I have hardly watched any television of late but did so the other evening to help me relax off. I noticed the first Christmas ad during the break and that REALLY brought it back to me how the festive season is drawing near!
Have you seen the lovely advert with 'Buster' the dog having fun on the trampoline in it yet! I'm not an animal lover but I must say that I think its a BRILLIANT and very heartwarming ad. I can honestly say now that brands like Marks & Spencer, Coca-Cola and John Lewis are helping to make Christmas Christmas for me nowadays with their festive adverts. Its almost as if they have taken to 'stepping up' to fill the void left by the Christmas singles that our favourite pop acts used to come out with each year. I hope Marks & Spencer do well at Christmas each year these days as it is they whom I attribute the current trend to. I guess Coca-Cola would have something to say about that but they are an american company and (however great and Christmassy) their ad's are their ad's are more for american audiences than british ones. Marks & Spencer seem to put the British pride back into Christmas and most of their adverts over the last few years have made my mouth water with desire for their food products AND left me with a 'fuzzy warm feeling' about the fact that Christmas is a time for love and celebration... I reckon that's quite an achievement for any brand, don't you?
Sad to see Marks & Spencer suffering so much financially but sadly, though their food products are always top quality and delicious, a lot of them are quite pricey and out of reach for the 'minimum wage' household budget. As for selling clothes I'm surprised in a way that they have not been able to continue making money doing that. Of all the things I do buy online I rarely buy clothes because of the hassle of sending things back if they do not fit or don't look quite the same colour wise when you get them. Much better to see and feel an item of clothing in store and be able to try it on and decided there and then if it is what you want. I guess the lack of finance thing comes into the equation again here though. Often when you buy something online you can 'spread the cost' of doing so over a longer period and/or get loyalty points but in store this is not always the case and even if it is when you can see other people are waiting in the queue behind you it kind of puts you off wanting to ask for things or paying by card when cash is quicker. Mind you, I say this as a 51 year old shopper - I doubt it would occur to most younger people as they are now used to doing things by card or electronically...
There is another GREAT Christmassy advert out at the moment featuring a little storyline about a carrot called 'Kevin' and it has Santa and his Reindeers flying off at the end. It is for Aldi and is such good fun! If you have a festive bone in your body it will press all of your feel good buttons!
I must admit that it sounds odd to be going on here about adverts that I really like at Christmas. I do recall getting SERIOUSLY fed up with the dull and generic ones that used to 'invade' our television screens each year at this time back in the 70's. Most were so predictable and low budget that you just got fed up with seeing them over and over. Now that brands are being forced to do more and more to stop people fast forwarding or ignoring their ads they are working much harder to produce something that is not only informative and a good selling tool but that is entertaining and engaging as well.
I truly hope that we do not see the closure of Marks & Spencer in the coming years. Having lost Woolworths and BHS to internet shopping they and Debenhams are two of the only 'traditional British high street' chains we have left...
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