Hails & Fails – November 15th 2024
This week we take a look at 2024’s Christmas adverts, as retailers go head-to-head to make the nation shed the most tears or laugh the hardest and with advertisers set to spend a record £10.5bn this festive season.
Here’s our three favourite TV ad campaigns and an unfortunate festive fail. Do you agree?
Waitrose raised sweet suspicions, Greggs enlisted a famous face for their very first Christmas ad and Barbour got sheepish in the best way possible. John Lewis, surprisingly, missed the mark for us this year.
HAILS
Waitrose mystery
Waitrose’s advert features a murder mystery style plot surrounding a missing dessert from the fridge.
Starting with a blood-curdling scream when a Christmas Day guest discovers a crime, the advert then sees festive party goers attempting to solve the crime.
With its laugh-out-loud script, famous cast (including Succession’s Matthew MacFadyen) and a nail-biting cliff-hanger, the advert is the best of the bunch this year.
Jess Redfearn – Midweight Creative: “With detective mysteries a huge part of British culture from Sherlock Holmes to Miss Marple and Inspector Morse, this idea is genius. But like any idea it needs to be executed well, and boy is this executed to perfection.”
The Nigella Effect
Greggs enlisted celebrity chef Nigella Lawson to celebrate the launch of its Christmas menu in their very first Christmas advert.
Domestic goddess Nigella, known as ‘The Queen of Christmas’, is seen tucking into the food-to-go bakery’s festive bakes from her London townhouse with a few of her famous suggestive glances to the camera, of course.
As always, Greggs approach is unexpected and smartly pushes the creative limits of the legendarily cheap and cheerful brand.
Adam Moss – News & Creative Director: “It’s the perfect Christmas mash-up isn’t it? Nigella and Greggs – both naughty but nice. Then throw in Greggs’ bloody wonderful festive bake. You can almost taste December 25th, can’t you?”
Baabour
Legendary UK fashion retailer Barbour partnered with British stop-motion animation hero Shaun the Sheep to create an advert that left us with a warm fuzzing and evr-so-festive feeling.
Shaun and his flock singing Christmas carols that encourages the gift of warmth this Christmas.
Alongside the advert, Barbour has created 30 limited edition Shaun the Sheep inspired wax jackets, with all proceeds going to Oxfam. More festive than a truckload of mince pies…
Tom Owen – Chief Reporter: “Brand collaborations can sometimes feel random and lazy, desperate attempts at fame, but this just works; with both brands iconic and sharing strong values of quality, craft and a love of the outdoors!”
FAIL
John Lewis miss the mark
In a shock turn of events, the legendary pre-Christmas reveal of the John Lewis Christmas advert has been dubbed “the worst one yet” after failing to grip the nation.
The advert follows the story of the bond between two sisters as one makes a last-minute dash to the department store to find a gift. As one of the girls searches high and low, she falls into a rack of clothes to suddenly relive memories the siblings share that help her choose the perfect present.
But while the story is simple and relatable, the ad is just a bit underwhelming.
What do you think?
Steven Narloch – Newsroom Writer: “It’s just a bit forgettable. At least with love or hate adverts they get people talking, but this is just a bit meh.”
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