• by Todd Wasserman , December 10, 2021

A snowbound Canadian and a woman who lives on a tropical island fall in love in this stop-motion animation ad for Air Canada that takes place in a snow globe.

In the ad, via FCB Toronto and Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, a mother (who is a pilot) gives her son a snow globe. The boy places it on a shelf and the camera zooms inside the globe. Once inside, the action turns to stop-motion animation and the camera focuses on a guy bringing firewood to his cabin.  

The man then peeks into another snow globe, where a woman is loading a surfboard onto her Volkswagen minibus. She waves to him and he is happily surprised and drops his firewood. 

In the next shot, he’s ice fishing. He catches a small fish and looks at her on a distant island catching a bigger fish. Next, he’s knitting -- an activity he attempts to hide when he sees her off to go surfing. 

She is then shown lying on the surfboard looking up at clouds shaped like his face. Ice skating, he draws a figure that looks like her face.

After more bonding activities -- he sculpts snow figures holding hands, she draws a heart in the sand -- it gets dark.

We see the two of them in their separate snow globes, as he sadly heads home and the sea washes away her picture of a heart.

She then writes a message and sends it off in a bottle to the North Pole. He wakes up and sees her visiting him (clad in a red sweater), and the two embrace. 

The camera zooms back and we see that they’re both in one snow globe. We see the boy looking at the globe and then joining his family.  

“It’s the most wonderful time to believe,” a caption reads. 

Air Canada typically releases emotional holiday ads. Last year, it offered a tribute to Medical Lead for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Canadian COVID-19 Response Team. In 2013, rival WestJet released a video showing surprised passengers getting Christmas gifts in the airport carousel.