Written by Paul Whybrow
I absolutely adore the Christmas season. Growing up in London, I know almost all my friends loved the magic that Christmas brought: the amazing message of hope of the Christmas story, the carols everywhere, the lights turning shops and high streets into beacons of fun, the widely-anticipated Christmas TV specials and the excitement of Santa coming to my home to personally deliver the exact gift I had been dreaming of for the previous six months.
As an adult, Christmas can turn into many things far from the fun of Christmas as a child. Crushed deadlines on projects to complete before the end of the year, the stress of split families and the logistics of getting together with those you love. There are the commercial traps of gift-giving, the parties you may want to avoid and the shopping treks which are far from a fun-filled adventure!
Christmas does seem to be adding one more tradition in the media world and that is the heart-warming TV advert. In the UK, with the winter evenings the Christmas period has always been the most viewed season of the year, with Christmas specials for regular TV shows always rating amazingly. On the commercial channels, there have always been the ads made to entice shoppers to spend on gifts for family and friends and all the food, drink and extras to make a magical Christmas at home.
In the last decade the ads for the main department stores and food shops have become their own blockbuster events. They have become their own award-winning entertaining stories with characters and personalities that have become famous in their own right and spanning all demographics and social groups with emotional cut-through that most marketers can only dream of in the rest of the year. Most of the time they do this without even mentioning the brand until the end and very rarely are they ever selling individual products with actual pricing. In fact, they are so anticipated that this year there were complaints from viewers when the ad didn’t appear at the advertised time. To put that in perspective, this is the launch of an ad we are talking about not the launch of a multi-million-dollar TV series!
As I love Christmas, it is natural I love them all…well almost all. In the mood of festive fun here is my personal viewing list of the 2018 12 days of Christmas adverts for you to enjoy.
12thday of Christmas
11thday of Christmas
10thday of Christmas
9thday of Christmas
8thday of Christmas
7thday of Christmas
6thday of Christmas
5thday of Christmas
4thday of Christmas
3rdday of Christmas
2ndday of Christmas
First day of Christmas
Whatever 2019 may bring, whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I hope you find lots of creative fun in the coming new year and that at the end of 2019 there is an even wider selection of Christmas advertising to either enjoy or cringe at! Happy Christmas.
Paul Whybrow is the Managing Director for Varda Creative Leadership a boutique business connecting people, skills, ideas and technology for actions, attitudes and skills that bridge the diverse and deep specialisms in the Advanced Digital Economy. Our purpose is to be the change agent to support you imagining the possibilities and crafting the practical, to succeed in life.
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