Publix is taking a different tack on holiday sentimentality this year, shifting the spotlight from Christmas morning to the people who tend to lose out on it entirely: anyone born on December 25.
Created with new creative AOR FIG, the grocer’s upcoming holiday campaign, “Merry Birthday,” plays like a small act of cultural correction—an earnest story that turns Christmas décor into a birthday party and, in the process, puts real weight behind Publix’s new brand platform: “Make Things Special.”
The hero spot opens on Christmas Eve and follows Izzy, a girl whose December 25 birthday has always been crowded out by the holiday. In flashbacks, the pattern is clear: good intentions, but birthday disappointment—cake and candles inevitably swallowed by trees and tinsel. Now eight years old, she writes to Santa with a wish that’s both simple and quietly devastating: she knows she’s “supposed to love Christmas,” but she’d “love an actual birthday for once.”
By morning, her home has been transformed—helped along by Publix (and, yes, Santa). Christmas trappings are reimagined as birthday decorations, complete with balloons, a family celebration, and a Publix cake iced with the message that gives the campaign its name: “Merry Birthday.”
The film is directed by Seb Edwards (Park Pictures), and it aims for the kind of warm, highly crafted storytelling Publix has long been known for—only this time, the brand is betting bigger on length, placement, and theater-worthy emotion.
The effort is designed as a full, integrated rollout, and it debuted during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, backed by an ambitious media plan that includes a two-minute longform version screening in cinemas.
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