Our breakdown of the most wonderful ads this Christmas

2022 has been a funny ol’ year. But one thing is for certain, after two years of Covid lockdowns and quarantining – even a recession looming isn’t going to darken the Christmas lights. We’ll worry about the electricity bill later.

So, to focus on some of the most frivolous and fun parts, comes the Christmas advert. We haven’t even seen the John Lewis ad yet – which usually marks the beginning of the festive season. This year, brands are bringing their best feel-good narratives to our screens earlier than ever, and we are here for it.

Possibly sadly for John Lewis, however, the advert that has already won Christmas is Asda’s. Featuring Buddy the Elf, everyone’s favourite festive character has been super-imposed into a very clever advert set inside the supermarket, and has even been given the seal of approval by the big man himself – Will Ferrell that is; Santa’s way too busy at this time of year.

Christmas has been given a political side, in the most tongue in cheek way, by Tesco this year. Promoting ‘The Christmas Party’, the ad features promises like getting rid of the ‘kid’s table’, dinner for five for under £25, and no more kid’s bedtimes (hard pass), and all under the clever guise of a political broadcast voiced by Simon Farnaby, star of ‘Ghosts’ – where he plays a deceased MP.

You could be forgiven for thinking you need to follow a new celebrity with the Lidl bear’s backstory, featured in the Lidl Christmas campaign. The advert shows the story of its rise to fame – and how all the bear really wanted was to be home for Christmas.

Kevin the carrot returns for Aldi’s Christmas offering, with a parody of the famous Nike ‘airport’ campaign – referring to the World Cup which takes place this winter, even including a cute nod to Home Alone’s ‘Kevin!’ at the end.

In keeping with the World cup theme – Sports Direct’s ad campaign features a number of football stars in their ‘Give me Football’ campaign, including Eric Cantona and Tierry Henry, suggesting we ‘make way for new traditions’ this Christmas.

Sanisburys has a nod to the World Cup via  Countess Alison Hammond’s newpaper – The ‘Once Upon The Times’ stating ‘It Cometh Home’ – whilst insisting on something different to Christmas Pudding, also featuring a fabulous ‘olde’ version of Teenage Dirtbag – classic.

And lastly, Marks and Spencer have called on legends Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders to deliver the true spirit of Christmas sparkle – filling up with Christmas food (and ‘spirit’, natch) – and what could be wrong with that?

So whilst we await the John Lewis campaign with baited breath, and wonder; will that Coke truck appear again this year…in this economic climate, who could blame even multinationals baulking at the cost of fuel – at least our Christmas lead up will be filled with entertaining Christmas TV – via the adverts at least.