Issue #20
‘tis the damn season🎄❄️
Everyone knows that the Christmas advert rollout marks the start of the holiday season, so let’s take a look at some of this year’s offerings.
First up, Cadbury Advent Calendar campaign.
I believe this is called out of home (someone correct me if I’m wrong!) and I really like it as a campaign. Not only does it use real pictures (presumably submitted by the public or something idk) but it’s delightfully simple. There’s no struggling to understand the plot, no confusion over where it’s actually a good advert or not, it’s just a bit of fun.
I don’t remember the last time I actually had a Cadbury advent calendar, my mum likes to buy us fun novelty ones every year, but I might just treat myself to a little bit of Cadbury everyday in December this year.
Next, let’s take a look at Disney’s latest Christmas ad.
Personally, I’m not entirely sure where I stand on this one. Like, it’s nice, but I don’t know if it necessarily screams Disney. You could slap a John Lewis logo on the end of the advert and it would be equally as believable. For me, at least, the only identifiable Disney-esque thing in the ad was the music - an instrumental version of ‘Part Of Your World’ from The Little Mermaid. Which makes sense, given the content of the ad. Feel free to correct me, but isn’t the storyline of the ad itself basically E.T. (decidedly not a Disney film), complete with a shot of them flying across the moon.
All that being said, it’s still a nice advert. The storyline is cute, although some parts of it do not make sense when combined with the end message, but still…cute. And I’m sure there’ll be cute little octopuses plastered across every bit of merch imaginable very soon.
Moving on…
John Lewis’ Christmas ad, the only ad that matters to a lot of people, is here.
It’s a bit different this year, in that it’s actually about shopping? Inside an actual John Lewis store?? I don’t know who thought that was a good idea, but people are outraged. It’s literally not Christmas unless you’re crying at a fcked up John Lewis ad.
Objectively, it’s a good ad. She doesn’t know what to get her sister for Christmas and ends up ‘falling’ through a dress rack in the Oxford Street John Lewis into memory lane. It’s a weird combo of Narnia and Wonderland, but it works. Every memory is a thinly-veiled reference to a John Lewis department, but in the end she manages to find the perfect gift. Whatever that is. We don’t know because they don’t tell us. Annoying really, because that is literally the entire point of the advert.
But yeah, it’s cute.
And finally, we’re rounding off with the weirdest Christmas ad I’ve seen so far:
Agent Provocateur’s Christmas ad is….definitely something.
Featuring Peter Crouch and Abbey Clancy (weird casting choice, but I’ll get onto that later), the ad barely counts as a Christmas ad. She’s wearing red, I guess?
It’s not even set at Christmas, all the trees are still green. The whole premise is to ‘not forget date night this Christmas’ which, fine, it’s good advice, but I’m not sure what’s happening in the ad constitutes ‘date’ night. But whatever.
Truly, nothing about this advert makes any sense. It’s not Christmas, it’s set in an empty pub where the only people are Peter Crouch and all his mates, and the premise barely counts as a date night. Honestly, this would’ve made a much better Valentine’s advert.
For me, the best bit about this advert is the landlady. Played by Jaime Winstone, the landlady is the catalyst for the whole thing that happens in the ad. And, having been a bartender, I can tell you we love the drama.
Aside from all of that, Peter and Abbey are…not great at acting. At least if the acting was a little better the ad would be more enjoyable. But it feels wooden and jerky, which feels a little bit like the opposite of what the ad should be considering it’s about seduction.
There’s honestly nothing else to say about this advert because it’s just not a Christmas advert. This is the Die Hard of Christmas ads.
And that’s that on that🫡
xoxo curiosity curator👀