Humour vs Emotion; 2016's Christmas Ad Dilemma

Before you can even contemplate that Summer is over, it’s November and the first of the season’s Christmas adverts start to creep in. As much as you might be fiercely avoiding Christmas in early November, most people can’t help but take an interest in Christmas ads.  At this time of year everyone is full of anticipation with what the brands and agencies have up their festive sleeves. Christmas ad hysteria is such a fascination in this country that even a fake John Lewis ad created for a student’s A level coursework (below) achieved over 460,000 likes on YouTube this month. This time of year is our equivalent of the Super Bowl, when brands chuck as much cash as they can afford in order to reap the benefit of increased consumer sales, or much coveted industry kudos. 

Forget Santa’s elves, adland has been busy working all year on these short-form nuggets of Christmas cheer. While narrative and talent dominate the creative critique, post production is the unsung hero of Christmas advertising. Post houses have been adding snow and animating penguins way before John Lewis had even thought of Monty. 

Burberry’s cinematic extravaganza kicked off this year’s ad season, with a glittering celeb-tastic offering. While it’s draped in classic feature film post production leaving people wanting to know more, it’s not what I would categorise as a classic Christmas ad. We’re all looking for that one ad that will provoke a reaction and make you want to watch and admire a sweet colour grade again and again. 

This is the only time of year when budgets aren’t questioned, when post production can be taken to an insane level of creativity. Simple ideas are executed really well with high production values, for example Aldi’s offering. The ad has just the right balance of magic and comedy, with its stylised animation and warm grade to exemplify a festive cosy atmosphere.           

Christmas is the main time of year when colour grading comes to the fore, making everything appear frosty and magical. Whether it’s adding a little yellow to the highlights or applying that holiday promist filter, this is the time when we get all our toys out of the box. We spend the rest of the year making bad weather look sunny. This is our one chance to make good weather shit! The recently-released Asda ads do this extremely well (below). The illusion of the grade has bolstered the frosty scene to create a quite beautiful look for the supermarket’s series of commercials to highlight its various products.  

In terms of predicting what’s in store for the rest of the period, with the big-hitters like M&S and Sainsbury’s still to come, I hope that this year colourists will raise the bar once again. Being able to grade at 4k and beyond, gives us the opportunity to enthral viewers like never before. I can’t wait to see what a snowman in HDR will look like next year! In terms of narrative, tearjerkers were previously all the rage, so this time I expect we’ll see much more comedy and uplifting sentiment.  

However, let’s not ignore what’s on everyone’s lips, two words: John Lewis. Today’s release of the Christmas chart-topper proves that humour is back. And one thing that is certain, having Dougal at the helm, it’s a masterclass in synergy between cinematography and colour grading. 

With the small matter of Donald Trump becoming President and Toblerone vying to steal the headlines this week, we are all desperate for some Christmas cheer and escapism. My fellow colourists and I have been busy doing our best to imbue the iconic commercials of the year with the warmth and happiness that we all crave.