Smash Is Coming

This Christmas campaign is a playful and confident nod to Coca-Cola’s iconic 1990s film “Holidays Are Coming”. The reference is reimagined by unknown.collective for the Belgian burger chain Rambo Burger.
“The idea is simple: at Christmas, we all receive a lot of bad gifts, but in the end, the best gift in the world is still a Rambo Burger,” explains Louis Vielle, director at unknown.collective. “It all started with two WhatsApp messages from one of Rambo Burger’s founders. The first was a photo of a Rambo truck. The second was a YouTube link to the famous Coca-Cola Christmas ad from the mid-90s.”
After watching the film again, the brief came together quickly: create a funny and likeable parody of the original, and connect it to a real activation that gives the idea meaning.
To develop the concept, Louis Vielle teamed up with freelance creatives Jan Schoofs and Jonas Caluwé. Together, they drew inspiration from the magic of Christmas, or rather from a shared experience everyone knows well: the bad gift.
Beyond the film itself, the project also announces a promotional activation. On December 26, people were invited to bring their wrapping paper to Rambo. In exchange, the brand wrapped the best gift in the world inside it: a free Rambo Burger.
The creative idea keeps the reference to the Coca-Cola film while clearly turning it into a parody. Jean, Rambo’s head chef, replaces Santa Claus and travels across snowy roads with a convoy of Rambo trucks, delivering burgers under Christmas trees.
Despite a much more modest budget than the original reference, the team found smart and efficient production solutions. The result embraces the codes of the iconic film while confidently standing on its own.
The project combines classic production techniques with new technologies. Iconic visuals such as glowing trucks or Christmas ornaments transformed into burgers were carefully recreated. On the audio side, the music was generated using AI to capture the spirit of vintage Christmas jingles, with new lyrics: “Smash is coming”. Replacing Santa Claus with Rambo’s chef helped keep the campaign local, authentic, and true to the brand’s DNA.
The film was released on Rambo Burger’s social channels and supported by paid media, alongside the in-store activation in several Belgian cities.
The campaign reflects Rambo Burger’s attitude: a brand born in Brussels, playful and self-aware, yet highly precise in its execution, able to play with global pop culture while staying proudly local.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4q1FONoRXU