4 min read
Christmas TV Adverts 2018
One of my favourites every year. Already with 10,850,878 views on YouTube, this years John Lewis advert focuses on Sir Elton John, and how his love of performing and his success all started when he received his first piano for Christmas when he was a young boy. With Elton playing ‘Your Song’ throughout the ad, and the look on that little boys face when he received his first piano, this advert is guaranteed to warm your heart this Christmas.
If I was going to talk about the John Lewis ad from this year, I had to include this too. Lidl has released its’ annual ad that we’ll see on our TV screens this year, but just a day after the highly-anticipated John Lewis advert was released, Lidl posted another ad in response to it via Twitter.
It’s already received a very good response on Twitter, including from John Lewis themselves tweeting with a comeback. Although I do love the John Lewis advert, I have to admit this was genius from Lidl.
Twitter has also released an advert this year. Mr. John Lewis himself appears in the advert, but it’s not the UK retailer we all know well. It is John Lewis, the lecturer from Virginia, USA, who owns the twitter handle @johnlewis and has done since 2007. In the ad he can be seen responding to tweets from customers of John Lewis mistaking him for the UK retail store.
I like this advert, titled ‘#NotARetailStore’, it has already received 92,731 views on YouTube and a lot of attention on Twitter. I think it’s clever and funny and I like the different approach Twitter have taken with this Christmas ad.
I have to say, this year I think Iceland’s Christmas ad, in association with Greenpeace and produced by Mother Creative Studios, has taken number one spot in my opinion. The ad has actually been banned from being shown on our screens for being ‘too political’, as it focuses on a baby orangutan telling the story of how his home was destroyed and family killed from humans harvesting palm oil. It is not your usual ‘Christmas’ advert, but I think the message it gives out is an extremely important one.
Although it has been banned, the advert has still had huge success through social media, with the likes of James Corden reposting the ad and huge amounts of media coverage from the BBC and The Guardian amongst others.
Holly Willoughby features in this years M&S Christmas advert, which is all about ‘must-haves’ around Christmas time. This isn’t my favourite Christmas advert from M&S, I think it lacks that sparkle that their Christmas adverts usually have.
M&S has said that this year their advert focuses on the role they have in families homes at Christmas time, but I don’t think it really compares to some of the other adverts that are out this year.
Sainsbury’s advert this year is another to warm your heart. The advert pans in on a schools’ Christmas play, and as the lead performer starts to sing she's a little bit nervous. She soon overcomes this though as she catches glimpse of her Mum in the audience and gives it all she’s got.
This is another one of my favourites from this year purely because of the little boy dressed as a plug in the play. This received a great response on social media, with people making gifs from the clip already, which I cannot stop watching. The ad has already received 3,431,457 views on YouTube and was Directed by Michael Gracey, the director of The Greatest Showman.
Aldi introduced us to Kevin the Carrot back in 2017 and he has returned to our screens again this year as Aldi have released five different xmas ads, each starring Kevin the Carrot. Aldi’s adverts this year are, as usual, full of character; their parody of the Coco-Cola advert I’ll admit even tricked me when I first saw it. The other four adverts follow Kevin as he tells stories of his encounters with an evil parsnip.
The adverts, combined, have already had around 5 million views, and Aldi have also started selling limited edition Kevin the Carrot toys, which have apparently caused queues and even fights in Aldi stores around the UK between customers trying to buy them.
I like the Boots advert this year because I can relate to it. The ad follows a young girl and experiences she has with her Mum while trying to be an independent teenager.
I think everyone can relate to this advert on some level, we were all teenagers who thought we knew best at some point. The girl soon realises though that her Mum is right, as I did, and gifts her her favourite red lipstick from No7 accompanied with the note, “Keep Singing”.
I found the advert to be quite heart warming and relatable, it has already received 378,999 views on YouTube and a good response on Twitter.
Hi I'm Kirsty! If I'm not working, I'm travelling the world.
