From the John Lewis Christmas advert in which the brand appeared to have read the room, seen the gloom in our eyes and dug deep; to Asda taking big fat chuffing liberties with a dear friend. These big brand Christmas ads all provoked an immediate reaction. The turkey and the trimmings if you will, leaving the sprouts and parsnips to settle in the Tupperware another day.
John Lewis & Partners, The Beginner
John Lewis has come to mark the beginning of jolly season, as much as the 1995 Holidays are Coming Coca-Cola truck.
The significantly cold colour grade at the top of this year’s the Beginner, suggested to me that things were going to get decidedly colourful at around the 40 seconds mark. But the narrative went somewhere unexpected. Turns out our fella is learning to skateboard to make a connection with a child, whom he’s fostering, who’s a skateboarder. The creative sustains multiple viewing, as once you know the story it can be enjoyed differently each time. And satisfyingly, the clues are there to discover.
‘We’re making a commitment to support the long-term futures of people in care’ declares a brand that represents all things home. Gently filling the emotional space around eating and gift giving, without so much as an animated alien for the wows. It’s a yes from me.
M&S Christmas Advert 2022
The ad feels a little safe creatively, following last year’s all singing all dancing number, but the casting livens it up a treat and the timing of Duckie’s eye falling out is delicious.
Waitrose, It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas
Further ploughing the idea that ‘It’s all the work that goes in that makes it special’, we spin through a year of production in the British countryside, with some beautifully shot brussels, light comedy, smart editing, and yeah we’re feeling tingly.
Our destination is the family home on Christmas day around a festive table where a child is left without pigs in Blankets and cooks up quite the stink about the situ.
But wait. Why didn’t the youngest kid at the table get any pigs in blankets? And why was the problem sorted only, by the initiative of an older child giving him her pigs in blankets while the adults smile on smugly in their party hats chowing down on their own blanketed pigs? What kind of horror show is this? ‘Food to feel good about?’ Yeah if you can get some.
The news that a scene which glorified sun tans was cut from this ad after pressure from Melanoma UK, leaves me still inwardly screaming ”Just give the kid some pigs in blankets, people”.
But now, we need to talk about Kevin.
Aldi Christmas Advert 2022
Kevin the Carrot must still be cutting it for Aldi as he’s back. This year in a rip-off of Home Alone. Putting aside my dislike of things we eat, talking, and the questions of why did this animated family go on holiday and leave a home full of food? Did Kevin make it all? For himself? I can’t help imagining the blue lit creative meeting where this birthed.
“Jeeze. What are we going to do about Kevin this year?”
“Come on, think” “What other Kevins are there, which are Christmassy?” And away we go.
Is everyone ok with Kevin the carrot, landing as a phallus on the snowman? Personally I’m good, just surprised.
Interestingly Aldi Australia produced a very different Christmas ad for 2022.
Aldi Australia, You Can’t Overcook Christmas
The message is simple. Buy more or you too will experience awkward moments like mum lassoing your girlfriend with a teatowel before dragging her over the kitchen counter, again.
This ad made me laugh out loud.
It’s an idea that found the funny in the low-flying tension that can buzz a little within families around the Christmas meal. And it’s brilliantly directed.
I feel it’s a lost opportunity though, that when the new plate of prawns arrives at the table, the two sparring women weren’t in the moment. The narrative bolted. Whereas it could have seen the two women all made up and laughing together, before another plate with a lone item of food arrives inbetween them starting the tension up again. Or maybe the two women, dishevelled and slumped against each other on the floor, are too exhausted to see the prawns arrive.
I’d like to see Aldi grow this concept year after year and roll it out to the UK. Preferably with me writing it and Toast TV to direct, produce and deliver.
The ad finishes with the strapline Good Different. Inspired, I wonder, by Ikea’s ‘Wonderful Everyday’? Good Different barely makes sense, but screams middle isle, and is so marvellously unpretentious I can’t help but love it.
Asda, Have Your Elf a Merry Christmas
Buddy the Elf is one of the most beloved characters in yuletide flicks. Here, his character quotes and scenes from the film Elf are green-screened into the edit of a fake Asda store, where the staff are trying to hire him, but not before making disparaging remarks about his outfit and basically ‘othering’ him for everything that Buddy is.
For me, this ad violates something sacred.
However irresistible it might have been for the creative team to edit and play. I don’t want to see Buddy the Elf away from his perfect misfit New York habitat at Christmas. I don’t want to see Buddy unemployed and in a fake Asda getting ‘othered’ by dullards.
A lesson, perhaps, in just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
What I’m missing in this festive basket of Christmas commercials is a sober and fleeting surge of emotion.
So I’m bringing an ad back from last year. You may feel the ad isn’t a natural fit with its brand. But its message brings bags of credit to any brand brave enough to commission it. Iceland’s Christmas TV Advert was banned in the UK in 2021. But the combination of the messaging, narrative, direction and Emma Thompson’s voice never fails to deliver a sudden sleeve check for a hanky.
Wishing you all happy and peaceful gatherings.
And do try not to think about Asda when you watch Elf.
By Fiona Cole
Copywriter
[email protected]
The post The Christmas Adverts Selection Box 2022 appeared first on Toast.
