Christmas Adverts: do people really care?

[Lifeisntajoke]

I just switched the radio on and it was the end of The Media Show on radio 4. They were talking about Chrismas Adverts. And saying that people actually really looked forward to these Adverts, that they were eagerly anticipated and people really either enjoyed them or sometimes were disappointed by them. That they are part of our Christmas tradition.

I found this hard to believe. I generally try and avoid Adverts, although this year I did actively seek out the Boots Christmas ad because I'd heard it was supposed to be controversial. When I saw it my only reaction was that it didn't mean anything to me and it wouldn't influence the way I shop at Boots one way or another.

The woman I heard on the Media show plugging the importance of Christmas ads was from Satchi and watching, so obviously had an axe to grind. But really do any of you MNers actually look forward to Christmas adverts? Are they of any importance?
YABU They are a Christmas tradition
YANBU They are totally of no importance

I said as much to DH a few weeks ago - it makes no difference to where I shop, not a jot. Huge fuss making it - for little effect (Sainsbury's got so many feet of column inches over the mawkish ad set at Christmas during the war🙄). They all pay the film company a bomb, and it adds to the price of carrots.

The only ad I remember is the one for the tool shop in Wales with a little boy. Don't know the name of the shop but their ad was gorgeous.

Nope. The day I'm influenced by the likes of a talking carrot is the day I give up on life.

Hafod Hardware. Cost them nothing to make it and beat all the big stores hands down. It still doesn't mean I'm going to go to the hardware shop of course, but it's lovely.

Love this 😂

I must admit, the latest Waitrose Christmas adverts and the hyped up detective storyline are boiling my piss. Such a snotty unpleasant family!

Of course people care. There are threads on this every year. Loads of opinions about whether it's good/bad/confusing. John Lewis has taken this to the next level and others have followed suit.
You may not care, but enough of the audience do. Whether this increases sales, well one thing these big firms are not is stupid.

I like all the cynics who have shrewdly figured out that it's all just a ploy to get people to spend money!!! Wait till you hear about literally all advertising.

I have no interest in watching adverts and rarely watch live TV broadcasts - much easier to watch on demand and skip through them.

I can understand watching old adverts through the perspective of them being a historical document but don't know anyone who deliberately watches adverts if they can avoid them, let alone looks forward to them and wants to discuss them in depth.

Well that is the very definition of advertising surely 😁

The snowman/scarf advert was a John Lewis one!

Of course it’s advertising, and, like all advertising, designed to make you spend money by convincing your life will be demonstrably better if you buy this car/perfume/device/toy/service. What’s odd about this specific strand of advertising is that it’s widely hailed as some kind of sweet annual tradition, like turning on the downtown Christmas lights or leaving out a mince pie for Santa.

Well, I dunno about that..
you'd think adverts would be to get people to buy or shop where they're advertising and I've never bought a thing from John Lewis... Never even been in one tbh.

(And I thought the snowman and scarf advert was Waitrose, but it isn't, I googled.. 😂)

I'm mildly interested. But like a lot of things, it's diminishing returns. When it was first done it got a lot of attention and so was an excellent idea. I think its no longer a novelty now so interest has waned. I do like the McDonald's one though because I LOVE that tune and its done for me exactly what they set out to do, taken me right back to 'the days'.

They lost their charm when they became social engineering advertisements for Diversity and and all the usual virtue- signalling blah.

I would love to see the brief for a ‘Christmas’ ad now, I bet it gets passed around to groans ( ex Saatchi person here)

I have no interest in them and can't even say if I've seen any this year. They may have been in the breaks between programmes I've been watching but I never pay attention to any adverts - they're just background noise.

For some people it is an annual tradition to get excited for the Christmas ads. It might not be yours, and that's okay, leaving a mince pie out for Santa isn't one of my festive traditions either.

But I think it's clear that people do care about Christmas ads otherwise companies wouldn't spend so much time and money on making them, and people wouldn't complain about them in their droves.

When I hear the music to that one, I'm instantly in my parents' living room on Christmas Eve, watching the Fr Ted Christmas special. The ham and stuffing are made, the wine is flowing, the Big Tub of Sweets has been opened.

Although I do object to hearing it in November.

I do love a really good Christmas ad and will stop to watch . This one [] is my favourite, Buster for Boxer always makes me smile.

What people think and say are very different to what they do! If advertising didn’t work then companies wouldn’t spend millions on it.

I don’t think people consciously care about the adverts but it all goes in somehow, building brand awareness.

They are all dreadful.

The perfume ads make me feel violent, and I’m not a violent person.
Thank god Daisy bloody Daisy has gone but that woman with a scarf round her head ‘ what would you do for love’ makes me want to throw something at the screen.
Couldn’t tell a John Lewis ad from an Asda ad either, they all merge into one.

Oooh, I've just remembered this KFC one, which was quite fun

Personally I do care, as I work in marketing/branding. But I expect the vast majority of people don't give a monkeys.

I genuinely couldn't give a shiny shite, and find 9 out of 10 Christmas ads underwhelming and overrated. The John Lewis one leaves me cold, yet the media pushes it as amazing. Most Christmas ads just bore me - or irritate me with their box ticking.

🎶There’s a magical place we’re on our way there, toys in a million all under one roof, it’s called, TOYS R US🎶

There’s only one advert that signals Christmas to me, watching those headlights go down that cartoon road, then get the Argos catalog out and turn to the back, can’t be doing with all these emotional adverts. Also used to love the old Woolworths adverts and the local ones for your nearby shopping precinct.

I haven't watched an advert for years so I personally couldn't care less about them.