One of the more effective spots of the last year was brought to us by Roche Macaulay & Partners and Mad Films, which depicted an unusual Christmas scene for Eaton’s department stores.

‘Purse’ was one of seven spots produced for Eaton’s during last year’s holiday advertising buffet. It features a young, hoodlum-like character going through the stages of snatching a purse on a bus, running frantically with it through traffic, flipping over cars and never once letting go of his prize. When he finds an elderly lady on the street, he presents the bag to her, informing her she has left it on the bus. This was the ‘Joy’ aspect of writer Alanna Nathanson and art director Linda Carte’s ‘Peace/Love/Joy’ campaign for Eaton’s.

‘It was sort of unexpected for advertising around Christmas time,’ says Nathanson. ‘We didn’t want to do the typical, expected, schmaltzy thing. We wanted to do something that had a nice feeling, but was different.’

The spot took two days to shoot in last year’s unseasonably freezing Toronto November. It was filmed on Sheppard Street, between Yonge and Bay. Because of the waning sunlight at that time of year, everything had to be shot between 5 a.m. and 5 p.m., as the sun was usually down by 6 p.m.

‘We got a lot of mileage out of that little one-block radius,’ says Carte. ‘It was a really good location because when you’re at street level it looks like a normal street, but then that really nice boom shot that came over the parking garage gave the whole expanse of the street. It looked like a lot of different locations. A lot of people say it kind of looks `New Yorky.’ ‘

According to the team, the other two spots in the campaign, ‘Peace’ and ‘Love’ were also a little off in terms of what people have come to expect from seasonal advertising.

The ‘Love’ spot involves a mother, a daughter and a man, who you believe is the daughter’s boyfriend, sharing drinks in the mother’s home during the holidays. The daughter leaves, alone, implying that the man is actually the mother’s beau.

‘Peace’ begins with a shot of a man running into a convenience store. The man speaks and immediately the other patrons in the store get on the ground. Then, as the spot moves inside the store, a woman declares that she has indeed found the man’s lost contact lens.

‘Love’ and ‘Peace’ were also well received; however, Nathanson says that she and Carte prefer the ‘Joy’ spot because it is the most moving.

‘It is a very simple premise,’ says Carte. ‘As a script, if you looked at it and it said, `Man running with purse, man gives purse to old woman,’ it wouldn’t look very compelling.’

Carte credits much of the spot’s success to director Kevin Donovan of Mad Films. She calls him a speedy, creative and efficient worker.

‘He just made sure that everything moved along and we got tons of great shots,’ says Carte. ‘It was a very simple spot on paper, but it just got better from there when Kevin added what he brought to the party.’

According to Nathanson, the crew assembled for the shoot showed an uncanny interest in what was happening. She recalls the viewing of a rough cut of the spot and everyone on set being very anxious to see it.

‘They all seemed to be very into the spot and what it was about, which was neat,’ she says.

‘Purse’ was executive produced by Mark Bisson of Mad Films and Brenda Surminski produced for Roche Macaulay.