11 Dec Battle of the Christmas adverts
If anything signals Christmas creeping closer, it’s the onslaught of Christmas TV ads and it suddenly being acceptable to eat mince pies for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
It’s that time of year again when retailers, brands and charities battle it out to create the most sentimental ad – they have 60 seconds to tug at the nation’s heartstrings and the more tears the better.
There’s also some light-hearted versions, including Aldi’s now infamous Kevin the Carrot, and the Queen of Christmas herself, Mariah Carey, appearing in an ad for Walkers.
We love this advert by Chilly’s reusable water bottles, the comedic ad shows a family member trying to impress his in-laws by tracking down a long-lost family member through underground DNA testing, it also includes him seducing a grandma and a kidnapping. It ends with the strapline ‘gift responsibly’, poking at fun at home DNA tests and money wasted on gifts people don’t actually want or need.
The John Lewis advert always seems to be the one to watch every year, with a reported budget of £7m, this year’s ad sees cute dragon, Excitable Edgar, struggle to control his flame blowing nostrils, until at the end when he uses them for good to light a Christmas pudding for the village.
But it’s not all about the big budget, sometimes simple just works. This £100 advert for a tiny family-run hardware store in Wales, won over the public with it’s simple, heart-warming ad that celebrates independent businesses and the importance of community.
It features a little boy going about his day, he wakes up, brushes his teeth, eats his breakfast and goes to work. He opens the shop, restocks the shelves, serves customers, does some accounting. At the end of the day, he closes the shop and bends down to pick up a Christmas tree and he’s actually a 30-year-old man, with the strapline ‘Be a kid this Christmas’ there’s not a dry eye in the house.
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