The ad above is for Australian-owned NZ supermarket chain Countdown. It started airing on New Zealand TV a few days ago, making it the first real Christmas commercial I’ve seen this year. It’s a nice place to start.
The Christmas commercials I like are the ones that don’t make selling the specific point of that ad (apart from the 1960s/70s ad for Norelco’s triple head shaver…). Instead, I like to see them sell feelings that the products or Christmas (or both) inspire. This ad does that by having ordinary people rushing to get ready in the “final countdown” to Christmas. The song used also reinforces the store name, which is always good, but I like that it goes against tradition by not using a Christmas song. I think it makes it seem more real and relevant.
I actually saw this much earlier because the store emailed a private YouTube link to their customers (I am one of them). It was, as far as I can remember, the first time that I saw an ad before it was generally released. Naturally, I like that.
While the Countdown ad was the first real Christmas ad I saw, it wasn’t the only Christmas-related ad I saw this week. The ad below is promoting “Coca-Cola Christmas in the Park” an annual charity concert in Auckland and Christchurch. I really like this ad, too:
The “Christmas in the Park” ad will be short-lived, but other companies will advertise throughout the season. Two retailers—discount retailer The Warehouse and department store Farmers—have started advertising, however, they’re only technically related to Christmas. The ad for The Warehouse is their normal style ad with the voiceover using the word “Christmas” twice, and also included in a title card. The ads just sell whatever is on special at the moment, not things that are necessarily, or even probably, Christmas gifts. The ads aren’t in any real way relevant to Christmas.
The same is true for the Farmers ads. They use the same initial shot in all the ads, but the contents of the ads, like those for The Warehouse, just sell whatever is on special at the moment, not things that are necessarily, or even probably, Christmas gifts. They at least look a little more Christmasy.
Still, because they don’t really have anything to do with Christmas, I won’t be sharing them—I’ll wait to see if they eventually have real Christmas ads. I have my principles!
So, those are the first two real Christmas ads I’ve seen this year. There will be more to follow, of course, but most of them will probably be from overseas.
But today, I kinda needed this as a break from politics. Even I get sick of it from time to time.
2 comments:
"Noelco - even its name says Merry Christmas." WHY do I remember that?
Dunno, but whoever the ad writer was would be very happy that we have.
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