According to an article on Adweek, this year, Paypal has released a new advertisement for the incoming holiday season. The video portrays two young boys who are of the age that most kids believe that their Christmas gifts are delivered the night before Chistmas by Santa Claus and his reindeer. In the video, the oldest brother explains to his younger sibling that they aren’t likely to be receiving gifts this year because the parents haven’t been out to do any shopping and they haven’t been sent to be looked after by anyone else for their parents have gone out to buy any gifts.

The ad created such an outrage because not only does the ad itself imply that Santa Claus may not exist, or that children’s presents that appear under the tree have come from their parents, it has also been played before 9 p.m. when children are still awake, while similar ads that are not aimed for children’s viewing typically play after common bedtimes.

My personal issue with the ad is the fact that the video wasn’t branded until the very end of the spot. There wasn’t a logo or design that allowed viewers to immediately know what company had created the ad. It is likely that people would watch this advertisement and maybe pay more attention because of the fact that it tells a short story. The ad doesn’t persuade consumers to use paypal or even try to sell anything until the Paypal logo appears at the very end.

While I assume Paypal’s thought process was that families today are complex and busy, a large number of parents do their holiday shopping online because of the access and convenience, make Paypal a desirable option. I believe, however, making the point that online shopping and using Paypal to make purchases would be a good alternative to do holiday shopping, they could have went about it in a different way that would not have crossed the line of dabbling in children’s beliefs in figures like Santa Claus.

Paypal didn’t think of the possibility that their spot could cause thousands of parents to either lie to their children and tell them that in fact Santa Claus does exist, or break their hearts when they have to explain that in fact Santa Claus doesn’t bring their Christmas presents.

Here is the video: