As I was a child the Advent time was something magic to me. Part of this magic was the Advent calendar, filled with candies or small gifts. Every morning, the first thing I did was to open a door of the Advent calendar and to enjoy what was hidden there…

Now let’s move forward to the current year and to the Advent calendar which was given away by Migros, the largest super market chain in Switzerland. Well, the term “Ad calendar” would be more suitable. Behind each door you will find a bargain for the respective day (and only for that day). So, to benefit from those bargains you would have to go to the super market every day. Stupid.

But there is also no magic involved when opening a door of this Advent calendar. What you get is simply an ad saying: product X is reduced in price by Y percent today. Wow. Cool. And soooooo boring…

I think much more interesting would be an Advent calendar filled with examples of new products. Every day you could test something new. Some products you may like. And you may buy them in the future.

So it will bring long-term benefits for the company giving away such an Advent calendar. On the other hand, an Ad calendar is only about short-term benefits (and its destroying the magic of Advent calendars)…