A REVIEW OF 2021 FESTIVE ADS

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, you will be looking forward to the holidays. And if you do celebrate, you will probably be thinking that, after last year’s muted celebrations, you are certainly going to make the most of it this year. And of course, there’s been a wealth of brand activity over the last few weeks to help put you in the mood. Aldi in Australia gets it bang on target with its rousing ‘You can’t overcook Christmas’ campaign.

Others from elsewhere in a similar vein include ‘This Christmas, there’s nothing stopping us’ from Tesco, ‘Make Christmas spectacular’ from Asda in the UK, ‘Baubles to last year!  Christmas is ON’ from Argos and ‘Go all out’ from Sports Direct.

Here’s our BLITZWORKS take on some of the other seasonal goodies from around the globe.

Now, of course, it wouldn’t be Christmas in the UK without the much-anticipated cracker of a John Lewis ad. These films have for some time set the benchmark for storytelling and production at this time of year. And one of the reasons the standard has been so high is that many, many scripts are written to get to ‘the one’ – just the way we do it in our own creative Blitzes - with creative teams starting early in the year and competing for the opportunity to make their names.

This year’s ‘Unexpected Guest’ features an alien who has crash-landed in woodland, and a young earthling who is rather smitten, and keen to share some Yuletide goodwill – and if this one doesn’t quite compare with the best of them, does it matter? Is the brand at the heart of the drama? Yes, it is. Will everyone outside our industry enjoy it? Why not - it’s better than most commercials we see. Is there an important underlying message about showing kindness to those unlike ourselves?  Yes, and it all helps. And even if the extra-terrestrial visitor decides to hurry back to its planet, despite this very warm welcome, don’t we all like to be home for Christmas?

A little John Lewis-like, is this seasonal McDonalds ad, with a girl who has now grown too old for her imaginary friend, Iggy, who has been banished to the back of the wardrobe. Well, we happen to think that the words ‘It’s been done before’ have killed too many promising ideas at birth, when they could have been allowed to evolve into something different, or different enough. The team behind this have put their own stamp on this, and the execution is lovely, reminding us that there’s always a place for make-believe in our lives, and especially at this time of year.

Coca-Cola has an exciting new creative platform, Real Magic. And one of the former John Lewis creatives, now in an ECD role, has brought his own magic to bear on this year’s global Christmas spot. It features the residents of a Santa-unfriendly apartment block, without any chimneys, who come together to build quite an elaborate one out of cardboard boxes taped together. It’s a heart-warming tale of Christmas communion, jollied along with the merry ‘chim chim-in-ey’ refrain of the perfectly matched Mary Poppins song.

Alongside this, in the United States and Canada, consumers can also request a personalised video, in English, Spanish or French, from Santa via the online fan connection site Cameo, which can be shared with family and friends. That sounds like good fun to me, and all of this points to more magic to come from the iconic brand on this new platform.

And with a Mary Poppins connection too, there is a Christmas extravaganza from retailer Boots, with the tale of a handbag that mysteriously contains an endless supply of gifts. ‘Bags of Joy’! And with actress Jenna Coleman, Academy award-winning director and composer, Tom Hooper and Rachel Portman, they can’t go wrong. It’s classy and gorgeous.

And from Disney, what else would you expect, but a mini-movie? It’s about a man, who has become a Stepdad to two children, navigating his first Christmas with his new family. A simple story, incorporating a magic storybook, from which the Disney characters come to life, it is elevated by the quality of the animation and an absolutely knockout of an original soundtrack, featuring Gregory Porter

Here’s a film from the US that has the brand undeniably at the centre of the drama. That’s because it’s actually been made with the product itself - the new Apple iPhone 13. ‘Saving Simon’ is a three-minute product demo - the story of a young girl who keeps her snowman in the freezer all year until it’s safe to come out again. And what a delight it is, by two more awarded film-makers, Jason and Ivan Reitman, It’s beautifully made, with some lovely moments, and a touch of irreverence at the end, which makes it even stronger, and brings the family in the story even closer together.

Last year’s beautiful Amazon Christmas spot brought us the story of a young ballet dancer whose debut show was cancelled due to the Pandemic, but who finds her own way to show what she can do, with some neighbourly support. This year’s offering also feels timely and empathetic and recognises that some of us are finding it hard to come back out into the world after so long in isolation. Like last year’s spot, it reminds us of the importance of looking out for our neighbours, and of course, that Amazon is here to help. The line, ‘Kindness. The Greatest Gift’.

From Spain, we have an Amazon Prime spot for Europe, in which a lonely zookeeper finds a new buddy with a mutual interest in entertainment to keep him company over the holidays. It’s a laughing hyena! Interestingly, he is a slightly sinister character, which gives the spot a darker tone than most here – which helps it to stand out even more.Kindness. The Greatest Gift’.

Erste is a big bank in Central and Eastern Europe, and their spot has a more serious message, reminding us that Christmas is not just a time to enjoy ourselves, but to think about others - and as a new year approaches, the way we want the future to be for them. But it does this gently, with a charming animated tale, and probably on much lower budget than most here.

And from Hungary, for Deutsche Telekom, here’s a story about a boy whose request for a bigger present from his grandfather seems selfishly motivated at first but surprises us with a heart-warming twist. There will be some who might remember Yellow Pages spot with a similar ending from the distant past. But almost certainly not the team responsible for this – they probably don’t even know what Yellow Pages are. This will be new to most and is perfectly on-point.

At BLITZWORKS, we love big creative platform ideas, and they don’t come much bigger than Lego’s ‘Rebuild the World’. Anything is possible with Lego, and anything goes in this energetic montage of creative mayhem. It’s an anthem to the possibilities of play. There’s dancing, for no reason other than the pure joy of it, and a slightly cheesy jingle, just in case we were in any danger of taking this all too seriously. This was made by irreverent Swedish film-making collective Traktor, after all! And if you can’t have a jingle at Christmas, when can you?

I don’t know about you, but I am beginning to feel like a mince pie.

(For those unfamiliar with this particularly English seasonal treat, this a mince pie.)

But before that, I must mention one last piece of work from Norway that will certainly have made its way around the world by the time you read this.  As I write, it’s already appeared in The Times newspaper, with equal importance to a piece about the Swedish Prime Minister’s resignation. When advertising gets this much attention, it must be doing something right.

The film is called ‘When Harry met Santa’ and is from The Norwegian Post Office.  It’s a side to Santa that we haven’t seen before. But is it really that surprising?  After all, doesn’t Santa love everyone? I’d like to think so.

Overall, it’s great to see so much diversity in the casting and storytelling. It does feel that advertisers are making a genuine effort to better represent the world we live in and the way we want it to be. Happy holidays!