We forced our (non-advertising) family members to watch this year’s Christmas ads. Here’s how it went…
Last week saw the annual moment where the UK’s Christmas Commercial Machine rumbled into life. As the final few fireworks faded, they were replaced by a cacophony of Christmas ads popping into the breaks between The Great British Bake Off, Big Brother and Champions League coverage.
What’s an agency to do if not watch, debate, micro-analyse and publicly review said adverts?
Well this year we thought we’d do it a bit differently. Instead of deep-diving ourselves we thought we’d bring in some help: our long-suffering families and partners – none of whom are in marketing, PR or advertising.
So with special thanks to Robert, Phoebe, Mark, Brian, Joanie and Rudy, here are their honest reviews of 10 of this year’s top ads. Brace yourselves…
This year we’re watching:
Morrisons
“Is that for Sainsbury’s?”
“Reminds me of the muppets”
“That was cute”
“Oooh puppets” (Joanie, 3)
“Clear what they are selling from the get-go.”
Sainsbury’s
“It’s a bit long”
“Makes me feel quite Christmassy”
“You're marrying two very British things - British suppliers and Roald Dahl. And BFG is much loved.”
Aldi
“That’s all over the place”
“This makes no sense. Carrots and humbugs – total nonsense”
"Ah they're humbugs! That's good innit?"
"They're so clearly inspired by the minions."
“I loved it Mummy – I saw butt cheeks” (Rudy, 7)
"Ha! False Bottom” giggles (Mark, 51)
“Yep, hating this. Yeah, I don't like this Kevin Carrot saga. It does not appeal to me…but again Aldi doesn’t need to tell us they are more affordable than other people…can we skip?”
Waitrose
“They’ve got proper actors “
“He was in Succession”
“That’s impressive”
“That’s really good.”
Laughter
“What’s he in again?”
“OK. That's a man, that's Slow Horses. That's a guy. These are all famous people. Love her! Love him!”
Light chuckling
“Ohh. I've solved it! It's REDACTED. I've solved it! Did you know that? I've solved it.”
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M&S
“I like this one”
“Makes me think of Christmas parties”
“Know its M&S immediately. Good. Make me want to buy the food.”
“Dawn’s a bit OTT in it.”
“(excitedly) oh, M&S”
“I want Dawn French to be my Christmas fairy.” “This is very Vicar of Dibley.”
ASDA
“Got it yep – not trying to be too clever at all. Knew it was ASDA from the get-go and knew what they were selling.”
“I liked it until his leg fell off” (Rudy, 7)
“Are gnomes a thing in Sheffield? Like, no one has gnomes. No one can afford a garden.”
"I love a gnome, me."
Lidl
“Love the premise of donating, but don’t like the ad – feels a bit confusing as a story. The sprouts and the racoon?”
“That’s why we shop at Lidl!”
“But shouldn't we be generous at all times of the year, not just Christmas?”
Argos
“Bit meh. Singing green dragon doesn’t make me want to shop there.”
John Lewis
“Missed the branding at the start and thought they were selling toast. That’s what annoys me about ads. Never knowing who they are from until the end.”
mildly surprised “Oh John Lewis”
“Oh. That's nice.”
Shelter
“That’s really sad. That’s really sad. Didn’t know what was happening at first, but that’s really sad. Pretty horrendous.”
“I thought it was well done. I thought it was charming and sad”
“We really need to donate to Shelter this Christmas.” Donates
Final question…
“Are you excited for Christmas now?”
“ehhhh…….. no….”
The verdict from our ‘panel’
There was a clear thumbs up for Waitrose and M&S from our panel, mostly because of the star power of Dawn French, Sian Clifford and co. Shelter also made a big impact with its well-executed sentimental tone.
Puppets, characters and toilet humour were a huge draw for our younger viewers, but it remains to be seen how much influence they can exercise over their parents’ Christmas shopping habits!
The reality is though that the majority of people find the majority of adverts… quite annoying. Which is always a good reality check to get.
The Frame verdict
(We had to have our say now, didn’t we?)
The old adage is that “Nobody reads advertising. People read what interests them; and sometimes it's an ad” and it couldn’t be truer for Christmas ads. Waitrose, in particular, is already getting a lot of praise across the industry and for good reason. Not only have they created a really engaging film (with two more to come), they’ve really extended the campaign across a full range of channels, from social cut downs interviewing each ‘character’, to influencer reviews, outdoor and even engaging staff.
Kevin the Carrot may annoy some, but it’s been proven to produce results - winning an IPA Effectiveness award in 2022 and getting strong results year-on-year from System1’s testing. The truth is at Christmas the most important thing can be simply being remembered by stressed-out shoppers in need of extra pigs in blankets. Kevin helps Aldi do that, even if this year’s iteration is a bit all over the shop.
More broadly, it’s noticeable that the default for Christmas ads has moved on a little from the John Lewis classic approach of a heartfelt story, a re-recorded ballad and (usually) a friendly animal (though Adam&EveDDB have recycled this approach for Disney). Now it seems that the thing to do is leaning on celebs like Dawn and “that guy from Succession’, tying into IP such as The BFG, Shaun the Sheep or Waldo.
It’s hard to make a Christmas ad that truly stands out these days, but Waitrose, Shelter, O2 and others show that breaking the usual formula is always going to be worthwhile. Aldi Australia’s wacky and joyful spot deserves a special long-distance mention on that front.