A Year of Christmas Creative Full of Good Cheer?

What should we expect from this year's Christmas ad campaigns?

Shelley Portet

By Shelley Portet, Managing Partner, Make It Famous

OCTOBER 27, 2021

The nights are drawing in (which we are all, of course, shocked by), the barely worn summer clothes have been once more put back into winter hibernation, and the big ‘C’ looms larger than ever. I am of course talking about Christmas.

Just like a kid who has indulged in too much sugar, Christmas always feels like it walks a tight-rope between full technicolor joy and a tearful disaster. And this year, the stakes seem higher than ever. On the one hand, we’re all due a double Christmas to make up for last year’s wipeout but, on the other, maybe a week-long nap would be best for everyone?

And let us all take a moment to send our thoughts to all the strategy teams up and down the land, that have been trying to predict what this festive season will look like. Will it be centered on family homes—with rooms full of happy people cooing over a delicious home-cooked turkey—or are we tearfully exchanging presents at arms’ length in cold service stations and doing last-minute dashes to the supermarket as stocks run low? While murmurs of potential lockdowns seem to have died down in the U.K., after last year’s events and down-to-the-wire changes, it would be fair to say anything could be possible.

I reckon we should all just chill out a bit. This is not the year to feel weighed down by expectations—we all need to be cut some slack.

This year we can add a few extras into the mix—increasing energy prices, Brexit supply chain issues, and a fuel crisis that seems to continue to bumble along—so that the shape of Christmas seems even more uncertain this year. Will we find ourselves saying, in the words of Margo Leadbetter from the ’70s sitcom “The Good Life,” that “Christmas is canceled” because there aren’t any HGVs to deliver it? Or will it be “The Best Christmas Ever™” as we revel in the delight of finally being able to pull a Christmas cracker with our loved ones?

I suspect a lot of brands may have pitched for the latter, which could end up looking rather incongruous and out of touch if large parts of the nation are short of vital Christmas supplies or failing to source the must-have toy desired by their children.

What would we like to see from brands this Christmas?

What’s potentially ahead? Well, first and foremost, I reckon we should all just chill out a bit.