After last week’s winners, here are those which didn’t quite make the cut
6: Debenhams
A cute, modern day twist on Cinderella, just slightly too much social media for my taste
7: Sky Cinema
8: ASDA
I liked the concept, but felt it could have been executed better
9: Tesco
10: Argos
It was a tough one this year, my shortlist was about 10, and I’m still not sure I’ve got it right – I don’t know if I should penalise some for being nothing to do with the actual company they’re advertising, or what about companies I’ve never heard of – but after much deliberation, here are the worthy winners! (Results from previous years can be found here)
1: McDonalds
I absolutely loved this, though my colleague and I debated the ending as he wasn’t so impressed. We agreed that maybe the Dad should have taken the cheeseburger for himself if Father Christmas only eats mince pies….
2: Aldi
A great sequel to last year’s entry
3: Barbour
Literally no idea who this company are, but if they’re doing a sequel to The Snowman then that’s easy points right there!
4: Marks & Spencer
Feels like more of an advert for Paddington than M&S, but that doesn’t stop it being lovely.
5: John Lewis
The product placement is obvious, but such a sweet story!
I had SUCH a good time on Saturday. Takeaway, Eurovision and a spreadsheet! Acts were scored on Song, Voice, Choreography, Costume, Set and Novelty Value – some of those categories were weighted higher than others. This is sort-of my top 5. Mathematically Greece should be in it, but I just didn’t love it like I loved these five… Clearly more work needs to be done on my scoring algorithm for next year.
Moldova
Netherlands
Romania
Croatia
Sweden
For some reason I scored Greece higher than Croatia and Sweden, but it really wasn’t a favourite of mine, so it doesn’t make the top 5 – sorry Greece!
Austria and Italy tied with Sweden, but I just found Sweden far more entertaining!
I have to mention Azerbaijan. It was creepy and horrible, but the insanity meant it did very well in novelty value. Definitely worth a watch….
Woops so I just found this in my saved drafts where I was clearly trying to get it up to five and then forgot about it. So rather than wait ’til next Christmas, thought I’d just bung this up now – sorry! For alliterations sake, it’s Tuesday!
So here we are, the top five! Last week I gave you those that didn’t quite make it, and now, in a slightly rough and very changeable order, here are my five favourite Christmas adverts this year!
1: Aldi
2: Whiskas Temptations
3: Waitrose
4: John Lewis
Of course this comes with some excellent spoofs, one based on vermin, the other on the presidential election.
5: Lidl
The competition for best Christmas advert is so strong this year that I’m having to do a runners up list! I’ll save my top five for next week, but here, in no particular order, are those that didn’t quite make it!
Marks and Spencer
Sainsburys
TK Maxx
McDonalds
Heathrow
One of the joys of going to see a Pixar film at the cinema, is that you get to watch a short first, and generally you forget until you’re on the way and you think, oo, I wonder what it’ll be this time! You have a vague idea of the film you’re going to see, but this is a totally unknown treat to warm you up.
Over the years there have been some classics, but I do have favourites. I found some of them on youtube, for others I’ve just had to put the trailer, but you can find them on the Pixar Short DVDs they sell, or I think on the DVDs of the films they were in cinema with. (A full list of Pixar shorts and their relative feature length films can be found here)
I went to see Finding Dory last week, and really enjoyed that short, though it’s not listed below because in a way it feels too soon to decide if it’s a classic!
Anyway, enjoy.
Lava (before Inside Out)
Day & Night (before Toy Story 3)
The Blue Umbrella(before Monsters University)
For the Birds (before Monsters Inc)
Luxo Jr (before Toy Story 2 (but made in 1986))
