Posted on November 17, 2016

The battle for the No. 1 Christmas advert has started and retailers are making the upmost effort to outdo the usual top dog, John Lewis.

Beneath are a selection of the Christmas adverts we've found of interest. If you've located any others you'd like us to consider adding to our list feel free to send us a tweet or comment beneath.

John Lewis
'Buster the Boxer'

Strapline: Gifts that everyone with love

John Lewis has decided to take a more light-hearted approach this year compared to their tearjerker, ‘Man on the Moon’ advert in 2015. Their latest advert cost around £1m to make and was shot in a studio in London. CGI wildlife animals make an appearance along with Biff the boxer dog (his real name). The advert tells the story of a young girl running outside to play on the trampoline on Christmas day to find her dog, Buster, rushing out and beating her to it.

John Lewis set up an premiere for the advert and a virtual reality experience of Buster's garden in their flagship store in Oxford Circus. Here, visitors could interact with the animals and immerse themselves in a 360° environment of the garden from the advert.

Aldi
'Kevin the Carrot'

Strapline: Everyday amazing

'Kevin the Carrot' is a strong contender for this year's most memorable Christmas advert. It's extra festive and filled with enticing roast turkey with all the trimmings, and a talking carrot of course. The carrot walks across the dinner table, effortlessly showcasing Aldi's produce, and falls asleep next to a mince pie that was left out for Santa. Once Kevin wakes, he finds he is attached to a reindeer's antler. Overall, a fun, festive and child friendly advert by Aldi.

Aldi also released a friendly nod to the Christmas giant, John Lewis, in a short animation released on social media where Kevin gets excited over the annual unveiling of the John Lewis advert. 

Waitrose
'Robin'

Strapline: Home for Christmas

The Waitrose Christmas advert shows the epic journey Scandinavian Robins go through to migrate for the winter and the joy of it finally returning back to a garden in the UK to tuck in to a festive mince pie. We were captivated throughout, wishing for the Robin to succeed whilst battling across stormy seas. 'Home for Christmas' is displayed at the end of the advert, a thought-provoking message demonstrating the lengths people go to be together at Christmas time.

'The idea of the efforts we go to in getting home to connect with loved ones...The robin acts as a kind of metaphor for what we all go through at Christmas.'

Rupert Thomas, Waitrose Marketing Director

Marks & Spencer
'Mrs Claus'

Strapline: Christmas with love 

M&S have pulled out all the stops this year and released an advert to rival the usual Christmas favourites. The story shows a typical younger brother and big sister relationship, where the brother would repeatedly annoy his sibling by playing pranks on her. He sees she is upset, and tries to make it up to her by writing to Santa. As Santa is already busy delivering the Christmas presents, Mrs Claus decides to step in to give his big sister a special present. Mrs Claus is portrayed as a stylish, middle-aged woman and demonstrates the efforts M&S customers make to ensure Christmas is extra special.

Alzheimer's UK
'Santa Forgot'

A beautifully illustrated piece from Aardman Animations narrated by Stephen Fry where the advert tells the tale of Santa forgetting Christmas as he has dementia, with a little girl, Freya trying to help Santa save Christmas. A story told sensitively, and appropriately for a younger audience. A tearjerker with an important message to encourage people to donate to the cause that affects so many.

'Santa Forgot is a poignant and powerful reminder that dementia doesn't discriminate. We have to be provocative about dementia, to help fight misconceptions and fatalism around the condition and to demonstrate that pioneering research holds the answers.' 

Hilary Evans, Chief Executive of Alzheimer's Research UK

H&M
'Come Together'

Hollywood Director, Wes Anderson ('Rushmore', 'Fantastic Mr. Fox', and 'The Grand Budapest Hotel') produced a commercial for the Swedish retail giant, H&M which adopts his trademark unique, quirky and offbeat style. The story shows a group of strangers who end up celebrating Christmas together after getting stuck on a train in a snow storm. An added bonus is the feature of Oscar-winning actor, Adrien Brody as the Train Conductor who helps organise a Christmas party for the passengers. A mini-film with a poignant message which raised as many smiles as it did tears.

'This story may resonate more than ever at a time in the world where we could all do with giving a stranger a hug'

Wes Anderson

Sainsbury's
'The Greatest Gift'

Strapline: Christmas is for sharing 

Sainsbury's animated offering pokes fun at the stresses of Christmas. Organising the food, presents, travel delays, awkward office parties and more are displayed through 3D animated characters. A line in their song (sung by James Corden) 'The greatest gift that I can give is me' touches on the importance of spending time with the family, not the material things. However, this has come under scrutiny as a Sainsbury's employee has pointed out that they will be working over the festive period and will only be able to spend one day with their family, unlike their family first ethics.

Exclusive footage from behind the scenes of making the Christmas advert.

During a Channel 4 ad-break, families from the reality show, 'Gogglebox' were transformed into stop-motion characters — a creative extension of the existing Sainsburys Christmas advert, 'The Greatest Gift'.

'The cast involved really enjoyed the filming and from my point of view it’s instantly recognisable as a Gogglebox moment with something uniquely special on top.'

Tania Alexander, Executive Producer of 'Gogglebox'

An added bonus to the Sainsburys Christmas advertising campaign, 'The Greatest Gift' which took our eye is the Sainsbury’s Story Studio app & animation kit which enables  you to make your own stop-motion Christmas story.

If you have aspirations of becoming the next Steven Spielberg then you may like buy the kit for yourselves and download the app. A nice touch is that donations are provided to Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity.

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