The Enniskillen bar behind a viral Christmas advert watched by more than six million people is back with a brand new festive offering.
Charlie’s Bar produced its first Christmas ad last year, which showed an elderly man with a sad expression on his face, walking through town alone until he enters the bar and is joined by a couple who sit, drink and talk with him.
Speaking to The Irish News, bar manager Una Burns said she still “can’t believe the impact the ad has had.”
She said: “The response at the time was just incredible but even over the last few months we’ve had people coming up to the bar or messaging us on Facebook to ask if we were putting a new one out.”
Although she admitted that due to the overwhelming response to last year’s advertisement she was “really torn about releasing a new one.”
“You’re never going to be able to follow that or have that reaction again.
“So I was slightly afraid that by putting something out it would be compared to last year’s and comparison is the thief of joy.
“But we have a good platform and it’s important we use it to send a nice message out at Christmas.
“For me, it was better to release something and stay true to our values and stay true to Charlie’s but we’re not expecting the same reaction this time round.”
If you can’t see the video below, click here.
Similar to their previous video, which poignantly portrayed the loneliness that some people experience during the festive season, this year’s ad focuses on “a common difficulty people often face at Christmas.”
“We wanted it to be relatable to people and reflect what we’ve seen in the bar over the years,” Una explained.
“This can be a really happy and joyous time but for others it’s touched by sadness and that’s what we wanted to focus on this year.”
The stars of 2023′s offering, namely Meagan Daley, Alex Middlemass, Martin McManus and of course, Missy the Irish terrier have also made a Christmas comeback.
“The cast from last year were all involved but in a very different way,” explained Una.
“It was really important to me to bring them back because of the impact it had on their lives and the difference it made in terms of their own Christmas, and I just thought they should continue to be involved.
“For example, Meagan who was part of the couple in last year’s ad filmed it this year.
“And she was amazing because she had a vested interest and desire to make this successful and get the message across as well.”
Despite many people comparing last year’s advert to the tear-jerkers produced by department store John Lewis with some even going as far as to say Charlie’s ad was “better”, Una assured that there was “certainly no rivalry or competition” between the two.
“John Lewis were amazing last year - they sent over gifts and put money behind the bar on Christmas day to get customers a drink – they were incredible.
“And their new ad is beautiful and so well made and just really lovely so we’re definitely not trying to come up against them,” she laughed.
Instead, Una hopes the ad will place more focus on the local community.
“We’re just a small family run business, and it was really important for me that we don’t lose sight of that.
“It was filmed on an iPhone again this year, it’s all local people there’s no professional actors or anything like that it was really important for us to keep local people at the heart of it.”
Now having produced two Christmas ads Una says they it may become an annual tradition.
“I think there’s something really lovely about the fact people have been looking forward to the ad coming out.
“When there’s so much negativity online and in the news if you can use social media to release something positive and you have the platform to do so I don’t see why we wouldn’t do this.
“It’s a fantastic tradition to have.”
