Are Christmas ads doomed this year?

The C bomb. Let’s talk about it. The sheer mention of the word Christmas either fills you with dread or excitement. You’re one or the other. Cut you and you bleed Wham on repeat or ‘wake me up when it’s over.’ And like it or not, as we sit here in the wettest September I can remember, we’re staring down the barrel of a festive gun.

So how do we, as consumers, plan to spend it this year?

Last year advertisers broke their Christmas spend record by a whopping £700 million in the UK alone (with some of the best Christmas ads), pushing the industry to a new height of £10.5 billion. With the UK advertising spend projections consistently showing an increase on spend YOY, it would be no surprise if this record is beaten this year. All this record breaking comes as families, including mine, are bunkering down on a budget. Because the economy is STILL meaner than scrooge and a hangry Gordon Ramsay with coal in their stockings. But – and here’s the Christmas twist – that’s OK.

You see, for quite some years now, Christmas has shifted around the calendar for me. What once sat snuggly in the 24^th, and 25^th boxes of December, has become way more ad-hoc than that. And I am here to share the joy of it like a camembert platter at a Christmas party.

I was mid-meltdown one Christmas, with toys to buy, impossible relatives to search for, cards to send, turkeys to secure, families to see (you know the drill), when my friend leant an understanding ear. She took a pause and said, ‘Christmas can be any day you know, it doesn’t have to be the 25^th.’ And for the first time in my adult life, the bauble dropped.

Christmas + pressure = does not equal peace on earth.

Christmas + glimmers of dopamine fuelled catch ups, thoughtful prezzies and cancelled plans = now you’re talking.

It’s not about the present pile. It’s about the stuff that money can’t buy.

Maybe it’s the cheese & wine night with your Uni mates. Maybe it’s a post-nativity pizza. Maybe it’s driving home for Christmas and missing the exit – AGAIN. Karaoke with your colleagues, a mulled wine with a neighbour, toasting sprouts on the BBQ because why the hell not? Whatever makes you feel like Christmas, sounds like Christmas to me.

We seem to have turned the pressure cooker down slightly on Christmas ads over the last couple of years, and I do believe, the likes of John Lewis have focused on one special gift, rather than a landfill of returns, which is a snowy footprint in the right direction.

The Gifting Hour | John Lewis & Partners | Christmas Ad 2024 - YouTube

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At TBWA MCR we’ve been working on some slightly more subtle bits this Christmas. A dancing turkey – made to ease the pressure of financial stress, right through to festive cups that determine which type of Christmas person you are. Ad budgets and brand messages should reflect what’s going on in homes. Cheap, cheerful, and disruptively memorable.

I love Christmas ads as much as the next guy. I love making them, judging them, and the anticipation of them. Hey, maybe even the simple act of watching them can feel like Christmas.

But before the clock strikes and they start to consume you, the present pile panic piles up, the budget anxiety wakes you up at 3am, remember. You don’t have to buy into what brands say is Christmas. Don’t crumble to the pressure.

Because your calendar doesn’t decide when Christmas is. You do.

See some more of the best ads ever in this brilliant list.