12/10/05: Hershey's Goes Upscale! Here's a kinky little ad from Hershey's that tried to reinvigorate the brand with more upscale candies -- not that there's anything wrong with the traditional Hershey's Kiss, but when you can grab a handful of 'em while waiting on line at the DMV, you're probably going to aim a bit higher when it's time to fill the crystal bowls for Christmas dessert. Enter Hershey's Pot of Gold. I'm all about traditions when it comes to Christmas -- even the traditions I don't particularly care for. I need to wait on some long lines at toy stores and I need to use a shoddy scraper to bang the ice off of my crappy car's windshield. Tradition. I've usually thrown my arms in the air by Christmas Eve and tossed all senses of tradition aside, because by that point, so many things that were supposed to happen didn't happen, and I cry and they cry and we all just get drunk and fat. One of the smaller traditions that never seems to falter is the dessert course of our family's big dinner on the Eve, otherwise known as Course #211. My vices lean more towards chips than sweets, but fuck Santa if he doesn't fill our table with the same superfluously superhuge assortment of ridiculous dessert offerings year after year. Cakes in boxes, some shitty gingerbread house one of my siblings' kids made -- you know the drill. I'm not really into it, but after a few shots of sambuca-laced black coffee, I'm way into everyone else being into it. Even if nobody eats the stuff, it needs to be there. Hershey's Pot of Gold really captures the spirit of all that. We've had like-styled boxes of candy at every holiday celebration in the history of my surname, usually brought by the guests who didn't know us well enough to introduce "real" food or spend more than six bucks total. Nobody ever eats the stuff. Not really. Some curious cat might swipe the smallest nibble, but even that's just an exception to the rule. I'm not sure where I intended to go with whatever it is I just wrote, but I think you know me well enough to finish it from here. Much like I like having my grandmother at our Christmas celebrations even though I never particularly cared for her, things like Hershey's Pot of Gold are an integral part of making Christmas Christmas. The commercial offers a nice blend of animation and live action chocolate beauty shots, but it's by no means the best Hershey's holiday commercial -- that distinction will forever remain with the old Hershey's Kisses ad where three chocolate drops "rang" along to "We Wish You A Merry Christmas." Ding ding ding ding ding DIIIIIIIIIING. Click here to download this commercial! (.WMV, 5 MB) ....close this window!