So Bonfire Night has come and gone, which means it’s officially Christmas. That special time of year when we don’t mind that it’s cold and dark out because it’s “cosy”. Of course, by February we’re making enquiries about emigrating to Australia. But for now, we wrap up warm and practice kindness to family members and strangers alike and look forward to eating Quality Street before breakfast and watching It’s a Wonderful Life. We even suspend our cynicism about the ever-turning wheels of capitalism and actively welcome this year’s run of Christmas ads into our homes as warmly as we do Santa.
Anyway, agencies seem to have done a bang-up job this year. Some lovely schmaltzy ones (pink-cheeked children, snow, sleigh bells), as well as some slightly more irreverent ones, several of which, coincidentally, have fun with the theme of dealing with rubbish presents.
So, some charming and some cheeky, then.
The John Lewis Christmas Man on the Moon ad is all charm. Which you must have seen by now, surely? No? Well, here it is if you haven’t. But you must’ve. It’s great and it’s going to win loads of awards.
(youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuz2ILq4UeA)
Top of the cheeky category is Harvey Nichols’ Avoid Gift Face ad
(youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaqWcYn4uBk)
The only ad people haven’t even tried making a gift face for is PayPal’s offering. It is worth watching because it’s a Scrooge for the 21st century. So much so that 233 people complained to the ASA that is has ruined Christmas for them. (PayPal’s ad, not the ASA.) Which is quite a feat for a thirty second TV spot.
(youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdu0WKIhjeU)
The standout in the category of a-mix-of-Christmas-charm-and-cheek? Lidl’s School of Christmas ad
(youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWVO_VDd2_8)
Respect for going all-out cheeky to Mulberry and Currys PC World’s Spare the Act ad
(youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLmwZjtbHZQ)
(youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBsia0jYlx0)
Christmas is the time of year I particularly like being in advertising because people suddenly become genuinely interested in what I do. It’s the one time in the year when people love advertising. Yes, people warm themselves around their glowing TVs, tablets and smartphones, and unwrap the year’s ads one by one, taking the time to talk about each one in turn. It reminds me of being young and seeing ads on TV and getting properly caught up in them. “Who made them?” I wondered. “How did they make them?” And now I get to do it. It’s genuinely lovely, even if it’s only an annual event, to have everyone else get as caught up in the thing I love.