have left to spend with our nearest and dearest based on an algorithm they developed on data and statistical information from respected sources.

Using data from Spain’s national statistics agency (INE), the IAB, and studies such as AEVI’s videogame industry yearbook and Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends Report 2018 for KPCB, the tool comes up with the years, days, and hours, we have left to spend quality time together.

The algorithm uses variables such as life expectancy according to gender and place of birth, type of relationship, whether the individuals in question usually holiday together and other factors, to ensure that the resulting figure is as accurate as possible.

And takes into account how far they live from each other and how often they meet up.

Watch the film with English subtitles: 

The film shows different couples; either life-long friends, relatives or partners chatting about how much they mean to each other. it then asks them if they would like to know how much time they can realistically expect to spend with each other in the future.

As the figure flashes up on screen, that’s when the tears start.

Rafael Santandreu, a psychologist who worked on the project: “People say that their loved ones matter the most, but the way they divide their time doesn't bear that out. This is because of how the brain works: we are programmed to avoid thinking about the time left to us to live.”

The campaign went viral after launching earlier this week and has already clocked up close to 8 million views on Youtube and made #TenemosQueVernosMas - #Wehavetoseemoreofeachother -  a trending hashtag on Twitter. 

Ruavieja, whose company ethos is to make people spend quality time together – and presumably drink their liqueurs while they do so – has made the calculator available to all: 

You can visit the website here if you want to know how much time you have left with those you love.

But have the tissues handy.

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