Here comes Christmas
Guy Fawkes Night is over and that can mean only one thing: as far as the UK advertising industry is concerned, it’s Christmas.
Let’s start with Morrisons:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk1F1uynims&feature=relmfu
A real departure. Quality writing and direction. I only question the British public’s inclination to lap up something on the negative side. Yes, there’s a good reason for all the doom and gloom, and it makes a refreshing change, but will we take this reminder of Christmas’s shortcomings in the right way, or not? Who knows?
And then there’s M&S:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvtQslFoTOw
I think it feels a bit generic, leaning into Littlewoods territory. Where’s the proper pizzazz? Where’s the big song? Where’s Take That?
Sainsbury’s and Tesco, it’s over to you.
Wife thought the Morrison’s ad was for M&S to start with, which shows you the step up in quality.
M&S: Also – Where’s the food?!
Morrisons is good. Better than that stupid Freddy Flintoff and the other dopey celebs one from last year. M&S is a bit meh. I liked Debenhams although it’s a bit generic too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugBCrkRvTwA
Really like the Morrisons one, feels very Northern
Dont forget Waitrose. They have done the old charity switch a roo, no fancy ad, give to charity, trick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTimZt4KSaw
You know the Asda ad was accused of being sexist? Is Morrison’s ad sexist in the same way. I don’t think they are.
Every year, in the M&S ad, I look forward to the bit where this year’s ‘hottie’ appears in her scanties. It reminds me of thumbing through the Littlewoods Catalogue as a kid to look very, very closely at the sunbeds page (553).
The Morrison’s ad is great, some lovely insights.
M&S feels like it was done at the 11th hour which explains why there is no idea to it. Clearly they couldn’t agree on music, so they’ve thrown in as many iconic pieces as they can in 60 seconds. Their Christmas ads used to be fun. This is a mess. Morrisons is nice though.
Waitrose could have given even more to charity if they hadn’t wasted a fortune on those two chefs
I suspect the industry will applaud the ambition of Morrison’s while the public will hate the negativity
Morrison’s.
Sounds a bit like Morrissey’s.
Big problem with the M&S: the clothes look REALLY cheap.
The Boots spot is bloody rubbish, by the way.
I went to Morrissey’s. Full of shop-lifters and the butcher’s counter was shit.
I love the Morrisons ad, but I don’t think it makes me love Morrisons.
All of us love to bitch about the chintz that surrounds Christmas, while secretly looking forward to the big day like…well, Christmas.
A bit of realism is good, but there still needs to be a grain of magic there.
A put-upon housewife grinning over the Christmas Turkey like she’s just done Ketamine is not magic.
love Morrisons, better written than directed but luckily the idea is strong enough to make up for execution
I agree with Butterbean. This is not a great ad for Morrisons and thus a huge failure. I was expecting a phone number to come up any moment for people to dial in if Christmas gets them down and depressed. Convince the client to do something different and then screw it up by sloppy writing and very poor directing. ASDA might be sexist but this is absolute rubbish.
@WTF
And there I was thinking that the director(s) had done a very nice job with Morrisons.
What did I miss?
Oh dear, Morrisons.
Ticks every box for us smart Londoners and youngsters. But in context, that is going to seem depressing as hell to the average provincial family.
Bad choice in my book. Play or don’t play. But don’t be cynical. Nobody likes a grump.
Would you go there for your Christmas shopping? Nup.
The Morrisons ad has some great individual scenes visually (the turkey, the timers and the cupboard doors to name three) but is just too bleak overall. It seems very long or at least it takes too long to get to the unsatisfactory pay-off.
The Marks and Spencer’s ad is pretty dire and seems cheap. This is especially true when you compare it to previous ads under the Magic and Sparkle tagline. I agree with all the others saying it’s generic and nondescript. I’ve already seen ads for another brand that is almost identical.
Unlike Original Richard H I’m a massive fan of the Boots’ ad. Maybe I’m being kind and comparing it to previous ‘here come the girls’ ads but I think it’s the only ad to successfully do something new this year. I’m genuinely impressed with how well they’ve dealt with relationships you don’t really see in ads, let alone Christmas ones. While everyone else seems to have focused on ‘mum’, or a put upon, middle-age white woman, Boots have covered single/separated mothers, mixed race couples, brothers, dogs and grandparents without making me feel like it’s all been shoehorned into the look diverse. If Asda had taken a similar approach with multiple story arcs they could have solved a lot of their problems.
Boots ad for those who haven’t seen it :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KvH7AK_Xcs
I didn’t want to give my 2 cents up until now. Three pints later its a different story. I don’t like any of the Christmas ads simply because…they’re about Christmas. No matter how slick the director or how great the idea is, it’ll still be an ad for a holiday I’d rather get through drunk most of the time than sober. So there you go adland, you can’t convince me that Christmas is good. Ever.
The Morrisons ad is great. Well written and shot and a departure from the usual supermarket Christmas schmaltz. The public will get it and like it – it seems like some of you lot are making the typical (client) mistake of not crediting the target market with a scrap of intelligence/ability to get the point. Sure, it doesn’t have a z lister on rollerskates in a grotto, but that’s a good thing creatively, right? The fact that Morrisons have done this a mere year after that shit with Brucie and Freddie is a credit to all involved.
M&S – it just feels so cheap – for a brand big enough and confident to be able to do “the greatest hits”, it feels like they spent all the money on the tracks and had to get it shot by 3rd tier director and get the wardrobe from Matalan. Which is worrying…
John Lewis left me a bit cold (snowman joke). Doesn’t deserve the inevitable plaudits.
Tesco Furby – poo – must be better stuff coming?
Very.co.uk – Had two things going for it – both attached to Willoughbooby’s front…
Barclaycard – meh, plus Corden’s human thrush (irritating cunt).
Waitrose – oh, just fuck off plese.
Can’t think of anymore. Bye.
Sorry but I find the Boots ad more depressing than Morrisons!
There is a rumour that the Morrison’s ad cost the client their job. Just a rumour, but that is really depressing news if it is true.
Slightly sad that if you click on the link above to watch the Boots advert you have to watch an advert for another company first (pointless click to skip nonsense).
Where will it all end?
Hey Voice of Reason.
It’s not that your ad is bad. It’s just that, I think, it’s a mistake. You might say we are making a ‘client’ mistake. But I don’t think we are. I think you are making an ‘agency’ mistake. The ad is so wrapped up in being different and clever (which it is) that it has lost sight of the fact that it is just wrong.
I can imagine the clever planning insights that led up to the ad. People are working harder, and the recession is bad, and people could do without Christmas this year, etc.
But I think young families love Christmas. And I don’t think the ‘influencers’ among the lower demographics are cynical. Lower class cynics are losers. It’s only the upper classes who admire cynicism.
I think the target audience will ‘get’ what you are saying. But I don’t think they will like it. They gave rise our z list celebrities after all.
You’ll ‘get’ it when I say “we are all going to die very soon.” But you won’t want to engage with the thought, I’m sure.
@theawkwardstag: Boots’ Christmas spot is disjointed, unevenly cast with unintelligible dialogue in places. But I’ll give you that it effortlessly portrays Boots as relevant to all ages, races and classes. It just looks like it had a pretty poor production budget.
I find it funny that you mention Tesco in the ‘over to you’ sense. The tesco xmas ad’s are here, you’ve blogged about them. I think everyone’s expecting something more. I think they’ll be disappointed.
The Morrisons ad has received three complaints that criticised it for being sexist, because it “portrays the mum doing everything at Christmas”.
It seems there are some fuckwits about. Lets be careful out there.
Adam: some people gave me the impression that we are yet to see the ‘proper’ Xmas ad from Tesco.
I hope so.
More Tesco work.
http://wklondon.typepad.com/welcome_to_optimism/2012/11/more-new-work-tesco-christmas-posters.html
http://wklondon.typepad.com/welcome_to_optimism/2012/11/-campaign-for-tesco.html
John P
They should do another one with the mum doing nothing, along with the line “women are lazy fucking bastards.” See how that plays…
Or maybe a Dad staying really calm and relaxed whilst cooking a Michelin 3 Star smorgasbord, shopping, playing with the kids and wrapping presents.
Do microwave rings have different tones?
How about different shots of festive fayre accompanied by a ‘We wish you a merry Christmas’ microwave tune for Lidl?
‘Save a Lidle time this Xmas’.
Hey douchebags. Shut it. The Morrisons ad got green lights in the research. It is therefore officially “a good ad.”
Thank god ads are no longer subjective and we now KNOW whether an ad is good or not.
The first time I saw the M&S ad, it was accompanied by a competition to guess the music artists and win a prize.
So… it looks like the ad was designed around the mechanic, which is a shame at this time of year when people expect beautiful, emotional advertising, because without the mechanic the general view is that it’s not up to much.
Morrisons seems to have the same feel to it as the Thompson holidays ad, or is that just me losing the plot?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8B1ZNv9m4s