Battle of the Adverts

There was a time when a big part of festive season was about which single was going to be the Christmas number one and win the coveted air-time on Top of The Pops’ Christmas Special.

Sadly, those days are long gone but a new battle has emerged – one that is equally as potent and compelling….and just as lucrative – the Christmas TV commercial.

Of course, the all important social media sharing is now the gauge of success long before the cash-registers have added up the effect on the bottom line and many consumers have voluntarily chosen to do the marketing work for the agencies by greedily taking up this role.

The annual onslaught of heart-breaking, saccharin flavoured, offerings are well and truly underway. Sorry for the cynicism, but too many retailers appear to be purely courting the commercial buck these days with little regard for the added value to the festive cheer.

Some say it’s only really Christmas when Coca Cola announces “Holidays are Coming” but this year the beverage giant changed tack slightly and released another feel-good advert featuring the song “Make Someone Happy” by American jazz singer Jimmy Durante.

I wonder if breaking the mould slightly lost them a few places in the race and for quite some time John Lewis’ Monty the penguin appeared to be leading the way quickly followed by M&S’ match-make fairies accompanied by Nat King Cole’s “Fly Me to the Moon”.