Spring loves Christmas festivities. You can often catch us singing along to our favourite cheesy Christmas songs, filling our calendars with trips to see loved ones and our coffee machine pumps out seasonal goodness (Forest Almond coffee is a favourite) by the bucket load. But, as a group of keen marketers, what is the most anticipated event of all Christmas season? The release of Christmas adverts.

The team have been watching the adverts eagle-eyed this year to compile a list of Spring’s favourites. Some made us laugh and others made us cry. What’s your favourite Christmas advert for 2021?

McDonalds – Imaginary Iggy

Jo’s favourite Christmas ad this year is the McDonald’s ‘Imaginary Iggy’ ad. Cute and cuddly Iggy is the imaginary friend of young Matilda. You follow the Christmas adventures of Imaginary Iggy and Matilda as they put carrots out for the Father Christmases reindeer, chase one another around the Christmas tree and perform Christmas plays for the family. But as Matilda grows older, Iggy gets shut in the wardrobe and forgotten. As an older Matilda and her friends head to McDonalds on a cold Christmas Eve, she sees a young boy feeding carrots from the fruit bag to an imaginary friend. Matilda heads home and takes poor Iggy out of the wardrobe and they put carrots out for the reindeer once again. Sweet!

Jo says: “Whilst watching the TV the other night, the ad came on and brought my daughter Maisie and me to tears. It was very touching and had a magical element to it. When growing up we all had an imaginary friend, right?”

M&S – Percy Comes to Life!

It’s no secret that the Spring PR team have been tempted by a Percy Pig or two (or three…) in their time. Our new Marketing Executive, Bella, has fit right in – she selected the M&S Percy Comes to Life advert as her favourite this year.

Percy comes to life for the first time thanks to clumsy Christmas tree fairy, Dawn French. Lucky for Percy, he’s in an M&S store and runs around sniffing out all of the delicious festive treats. If you’re feeling peckish, watch this ad at your own risk!

Did you know M&S have released a whole ‘Percy Pig’ collection? From PJs to pants, and even a dog jumper, you and your furry friend can now wear Percy from head to toe. Or use the collection to decorate your home for the festive season with a Percy-themed stocking, crackers and Christmas throw. Do you know anyone that’s Percy mad?

Prime Video – An Unlikely Friendship

Resident animal lover, Abbie, has selected Prime Video’s Christmas ad this year. The advert focuses on an unlikely friendship and the power of a smile.

Amazon Prime’s ‘An Unlikely Friendship follows the story of a lonely nighttime zookeeper and a hyena. As the zookeeper sits alone in front of an enclosure eating his dinner whilst on shift, a friendly hyena comes and watches Prime with him through the glass. It becomes a nighttime ritual, as they share laughs over ‘Clarkson’s Farm’. Before long, the other hyenas start to pick on the TV-loving animal so the sneaky zookeeper takes him home, hiding him in the rubbish trolly. The duo goes on walks, out for dinner and sit on the sofa watching TV together forming an unlikely friendship. They even go and visit Father Christmas at the local shopping centre.

This advert pulled on Abbie’s heartstrings. She has two TV-loving Romanian street dogs sat at home, who spend many an evening re-watching Bridgerton. It’s little Ben’s favourite!

Tesco – This Christmas, Nothing’s Stopping Us

Naomi has chosen Tesco’s #NothingsStoppingUs ad. She says: “I love that throughout the advert everything seems to keep going wrong however you can see that the characters are determined to not let anything ruin Christmas this year. They all manage to make the best of a bad situation.

“It really made me laugh when they showed a clip of a young girl watching the news looking panicked as they were worried that Santa may be quarantined over the Christmas period. Then, the advert then cuts to Santa at the airport with all of his reindeer behind him. He shows his Covid pass and gets let through which results in a massive cheer from everyone else in the queue.”

Tesco’s #NothingsStoppingUs ad was relatable, cheerful and shows how resilient everyone has had to be over the past 18 months. It makes you feel hopeful that, whatever happens, nothing can ruin Christmas.

SuperValu – Share the Magic

Stephanie’s choice of Christmas advert this year is the SuperValu Share the Magic advert. It follows the heartwarming story of a young girl who finds a reindeer in her back garden. After nursing it back to health, she encourages it to fly on Christmas Eve – so it can find Father Christmas and help pull the sleigh. All the children in the street come out and encourage the sweet reindeer to find its wings. Thankfully, it takes off just in the nick of time.

Stephanie said: “It just made me cry.  I love any Christmas ads with cute children that believe in Santa”.