It appears we’ve all come to a general consensus that Christmas should start earlier this year. And I’m no Grinch. So, I’ll welcome the premature festivities with my take on some of the latest Christmas ads out there.
I’ll tackle one TV advert a day this week. And, to keep things more interesting, I’ve applied my own festive scale for clarity:
1 = as terrible as burning the turkey to a crisp and forgetting the pigs in blankets.
10 = as glorious as a flaming Christmas pud with a vat of homemade custard (no lumps!) to serve.
Today, I’m kicking it off with Waitrose and John Lewis.
What’s their core message?
Give a little love
Waitrose and John Lewis have a track record of bringing out the fuzzy feels at this time of the year. They’ve cottoned on to the power of music and fancy visuals that grab our attention in under two minutes.
My personal favourite comes from 2013. This ad gave us Lily Allen’s beautiful rendition of ‘Somewhere Only We Know’.
And this year is no different. We have the colourful images, we have the joyous music (Celeste is splendid), and we have storytelling. Overall, a job well done, Waitrose.
But apart from that, it’s nothing earth-shakingly compelling. There’s no call to action shouting to the audience, ‘hey, better get on the John Lewis website and start ordering presents for your in-laws’. And, in amongst the many adverts playing the sentimental card, this one struggles to stand out as anything different.
I think I’ll get back to baking mince pies, thank you very much.
My score: 6/10
Image credit: Universal/Getty Images
NB I originally wrote this post for my LinkedIn page on 23rd Nov 2020.
Natasha Katz Writing 