Christmas is the most magical time of the year, as everyone can be heard singing through December. It is one time of the year when it seems that everyone feels relaxed, there are lights across buildings, and everything twinkles when you walk past it.
The excitement reaches a fever pitch as everyone waits for the return of Santa down the chimneys across the world, but I look forward to one more thing that others might not – the Christmas Adverts. Something that still feels relatively new, but has been around for a depressingly, surprising, amount of time.
The long wait is now a relic
This whole advertising war really kicked off steam when John Lewis debuted the stellar “A long wait” advert, which featured a young boy waiting through the whole of December to receive his presents from Santa, but instead was excited to give his parents a present. What a twist.
Since then John Lewis and many others have thrown advertisements out in the hope they have the sticking power of that fabled advert. But none really do, perhaps because they’ve been so hyped up? Or maybe the budgets aren’t there.
Certainly, I feel that adverting for Christmas is reaching its peak and we could in the coming years see a decline and the big budget adverts being shelved for a couple of years with simplistic ones making a better comeback. But a good advert is worth its weight for a company that does it right, with small companies becoming viral hits for ones that work well.
People are making a good shot of it though.
Personally, John Lewis has really failed to hit the mark since the heights of the Long Wait and I don’t think it’s going to get better any time soon. But we’ve had close calls from their competitors, to name a few below:
Sainsbury’s (1914 and The Big Night)
Both of these are stand-out contenders to be the best Christmas advert of the last ten years, with 1914 airing on the anniversary of World War I and being a heartfelt homage to the football matches that reportedly took place across the battlefields on the 25th.
Latterly, The Big Night is a recent and humorous advert looking at the nerve-ridden nativity performed by schools across the country. It features one of the best performances from a plug I have seen in recent years.
Tesco (Lights On)
A surprise from Tesco but a very good advert, showcasing the varying different styles of people and decorations. A smorgasbord of delightful colours and quite funny filming to show some real uniqueness across the UK. Unfortunately, I don’t think they’ve kept up the pace since this advert and have fallen downhill, with their competitor, ASDA, creating a series of much better adverts in the years since.
Coca Cola (Holiday’s Are Coming).
You know it’s Christmas when you hear that the Holiday’s are Coming. So ingrained across the world that when it was removed in 2001, Coca Cola reportedly received calls for it to be reinstated. They have tried other adverts, one of which featured a great single from the band Train, but nothing quite as good as the original.
I wasn’t going to include this one in my top 3 because it’s simply too familiar and would make everyone’s top list. But who could not mention the most famous Christmas advert of them all?
What could 2022 bring us?
With the UK dealing with the cost of living crisis, higher energy bills, and paying much more for food and essentials, we are likely to see more adverts focusing on that, perhaps more of a focus on togetherness rather than extravagant or funny. We might see a couple that try some comedic relief but that could be far and few between, I’d put money on Kevin the Carrot making a continuation of his story.
As the struggle continues I don’t expect companies to be sparing much budget and will much prefer to funnel advertising funds into making or highlighting cheaper products, something we all know at this time is much more important than a flashy Christmas ad.