Reaching Christmas Retail Ad Perfection

So this is Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year… for advertising! And what do you know, they’ve actually done it: after years of pulling at our heartstrings with their wonderful festive storytelling, retailers have successfully established a tradition with Christmas ads that they now have the Great British public caring about these as much as we Ad Land folk do. Great news for agencies everywhere, right?

This is actually both a blessing and a curse: whilst share of attention improves when people care this much (hooray!), they have also become more critical of ads than they’ve ever been, and more demanding than ever of them too. With 65% of Brits agreeing that brands should make more effort to wow them with spectacular advertising (Wunderman Thompson, The Age of Enchantment, 2023), there is a lot of pressure to rise to the occasion year after year and deliver best-in-class, joy-inducing, tear-jerking stories that, well, manage to enchant the public.

In this context, it’s no surprise that, whilst some brands chose to go down the celebrity-extravaganza road, others chose to go back to basics, the basics of simple and yet brilliant storytelling, a well-trodden path of days of yore when craft was at a high and throwing money at the problem wasn’t. Do I enjoy listening to a bit of Bublé this time of year? Sure I do. But it was the tale of three friends tobogganing down a snow hill to the sound of a classic Beatles track that really hit the spot for me.

What’s not to love about this Amazon ad? Short, but sweet, so sweet, and yet no saccharin in sight. Instead, a to-the-point, truly lovely and uplifting tale of the joys of friendship and gift-giving, reminding us that sometimes the gift itself doesn’t need to be extraordinary, it has to enable the extraordinary. It’s also very refreshing to see a story featuring older folk in a positive, active and non-stereotypical portrayal. “That’s the kind of friend I’d like to believe I am, and that’s the kind of granny I want to be one day” is what I thought. All in all, a ten out of ten for me.

Now, let’s talk perfection in storytelling and product display combined, something you don’t hear very often. Yes, I am talking about Boots. I genuinely cannot remember the last time I saw an ad where products were so seamlessly and endearingly integrated in the narrative, what a feat. Top this with a story that flows so effortlessly that you almost forget it’s an ad, and an underlying message about community spirit that doesn’t make your eyes roll, and you’ve reached Christmas retail ad perfection.

Speaking of perfection, how wonderful it was to see an ad talking about the lack of it at Christmas, the beautiful chaos of this season, in a truly original way. A Venus Fly Trap for a Christmas tree? Why not! We could all use with embracing the different a bit more these days. It’s the promise of a perfect Christmas tree in the box, and the actualisation of no one’s idea of it that underpins the brilliant storytelling in which John Lewis yet again invites us to embrace the wonderful this festive Season, whatever this means to each and every one of us. I’m absolutely here for it.

Finally, we’ve got oven gloves and Starship, a combo I didn’t know I needed, and have found that I very much do. Have seen it so many times now, and every time it has brought me simple, pure joy. Isn’t that just what Christmas is all about?