Amongst the ongoing pandemic and tiers/lockdowns/circuit breakers opinion was that by starting a few festive traditions early might help to lift people’s spirits, and of course various retailers and supermarkets were already ahead of the game with their Christmas adverts ready to go. This year Argos were out of the gate first (or at least it seems that way) launching their ad campaign after Halloween, featuring sister Lucy and Daisy, who perform a series of magic tricks for their parents and family with the final reveal of Argos’ Book of Dreams catalogue, the last ever print catalogue that the retailer will produce.
The festive ad from John Lewis and Waitrose remains highly anticipated each year, with this years offering titled Give a Little Love, with the theme of acts of kindness can brighten someone else’s day and make a positive impact on the world and the people in it. Featuring a mix of live action and several different forms of animation from hand drawn to CGI, the advert also makes the first time the retailer has included a specially commissioned song, A Little Love by British singer Celeste, as part of it’s campaign, with 10p from each download of the song going to the Waitrose & John Lewis charity campaign.
Sports Direct’s first venture into Christmas advertising centres on a girl being asked by her mum what she wants for Christmas before going through a whole plethora of sports and sporting goods, and a bemused Jordan Henderson, via series of jump cuts and quick edits. Directed by VMA winner Henry Schofield
TK Maxx’s answer to cheering up everyone after the year we’ve all had by featuring a goat in their advertising, strutting it’s fashionable wears through a snowy farmyard, after all even pets deserve a Christmas treat
Debenhams “A Gifttastic Christmas” advert features real families to represent the diversity of modern day Britain, something Debenhams stated was important to the brands DNA. Clocking in at 30 seconds it’s one of the shorter adverts on offer this year but still manages to cycle through it’s range of goods and fashion offerings in that time
On the theme of everyone deserving a happy Christmas Tesco’s advert declares that everyone deserves al the treats the want and there’s no naughty list, with a series of confessions of what people did, or didn’t do through the year that would normally push them towards the naughty list but this year will gain them an exemption due to the pandemic.
Lidl’s advert is “big no a Christmas you can believe in” and is more interested in poking bit of fun at a few other retailers adverts
Morrisons’ advert keeps the feel good factor going, featuring families in various moments of the festive season, from the gift and food buying, complete with reminder about Morrisons’ commitment to food banks, through to the meal on the big day itself
Asda’s Christmas ad doesn’t shy away from how this Christmas will be different this year and shows how families can still enjoy the time even if in fewer numbers than before due to distancing, but families can still make the most of it despite the pandemic.
Aldi’s Christmas campaigns have become synonymous with their Kevin the carrot character and his family (not to mention the associated cuddly toy tie-ins), with this year Kevin plungers into woodland far from his home – can he make it back in time? Will a hedgehog really be able to help out?! A nice nod to ET and a helping hand from Santa makes for a happy ending, and perhaps surprising that the story wasn’t extended over further adverts.
One of the campaigns by the supermarkets that has generated more publicity than the others has been the Sainsburys trilogy, unfortunately because of the replies on social media to the first of the adverts that featured a non-white British family and garnered some disgraceful and abhorrent replies, including some that struggled to conceal their racist and xenophobic viewpoints and overtones. A post on Instagram by €VoiceofColour collated some of the comments to demonstrate how disgraceful they actually were with a caption: “For those who say racism isn’t a problem in the UK anymore.”. https://www.instagram.com/p/CHptc-AgZlX/?utm_source=ig_embed with Saiunsburys issuing a statement that read “At Sainsbury’s, we want to be the most inclusive retailer. That’s why, throughout all our advertising we aim to represent a modern Britain, which has a diverse range of communities.
“We have three stories of three different families in our advertising.” as well as turning off YouTube comments for the advert to prevent any more abuse being posted on there.
The adverts themselves feature a series of British families enjoying the various aspects of a typical British family Christmas, starting off with the gravy song
moving onto the perfect portions for Christmas dinner
before finishing off with the Big Sarnie ad, a retrospective look at the sandwiches made up of Christmas leftovers that were a staple of many a household on Boxing Day.