NZ Christmas ads: Stuff, not feels

New Zealand Christmas ads this year seem to be wrapping Christmas around a way to sell the sorts of stuff they’d sell anyway. Ads are meant to sell stuff, of course, so it’s no surprise. But so far this year it’s pretty obvious that the ads are less about the feels than they are about the stuff. Today’s ads are good examples of that.

The ad up to is for Farmers, New Zealand’s mid-market department store. The ads began airing on NZ recently, and their branding this year, “The Home for Christmas”, which is shared with other ads.

The ad is cute enough, I suppose, but I don’t think this ad is nearly as good as last year’s ad. Even so, the ad is similar to ones created by many retailers, including the first ad I shared this year, for Countdown.

The Farmers ad has two shorter versions, and both have been on New Zealand TV, I think. The first, for fragrances, uses footage in the main ad:



The other short version is just for toys:



Another retailer, Warehouse Stationary, is taking a similar approach. The stores are a chain of office products and stationery stores, and is part of The Warehouse Group, New Zealand’s largest retailing group.

Their Christmas ad this year is like the others, promoting products that come from their stores:



The ad is a little quirky, and that’s kind of interesting. It’s fine. This ad has been in heavy rotation on NZ television the past week or so, but there’s also a one minute version that I haven’t (yet) seen on TV:



Other New Zealand retailers have been slow to post Christmas ads this year, which is kind of disappointing. The worse thing, though, is that some retailers have taken their perfectly ordinary, regular ads and just tacked on some Christmas wording. I don’t see any point in sharing ads that aren’t really Christmas ads. I can wait for real ones—if they ever come.

Still, I can't be too picky, apparently: Ads like these may be as Christmasy as we get this year.