1. John Lewis - This was the big one; the one we were all waiting for. John Lewis has a brilliant track record for making emotive, heartwarming Christmas adverts that make us smile or even bring us to tears. Who could forget last year's penguin story or 2012's snowman romance?
I'm sorry to say then that for me this year's advert was a bit of a flop. John Lewis's partnership with the charity Age UK led them to create an ad centred around the idea of including elderly people at Christmas. While stargazing, a young girl spies a man on the moon, old, lonely and forgotten. The end of the advert sees her managing to send him a telescope via balloon so that he can see all the Christmas fun on earth...going on without him.
Instead of the rescue and joyful meeting I was holding out for, the poor old man is still left up there in the cold - a strangely weak and unsatisfactory ending. 6/10
2. Sainsbury's - This year Sainsbury's gave us "Mog's Christmas Calamity". Mog is the fictional feline creation of the author Judith Kerr whose other books including "The Tiger Who Came to Tea" were some of my favourites as a kid.
The ad shows the cartoon cat Mog sleeping in her basket on Christmas eve. She wakes to find the kitchen full of smoke as the turkey is incinerated in the oven; cue a spot of cat slap stick as she panics wreaking havoc through the house. Accidentally calling 999 Mog "saves the day" and the family escape unscathed.
I was a bit confused by this advert; the parents sob on each others' shoulders in their soot blackened kitchen and then are all smiles again as the local families arrive bearing bags of satsumas... It would take more than a satsuma to sort me out if my house ever burnt down I can tell you! 6/10
3. Marks and Spencer - Who doesn't remember the "this isn't just Christmas food...this is M&S Christmas food" of years gone by? In my opinion M&S make the best food adverts I've ever seen; everything just looks so delicious! In the world of fashion and homeware though they seem to lag behind a bit... This year's offering was a short, sharp burst of sparkling confetti, prowling catwalk models, backflipping children and a fiery christmas pudding. I like it. It may not be the best advert in the world but their "Art of Christmas" makes a change from all the other nostalgic, traditional ads on offer. Colourful, fun and slick M&S stood out for me this year. 8/10
4. Tesco - There's not much to say about Tesco's 2015 Christmas ads. They follow a family doing their Christmas shopping; mother, father and their cretinous teenage son. The humour is simple and somewhat grating. The characters are stereotypical and the script wooden. I'm not sure what Tesco were going for with this; how can they expect to compete with other retailers if their advertising is at this level? 4/10
5. Harvey Nichols - From bad to worse. Harvey Nichols hasn't exactly filled me with Christmassy joy for the last couple of years with their "Sorry, I spent it on myself" and "Could I be any clearer?" adverts. They reduce the entirety of Christmas down to gift giving, not in a warm fuzzy way but rather a cold hearted, miserly way. "A little something for them means a bigger something for you" was their strapline in 2013...you get the picture.
This year they've treated us to "Avoid #GiftFace". A young woman struggles to keep a smile on her face while her family and boyfriend present her with their carefully chosen gifts at Christmas. The hashtag is irritating enough but the lack of gratitude, utter selfishness and sheer spoilt brattery of this advert is difficult to swallow. Perhaps an attempt to connect with a younger audience, this advert is a definite failure for me. 2/10
6. La Lotería de Navidad - The Spanish look out for the release of the Christmas Lotería advert in the same way we wait to see what John Lewis will bring us each year. The lottery in Spain is extremely popular with almost everyone buying a ticket for the Christmas draw when I was in Madrid last year. In my opinion this advert beats John Lewis' "man on the moon" hands down.
Justino is a nightime security guard in a factory that makes mannequins. Made in the same animated style as the pixar movie UP the ad shows how Justino lives a fairly lonely life sleeping all day but leaving lovely surprises for his daytime colleagues during his night shift. Like all offices in Spain at Christmas the workers have put their names down and entered the "Lotería de Navidad". They win and the office is full of excitement. Justino arrives at work that evening downcast but finds that they've signed him up too and he can take part in the celebrations with them. The look on his square, mustachioed face is what Christmas is all about. I'm not ashamed to say I was welling up by the end; this ad was most definitely my favourite out of all of 2015's offerings. 9/10
Well that's it for my roundup of the 2015 Christmas adverts; I wonder what next year will bring. Which was your favourite? Comment below!
No comments:
Post a Comment