14th December 2018
Big Cat's Top 5 Favourite Christmas Adverts This Year.
With Christmas edging ever closer, we thought it would be the perfect time to share Big Cat’s top five favourite Christmas adverts from this year.
In recent years, Christmas adverts have become more like stories, focusing on displaying heart-warming narratives, striving to become better than the last. Whilst this has still very much been the case this year, some adverts have instead focused on the companies’ products and have unashamedly made them the centre of attention.
There have been lots of fantastic original Christmas adverts this year so it’s been tricky to pick our favourites, but after much debate, here they are:
Heathrow: ‘The Heathrow Bears’
Heathrow’s Christmas ad has topped our list with its heart-warming ‘Bears Return’ campaign. The advert is set to Paul Young’s emotional ‘Everytime You Go Away’ and sees Doris and Edward Bair in Florida, longing for a traditional British Christmas and their family.
The bears Skype call their family and in a touching moment, we see the bears holding hands as they walk through Heathrow Airport before being reunited with their family. The message of the advert is very simply, and effectively, that ‘making it home makes it Christmas’.
This delightful campaign doesn’t stop there; there is a quiz to find out which bear you are most like and an image of the bears’ family tree on Heathrow’s website.
This is such a lovely integrated Christmas campaign that really tells a story and certainly made us Big Cats feel festive and excited to be reunited with family over the Christmas period!
John Lewis: ‘The Boy and the Piano’
It would be rude not to include the eagerly awaited John Lewis’ Christmas advert in the list of our top five Christmas adverts.
This fantastically edited advert is set to the famous ‘Your Song’ and follows Elton John’s performances throughout his career, from present day right through to a charming depiction of a school performance. The Christmas advert ends with a very young Elton receiving a piano as a Christmas gift one year, with the poignant message that ‘some gifts are more than just a gift’. The advert perfectly captures the joy of giving someone you love a perfect present.
When we first watched this year’s Christmas advert, the Big Cat office was divided over whether it’s just a plug for Sir Elton John or a heart-warming tale of how much a Christmas gift can mean to someone. As its Christmas, you’ll be pleased to know that we’ve now decided on the latter!
This advert receives extra points for facilitating Lidl’s great reactive ‘it’s a Lidl bit funny’ tweet.
Sainsbury’s: ‘The Big Night’
Sainsbury’s has brought together schoolchildren from across the UK, all dressed in various excellent costumes, to take part in their charming nativity Christmas advert. Everyone has been talking about Sainsbury’s ‘plug boy’, which is definitely one of the reasons why this charming advert has made it into our top five.
The advert begins with a nervous little girl singing New Radicals’ ‘You Get What You Give’, who becomes more and more confident once everyone else comes on stage, demonstrating the excitement and joy of Christmas.
Both the little star’s growth in confidence and the uplifting song perfectly fit the campaign’s theme that ‘we give all we’ve got for the ones we love’.
Waitrose & Partners: ‘Fast Forward’
‘Fast Forward’ is the first time that Waitrose has worked with sister company John Lewis to produce a Christmas advert, so it had to be something quite impressive.
This humorous advert shows a family fast-forwarding through the new eagerly anticipated John Lewis advert because they simply can’t wait to eat some festive Waitrose food, which ties in with the campaign’s theme; ‘Too Good To Wait’.
This advert cleverly highlights the pair’s partnership and is a perfect example of simple yet effective marketing. We also loved dad’s cheeky closing comment; ‘I prefer the one with the penguin’.
Aldi: ‘Kevin the Carrot and the Wicked Parsnip’
Much like Sainsbury’s ‘plug boy’, Kevin the Carrot has also captured the hearts of the nation this year. Kevin goes on an adventure to save his family from the evil Pascal the Parsnip, who hates carrots because of their fame at Christmas.
A spread of Aldi’s Christmas food is the centre stage for the thrilling interaction between Kevin and Pascal. This advert cleverly combines the popular blockbuster advert method with this year’s new focus on actual products in a way that has made Kevin the Carrot a well-loved character and has got people talking about Aldi.