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Christmas tv adverts 2015: watch ads from John Lewis, Marks and Spencer, Waitrose, Asda, Lidl and more

Asda fired the starting gun on retailers' Christmas adverts in 2015.

Hazel Sheffield
Tuesday 03 November 2015 17:09 GMT
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Christmas Ads 2015

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Asda fired the starting gun on retailers' Christmas adverts in 2015.

The supermarket premiered it 2015 Christmas advert on November 1, 54 days before the big day.

Ice-skating snowmen, dads drinking in the kitchen, snogging at the Christmas party and snoozing on the sofa are all shown in the advert, which is soundtracked with a song by Fleur East called ‘Sax’.

Lidl also launched its Christmas advert on November 1. Called the “Lidl school of Christmas” shows people taking classes in how to make the perfect left-over sandwich, light a Christmas pudding on fire and appear grateful when receiving sub-optimal Christmas gifts.

The adverts are appearing earlier every year, but you can hardly blame the retailers for wanting to get in early. Research shows that one in five people will have done at least some Christmas shopping by the first week of November.

John Lewis went live with theirs on November 6 and stuck with the usual formula of cute character trying to cheer up a lonely character with a gift.

John Lewis Christmas Advert 2015

Marks and Spencer also went live on November 6, but avoided a head on collision with John Lewis by foregoing a Hollywood-style tale in favour of shorter clips about the "art of Christmas", from

Marks and Spencer Christmas 2015 advert

Waitrose beat its sister store John Lewis with a bit of help from Heston Blumenthal and an old jazz standard and the song 'Everybody eats when they come to my house', a jazz classic released in 1948 by Cab Calloway and his Orchestra.

Waitrose Christmas Advert 2015

Aldi got into trouble on Twitter in August when it was accused of airing an advert that viewers said bore “more than a whiff of Christmas”, four months ahead of time.

But they've bounced back with a Christmas ad that couldn't be mistaken for anything else - which takes inspiration from the 'Sound of Music' song 'My Favourite Things'.

Sainsbury’s is more restrained. A spokeswoman said they always wait until after Remembrance Day to air. This year that it will be first broadcast on 12 November at 7.15pm, during Emmerdale. Last year, Sainsbury’s raised £500,000 for Royal British Legion from sales of a chocolate bar similar to the one exchanged between British and German troops in its advert.

A spokeswoman for Coca Cola couldn’t yet confirm the date for their Christmas advert yet, but said that the famous Coca-Cola truck, used in the advert for 20 years, will go on tour to UK cities from November 20.

Coca-Cola sticks with the same advert every year - because it works
Coca-Cola sticks with the same advert every year - because it works

Meanwhile Toys R' Us has simply stuck to the same advert that they've had since dinosaurs walked the earth.

Christmas adverts are usually associated with a warm, fuzzy feeling. But PayPal, the internet money transfer site, has already been accused of ruining Christmas with its holiday TV advert.

The advert shows two young brothers trying to catch their parents out doing the Christmas shopping and worrying that they haven't seen them with any bags of toys.

“Our ad aims to take a fun look at those Christmas presents kids know come from their parents, and not in any way say Father Christmas doesn’t also deliver presents to them. We want every child to experience the magic of Christmas,” a spokesperson said.

It's not just retailers looking to boost their profits at Christmas. This year Sky has premiered an advert featuring another cute little girl who gets transported into her favourite movies.

Cadbury has painted 24 trucks to look like a giant advent calendar
Cadbury has painted 24 trucks to look like a giant advent calendar

Last but not least, Cadbury is releasing 24 Cadbury purple trucks, on for each day leading up to Christmas with each truck representing a different door of a Cadbury advent calendar. The ad will then be brought to life when the fleet of treating trucks will depart to a different location every day in the ultimate advent countdown.

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