It´s Christmass already knocking on the door and the holiday season in british retail has started early this year. The cost of living crisis is forcing struggling shoppers to spread their Christmas shopping over a longer period and supermarkets are responding by deploying festive campaigns earlier.
In the traditional bastion of Christmas advertising, Britain, supermarkets have been full of Christmas spirit since early November. The biggest shift can be seen at Sainsbury's supermarket. Although the company is a staunch supporter of the Royal British Legion and out of respect waits until after Veterans Day (11 November) each year to release its Christmas ad, this year was different. The supermarket chain released a Christmas ad with a pudding plot back on November 4.
Even Tesco entered the "festive competition" nine days earlier than last year. This year's Christmas campaign is in the style of a party political broadcast, with the supermarket promising to solve Britain's lack of joy with bargain shopping.
Asda uses footage from the film Elf in its Christmas advert to make it look like Will Ferrell is making the rounds of one of its stores. Asda also released its spot on 4 November, but here we have to point out that it's a traditional Christmas enthusiast.
In return, Marks & Spencer released its ads earlier than expected. It told the Guardian that it scrapped its original plan to focus on products and value in June when it saw "the mood of the nation change".
But it's not just customers who are worried about inflation this year. The football World Cup, which starts later this month, is expected to drive up the price of advertising spots over the period, which has also influenced brands' decision to push back the start of Christmas campaigns to an earlier date.
Discounter Aldi has made a bold attempt to combine festive and football themes into a single spot, parodying Nike's famous 'Airport' advert featuring Brazilian footballers from 1998.
Our big Christmas favourite is this year's spot from drugstore Boots, which has managed to find a good way to promote its products in a fun and upbeat way.
And we saved the traditional Christmas advertising "blockbuster" The Beginner from the John Lewis department store for last.
How do you like it?
Source: contagious.cz
