New Hershey Kisses ad inspires Grinch rage

There are a lot of things that can be angry right now: COVID, the weather, toilet paper shortage, bad celebrity behavior, COVID restrictions, people violating COVID restrictions, the end of this season of The Great British Pastry Fair, etc., etc., etc. But it looks like the Americans have decided to organize an uprising for a TV commercial. Specifically, the new Hershey Kisses vacation 2020 ad.

Hershey has run the same 15-second Kisses commercial every holiday season since 1989. It features a chorus of red and green kisses, led by a silver kiss, performing a bell from “We Wish You A Merry Christmas. At the end , the red kiss responsible for the final trill uses his little flag to wipe his forehead (or what passes for a forehead on a kiss) and breathes a sigh of relief that he hasn’t ruined everything.

This year, however, he decided to shake things up a bit. The commercial begins as before, but a small hand comes out of the camera to tear the sighing kiss from the chorus. (Rude!) The hand belongs to a little girl baking peanut butter flower cookies with her dad as a jazzy rendition of “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” plays in the background. It ends with a Hershey Kiss striptease.

Guess the striptease is what must be offending people. Or maybe the horn section. Or the possibility of the small Kiss bell choir being incorporated into cookies and baked.

Anyway, folks, the backlash was intense. Today usefully compiled a list of some of the most representative complaints from the YouTube comment:

“” I don’t mind an ADDITIONAL holiday advertisement for Hershey, but distorting the advertisement of classic SUCKS bells! “

“The perfect representation of 2020: completely ruined!”

Today Manager returned to check with Hershey’s Advertising Department and learned that both commercials would run this year and that in fact, the original Bells commercial had started appearing on November 23.

“For viewers who love our original – don’t worry, we’ll be showing both vacation announcements this season,” Hershey said in a statement. “Keep your eyes peeled for our classic and iconic Bells spot as well as the all new ‘Bells to Blossoms’.”

So take this, haters! The original ad is also still available for viewing on YouTube. It’s good to know that some issues can be resolved so quickly and peacefully – if only people will take the trouble to pay attention.