Palmed off? Why the Christmas ads with meaningful messages are proving to be the biggest hit

Angharad Neagle, group managing director of Freshwater UK, unwraps this year’s offering.

Christmas adverts have become big business in the UK, often causing a stir on social media and in the press. In recent years, brands have pulled no punches – pouring huge amounts of money into blockbuster adverts that they hope will translate into big spend.
The latest one to hit our screens is the hotly anticipated John Lewis advert which first aired on Thursday (15 November). As usual, the retailer has pulled out all the stops, with none other than Elton John as its star.

Entitled The Boy and the Piano, the £7 million epic depicts scenes from Elton John’s life and glittering career, which all began with a piano gifted to him by his mother and grandmother at Christmas.

Reaction so far has been divided with some reaching for the tissues, while others thinking it has too much to do with the star of the campaign – and not enough to do with Christmas.

But one Christmas advert that seems to have united opinion is one that has yet to hit our TV screens – and may never actually do so.

UK supermarket, Iceland, has rebadged an animated short film, originally created for Greenpeace, as its Christmas advert. In case you haven’t seen it, the ‘Rang-tan’ animation, which is voiced by British actress Emma Thompson, features an orangutan and depicts the destructive impact that the production of palm oil has on the species’ natural rainforest habitat, which is suffering from large-scale deforestation as a result.

The frozen food specialist, headquartered in Flintshire, had planned to use the run-up to Christmas to encourage people to ‘choose a Christmas without palm oil’. Iceland was the first major UK supermarket to commit to removing palm oil from all of its own brand food and has vowed to do so by the end of this year.

However, news broke earlier this month that Iceland’s advert had not been approved by Clearcast – the body that clears ads for UK commercial channels – because of Greenpeace’s involvement with the film.

Clearcast said it is “a matter of broadcasting law” and that its concern is not the content but that the advertisement contravenes the Broadcast Code of Advertising Practice’s prohibition on political advertising. That’s because it was originally produced by Greenpeace, an organisation that campaigns on environmental issues.

News of the so-called ‘ban’ swiftly made headlines across the country in print, online and broadcast media. The advert has since gone viral, with celebrities such as James Corden, Stephen Fry and Ralf Little sharing the film with their millions of social media followers. A petition demanding Iceland’s ad be released had almost one million signatures at my last check, while a realistic ‘animatronic’ orangutan took to the streets of London to continue to raise awareness of the species’ plight in a follow-up stunt by the retailer.

Iceland insists the controversy surrounding its Christmas campaign was never part of its marketing plan, and its positioning on other environmental issues, including its commitment to eliminate plastic packaging from its own label range by 2023, suggests that this campaign runs deeper than cynical opportunism. Its CEO, Richard Walker, has convincingly explained in media interviews why the chain decided to use its brand as a platform to drive home issues that he – and his customers – personally care about. And there is no denying the positive impact the storm surrounding the advert has had on raising the brand’s public reputation as a leading retailer on sustainability initiatives.

While Iceland’s offering is not an obvious Christmas story, the most popular ads at this time of year tend to be those with a message that encourage kindness and often have a charity partnership – think John Lewis’ 2016 partnership with Age UK for its ‘Man on the Moon’ advert.

Certainly, Iceland is not alone in choosing to use the popular Christmas slot to make a wider statement this year. Visa’s first Christmas offering, for example, features nine real shopkeepers and aims to encourage people to shop local this festive season.

Of course, ultimately, it’s not enough for adverts to just tell a good story or share an important message. In times of economic uncertainty as the high street continues to be plagued by closures, and with competition among retailers fierce, campaigns need to translate into sales. Keeping brands at the front of consumers’ minds is a must.

As reaction from consumers keeps rolling in, brands and retailers who fare best are likely to be those who ensure they stand out from the crowd. Only time will tell which adverts actually got the tills ringing in 2018 to judge which organisations really had the winning formula.

This article appeared in the Western Mail newspaper on 19 November 2018.