This year, more companies than ever it seems have jumped into this bandwagon. This year, though, it seems the heart-warming element has dwindled a little bit.
I'll kick this off with the unpopular opinion that John Lewis' 2016 ad, made by London agency Adam & Eve, was not the advert of the year. Nor was it anywhere near their best. Now let's put that aside and talk about the ingenuity of Aldi to be the first company to spoof John Lewis and Adam & Eve's world renowned and award-winning adverts in one of its two ads this year.
A far cry from the saddest advert being the best advert, coming through the woodwork is House of Fraser which basically made a Christmas-themed music video for You Don't Own Me by Grace and G-Eazy. They took the guise of a music video and used it to advertise their products and did a bloody good job at it, too.
Calling on the success of the last year's Boots' advert (this year's is not worth mentioning…) Lloyd's Bank focuses on the mother-child relationship in a touching advert also reminiscent of John Lewis' better days. Also worth a mention is Paypal's first Christmas advert. They shape their unique selling point of buying without money into a panic for two boys about not seeing their parents coming home with presents. All's well that ends well as we learn another thing that Paypal's good for - keeping Christmas shopping a secret.
Sainsbury's achieve what it appears they were after achieving last year with their Christmas advert - beating John Lewis. Despite teaming up with Age UK for that extra wringing of the emotions, this year's Man On The Moon lacked something which was made up for by Sainsbury's iconic Mog the Cat. He ruined Christmas and landed on his feet because of the goodwill of others - teaching us that lesson a bit better than John Lewis did.
It's probably really why Noel Gallagher feels bitter about his song being used in Man On The Moon. Overall, though, like I've said, this year's adverts generally were a bit limp-wristed without the impact and Christmas passion that breathed through previous years.
Image courtesy of Flickr/Gerry Balding
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