The Hershey's Kisses "Christmas Bells" Commercial

One of the most popular commercials of all time is only sixteen seconds in length. The Hershey's Kisses commercial "Christmas Bells" debuted in 1989 and has run every holiday ever since. The commercial is extremely simple. It opens with six Hershey's kisses in green wrappers, four Hershey's kisses in red wrappers, and a single Hershey's kiss in a silver wrapper. The Hershey's kisses then play "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" as if they were Christmas bells. It ends with the last Hershey Kiss in a red wrapper to play a note releasing an exhausted, "Whew!" "Christmas Bells" is the longest running commercial in the history of Hershey's, having run over 30 years now.

The origins of "Christmas Bells" go back to Hershey's Kisses brand manager in 1989, John Dunn. At the time he was working on a marketing campaign for the product called the "whimsy campaign" with advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather. The stop-motion animation for the spot was provided by Colossal Pictures. "Christmas Bells" was directed by Carl Willat. He had provide additional opticals for the movie Return to Oz (1985) and would later provide animation for the feature film Across the Universe (2007).  Carl Willat and Gordon Clark executed the stop-motion animation for the commercial.

For the most part "Christmas Bells" would change very little over the years. In 2012 the commercial was redone with CGI and a new recording of the audio. On November 30 2020 a new commercial was introduced that ended with a little girl removing the red Hershey's kiss to play the final note from the frame to use in baking with her father. While the original "Christmas Bells" had aired earlier in the month, the new commercial was met with immediate backlash on such social media services as Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit. Because of the backlash Hershey's had to announce that they would air both commercials. The original "Christmas Bells" has aired ever since.