Bah! Humbug! Stop being so down on Christmas ads
It is true, Christmas advertising has been raised to new heights this year, and it seems to have turned into one giant ad-land snowball fight, with ROI and campaign awards being the prize. And due to millions and millions of pounds being spent, some of those snowballs are causing collateral damage.
Tim Palmer
Many are grumbling that the results are overblown and 'vomitous', and that consumers are being coerced into spending more money every year at Christmas, and this is ruining the true meaning of Christmas, ruining relationships, and ruining life in general.
'If I were the bear, I would tear the rabbit to pieces for waking me up and have him for Christmas lunch' they groan. "Bah! Humbug!" they may as well spout. They probably don't think the film 'Elf' is funny, and complain about turkey being nothing more than a dry tasteless meat on 25 December too.
Ok, they are right, it is a dry tasteless meat, but it's Christmas, and that’s why we love turkey on Christmas day, and only on Christmas Day. The same goes for all the other ingredients to Christmas too, including 'Elf' (which is definitely funny btw). We also love Santa hats, mulled wine, tinsel and fairy lights around Christmas too. And now Christmas TV ads are the latest, modern ingredient to our merriment.
When I was young, we all used to get excited about Christmas when they printed the Christmas TV listing in the national newspapers – in November! What was going to be the 'Big Movie'?. The Christmas TV ads are our modern day equivalent to the two week Radio Times Christmas edition. They remind us that Christmas is coming. And the ads are getting better and better every year, which is only a good thing for everyone.
Why would those scrooges who complain even care? Supermarkets are only spending their huge profits on something more creatively interesting than the 'hard sell' they do the rest of the year, and the results make everyone else, apart from them, feel good. And more importantly, they start conversations, which is the marketing equivalent of seeing your name on the biggest pressie under the Christmas tree.
So I doff my Santa hat and raise my mulled wine glass to all those who contributed to the great work that has come out this year, and I look forward to the 2014 versions.
Tim Palmer is digital creative director at Inferno