‘Tis the season once more! The arrival of the Christmas ad season is consistently met with great anticipation, and this year proved no exception. Retailers worldwide unveiled their festive commercials, aiming to captivate the hearts and minds of consumers.
From Apple’s heartwarming ad showcasing ‘The Beatles’ to M&S’s star-studded commercial featuring Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, and Chevrolet’s touching spot in support of the Alzheimer’s Association, these are among the standout Christmas ads of 2023.
Explore the comprehensive list of 2023 ads that evoke the holiday spirit and resonate with our emotions.
Apple – Fuzzy Feelings
Apple’s ‘Fuzzy Feeling’ unveils a festive tale—a discontented employee, her less-than-jolly boss, and a compelling message intricately woven with The Beatles’ classic tune. Creative magic unfolds as always!
Chevrolet – A Holiday to Remember
Chevrolet collaborates with the Alzheimer’s Association in their latest ad, shedding light on the experiences of those living with Alzheimer’s and their families, particularly during the holiday season.
Coca-Cola – Anyone Can Be Santa
In this festive season, Coca-Cola gently nudges us to embrace our inner Santa. Check out the enchanting 2023 Christmas ad, where the spirit of kindness overflows in a cascade of heartwarming moments.
John Lewis – Snapper: The Perfect Tree
John Lewis’s nontraditional Christmas ad communicates a clear message for the festive season: forge new traditions. Explore the ad featuring Alfie, who buys a seed to grow his unique Christmas tree at a market.
Capital One – Quicksilver Holiday Night Fever
Capital One cleverly uses nostalgia and familiarity, anchoring our attention with John Travolta and the iconic JoBee Gees soundtrack, ‘Stayin’ Alive,’ preventing us from skipping past.
Tesco – Helping you #BecomeMoreChristmas
The father-son dynamic adds a relatable touch, blending humor with familial bonds.
ALDI – Share the Love
Aldi’s “Share the Love” showcases a star-studded ensemble from the vegetable kingdom, including Kevin the Carrot, Gluttonous Grape, Naughty Green Kiwi, Plumty-Dumptys, Spoilt Little Sprout, Ebanana Scrooge, and Marcus Raddishford.
M&S – Say HELLO to Right & Left Mitten
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney don charming mittens for an M&S Christmas journey that is a must-watch, filled with heartwarming moments.
Amazon – Joy Ride
Amazon’s heartwarming Christmas ad, ‘Joy Ride’ celebrates enduring friendships and shared experiences as three elderly friends rekindle their youthful spirit, all in the backdrop of The Beatles’ ‘In My Life.’
Dior – The Garden of Dreams
Dior’s enchanting Christmas ad, ‘The Garden of Dreams, featuring Anya Taylor Joy unfolds a captivating narrative within a dreamlike setting, seamlessly blending luxury fashion with festive magic, creating an immersive and stylish holiday experience.
Lidl – A Magical Christmas
Lidl’s heartwarming 2023 Christmas ad, ‘A Magical Christmas,’ follows a raccoon on a whimsical journey to bring joy to a boy, emphasizing the power of small gestures and encouraging customers to donate toys for local children in need.
Sainsbury’s – “This Christmas, one little girl asks one BIG question.”
A curious girl steps up to the in-store tannoy at Sainsbury’s to ask: “What does Santa eat for his Christmas dinner?” Her question sparks a flurry of responses from Sainsbury’s workers, each offering their suggestions of festive dishes, showstoppers and treats.
ARGOS – Dancer
Connie’s lively table-dancing and Trev’s sweet character set a festive mood in Argos’s short, enjoyable ad, showcasing their products in a relatable and fun way.
Boots: Give Joy
Boots excels in capturing the essence of Christmas by highlighting the joy of giving. In their quirky ad, a girl poses an unusual question to her mom, akin to Sainsbury’s approach: “Who gives presents to Santa?”
Sources: DMI, USA Today, Creative Boom
Here’s a round-up of the ‘must-watch 2020 Christmas commercials’
2020 has been quite a year! The year of the global pandemic has changed us, turning our worlds upside-down in so many ways. But thankfully, a few things have remained a constant in life, one of which is the battle between brands to be crowned the ‘most popular Christmas commercials of the year’.
Christmas is a time for good cheer and festivity, time with loved ones, lots of delicious food and of course, show-stopping festive advertisements. As we creep closer to the first week of Advent, most big brands have already delivered their 2020 Christmas campaigns. This year however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, you’ll notice a distinct change in tone. While festive ads were once full of glitz and glamour with budgets on the higher side and offerings getting more elaborate as the years went by, this year’s Christmas commercials are distinctly more pared-back, in keeping with the public mood after a year of much hardship.
From John Lewis and Amazon, to Marks & Spencer, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Tesco, here’s a round-up of the ‘must-see Christmas commercials’ that have been revealed so far:
Amazon – The Show Must Go On
Disney UK – From Our Family To Yours
Tesco – No Naughty List
McDonald’s – Inner Child
Argos – An Evening with AbracaDaisy & The Incredible Lucy
Aldi UK – Kevin the Carrot
Coca-Cola
Asda – That’s an Asda Price Christmas
LEGO
Waitrose & John Lewis – Give A Little Love
Boots UK
Sainsbury’s – Gravy Song
Burberry
Dobbies – Festive Thrills
Lidl GB – Big on a Christmas you can Believe in
Marks & Spencer
Walkers Crisps – A Sausage CaRoll
TK Maxx – The Lil’ Goat
Chester BID – Give the Gift this Christmas
Deliveroo – Christmas in On
Matalan – It’s a Matalan Christmas!
O2 – Unwrap the Magic of Christmas
Woodies
Three – Everyone’s a Kid at Christmas
Papa Johns Pizza GB – Giving More This Christmas
Notonthehighstreet – The Magic of Small Things
JD Sports – #JDWonderland
Advertisers…. Don’t miss out on the chance to display your festive ads on the BIG Screen this holiday season, especially alongside the MEGA Blockbuster release – Wonder Woman 1984 on 17th December 2020.
Contact us for more information on festive cinema advertising
Sources: Good Housekeeping, Creative Boom, The Drum and YouTube
It is that time of year again, some say the most wonderful time of year. It’s also the time that many retailers put their hard-earned money in Santa’s sack, with Christmas campaigns tempting shoppers with stories of the season.
Not only is Christmas an ideal time to introduce brands to new customers, but it is the perfect reason to reconnect with existing shoppers.
As the festive season approaches we see more and more memorable adverts arrive on cinema screens to showcase what the big retailers have to offer – but which is the best Christmas advert for 2019?
Check out our compilation of popular and heartwarming Christmas ads from across the globe and decide for yourself!
John Lewis & Waitrose – Excitable Edgar
The John Lewis advert marks the start of the festive season and this year’s offering will melt your heart – as well as the ice.
John Lewis’ 2019 Christmas advert is about a young dragon named Excitable Edgar. Edgar is a dragon living in a small town who can’t play with the other children at Christmas because his ‘firey’ breath keeps melting all the snow.
The grown-ups also begin to turn on him when he accidentally sets fire to the town’s Christmas display.
But with a bit of ingenuity, one local girl proves that Edgar’s fire can prove useful after all.
It’s John Lewis’ first joint campaign with Waitrose and it reportedly cost £7million to make. It’s no surprise that it’s flaming good.
Walkers – All Mariah Carey wants this Christmas
This festive ad is full of everything we expect of Christmas – from red sequined dresses to elves and even Mariah Carey! Walkers have pulled out all the stops for their Christmas campaign and have called it their “biggest ever Walkers Christmas advert”.
The advert comes on the 25th anniversary of Mariah’s 1994 album Merry Christmas. And it’s said to have cost the retailers a whopping £9million to have her face on 50 million packets of crisps.
Tesco – #DeliveringChristmas
Tesco’s Christmas advert features a delivery driver travelling through time in a Back to the Future influenced celebration of the company’s 100th anniversary.
The UK’s largest supermarket has kept its festive advert closely under wraps and sent social media into a frenzy when a Tesco van was spotted on top of a house in Cheshire, England.
Tesco is the last of the major retailers to release their advert, which they have said is intended to highlight its role ‘delivering Christmas to the nation for the past 100 years’.
In the ad, a Tesco delivery driver called Joel, is transported with his van full of food to various years throughout the past century, after his van gets caught up in Christmas lights.
Visa – #WhereYouShopMatters
Visa‘s Christmas advert calls on shoppers to support the UK high street in the face of struggling sales and an increase of online shopping.
The campaign features 13 real shopkeepers including a bookseller, greengrocer, antique dealer and café owner.
Visa said the message is to encourage shoppers to think more about where they’re buying from.
Sainsburys – Nicholas The Sweep
Sainsbury‘s heartwarming Christmas advert tells a story of how Santa started out as a chimney sweep who was accused of stealing a clementine.
The retailer is marking 150 years in the business and so has set its festive ad outside the first Sainsbury‘s store in Drury Lane in 1869.
Sainsbury‘s says that the tale is a “totally true story” but in reality “Nicholas” has been created in the spirit of Christmas and there’s no real evidence of the retailer’s founders ever having saved a child in this way.
The ad is directed by award winning Ninian Doff, who has also directed a handful of commercials for brands such as Hula Hoops, 02 and GiffGaff.
Aldi – Leafy Blinders
Aldi has used Kevin the Carrot for the fourth year in a row in its Christmas advert.
New character Russell Sprout, and his Brummy gang of “Leafy Blinders“, are boiling with rage about Kevin and his family of carrots stealing the show as the star Christmas vegetable.
The sprouts are dressed in tweed caps, much like characters from popular Netflix drama – Peaky Blinders.
Tiny Tom – a little tomato – comes to Kevin’s rescue after the sprouts tie him up.
Amazon – The Singing Boxes are Back!
Amazon‘s Christmas ad features a whole host of people singing and dancing to Solomon Burke’s classic track, “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love”.
The heartwarming, feel-good advert shows families, friends, colleagues and strangers from all walks of life coming together while singing and dancing along with the cheerful Amazon boxes.
At the same time, people are giving or delivering gifts to loved ones that are, of course, inside Amazon boxes.
Boots – #GiftLikeYouGetThem
Boots shows customers how to get presents for the most difficult loved ones in your life.
The ad introduces Boots’ new range of in-store gift edits – called “Bootiques” – there to take the hassle out of Christmas shopping.
There will also be an online option to create your own Bootique so you can hint to loved ones what you want this Christmas.
Asda – Let’s Make Christmas Extra Special
Asda’s festive campaign is all about making Christmas extra special – but there’s a heartwarming story behind its advert.
The ad follows a young girl – Tilly – inspired by stories from her Grandad about Santa’s leftover magic.
The advert focuses on people who go the extra mile during the festive season, making it a special time for all.
M&S – Go Jumpers for Christmas
The best thing about Christmas is obviously knitwear, and that’s something Marks and Spencer has tapped into brilliantly for their latest ad. Directed by Jake Nava, the director behind Beyoncé’s Single Ladies video, this promo will have you jumping around with your jumpers in no time at all.
Emma Willis and Paddy McGuinness star in this year’s M&S Christmas advert.
The pair are seen at a snow-covered “M&S Food Christmas Market” where they sample festive treats at different stalls.
Other famous faces that appear in the market include popular television presenters Amanda Holden and Rochelle Humes.
Very – Get More Out of Giving
Very.co.uk showcased an emotional advert which celebrates the joy of community as stars from previous years returned to the tv screens.
It follows the residents of Chester Street as they give up their time to make sure their elderly neighbour Sidney isn’t alone at Christmas.
It is accompanied by a cover of Rudimental’s 2012 hit Feel The Love recorded by The Social Singing Choir.
McDonald’s – #ReindeerReady
This year’s Christmas advert follows adorable little girl Ellie as she befriends a lovable reindeer called Archie.
The 90-second advert follows the animated journey of Ellie who is at home and eager to play a game of ‘reindeers’ with her older sister Jenny – only Jenny is uninterested in playing games with her younger sister and slams the bedroom door on her.
Celebrate the magic of Christmas through the eyes of Ellie, in this advert which illustrates scenes recognized by parents across the world, as the whole family comes together to get Reindeer ready.
Click here to watch more 2019 Christmas commercials.
Don’t miss out on your chance to target consumers this festive season! Contact us for cinema advertising opportunities alongside blockbuster movies at the cinemas and spread the festive cheer.
Sources:
HouseBeautiful, Mirror UK
