Christmas is the Superbowl of UK advertising. In this Guest post, AFFINITY’s executive creative director Simon Bloomfield (main image) shares his and the team’s opinions on the best Christmas crackers of festive season 2022.
If the Superbowl is the Superbowl of American advertising, then Christmas is the Superbowl of UK advertising. And just like the appearance of hot cross buns in the supermarket the day after Boxing Day, Christmas spots are being released earlier and earlier, with the first of this year’s Christmas ads reportedly being released in mid-October.
But as we enter the home straight to the Christmas break, we thought we’d share the AFFINITY team’s response to a selection of this year’s Xmas blockbusters, reviewed as part of AFFINITY’s “Five Days of Christmas” social club events.
We looked at around 15 of the spots, ranging from the ever-present John Lewis to the old faithful Tesco, and thanks to a little Slido action came up with our top 3. But before I reveal those, I thought I’d share a couple general observations.
A reflection of the times
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll be pretty aware of the fact the UK hasn’t had a happy year thanks to the ongoing economic and social impacts of Covid, increasing energy prices as a knock-on effect of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the death of Queen Elizabeth and the musical chairs at No.10 Downing St.
With all that in mind, it’s probably not surprising to see a large selection of this year’s spots present a relatively austere picture. And whilst not quite reaching Ken Loach-levels of gritty realness, the prevalence of social issues was apparent across the aforementioned John Lewis ad, ‘The Beginner’, the (somewhat questionable) animated spot for 02, ‘The SnowGran’, and even ‘The List’ from McDonald’s.
Beyond that, social good and charity messages were also crammed into the long-running ‘Kevin the Carrot’ campaign from Aldi, while Cadbury’s ‘Secret Santa’ continued as part of an integrated approach that allowed you to gift chocolate to “someone who might just need a little lift.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnELFxI2OfU
Not that any of the ads looked cheap
While the tone may have been a little dour, it doesn’t look as though budgets were down. In fact, ‘A Christmas Love Story’ from the National Lottery even brought in Oscar-winning director Tom Hooper for their opus (but while the well cast and nicely shot, didn’t have anyone rushing out to buy a lotto ticket). A disappointing Lego spot, ‘Rebuild the World’, also spared no expense in recruiting Katy Perry, but that wasn’t the only touch of Hollywood, with supermarket chain ASDA resurrecting Will Ferrell’s Elf for some rotoscoped ribbing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkSQW6Y9Dqg
This brings us to our top 3, as voted by the bright sparks of AFFINITY.
No.3 ‘Toby the Turkey,’ PETA
PETA’s first ever Christmas spot tells the story of a cute little turkey saved from the abattoir and taken in by a loving vegan family. Sure, it’s a little contrived but it tugs at all the heart strings and it clearly got votes from more than just the vegan/vegetarian members of our team.
No.2 ‘The Beginner,’ John Lewis
As I touched on above, department store John Lewis may not have started the Christmas Ad craze, but it sure has perpetuated it. However, after last year’s alien extravaganza, this year’s ad has pulled things back, managing to tread that fine line between sentimentality and suitability. As an interesting aside, a UK production company made an anti-John Lewis ad which actually showed just how well the real John Lewis ad had nailed it.
No.1 ‘Have your Elf a Merry Christmas,’ ASDA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnW1TWqAXYs
Not sure whether it was an indication that we have an agency full of Will Ferrell fans, or whether it was just the fact that this was the only spot that let a little lightness in amongst the gloom. Either way this bit of technical wizardry reappropriated everyone’s favourite giant elf for a spot that clearly ticked all the right boxes.
