Episode 14
Aldi's Carrot Wedding, Puss in Boots (in Boots): Winners and Losers of Xmas TV Ads
This year’s Christmas ads are… something else.
Hi, I'm Clare Bailey, founder of Retail Champion.
In this episode I'm sharing what I feel are my winners and losers of this year's Christmas TV ads offerings.
Aldi’s running a full carrot-wedding cinematic universe. Waitrose is flirting with nostalgia. Sainsbury’s has the BFG saving Christmas and partnering with Comic Relief. And John Lewis… well, I’m still trying to work out what actually happened there.
I'll walk you through the standout festive campaigns of 2025 — the clever ones, the chaotic ones, and the ones that accidentally make you question how a five-year-old can afford Pandora jewellery.
We talk emotion, nostalgia, characters, purpose, retail logic (or lack of it), and which ads genuinely nudge shoppers to take action.
Expect honesty. Expect a few eye rolls. And expect to walk away seeing Christmas advertising a little differently.
Thanks for listening, and remember — if you see a carrot on a plate before Boxing Day, it’s probably Aldi’s fault.
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Transcript
Hello, festive ad fans. Grab yourself a mince pie or something stronger
Speaker:because we're about to roast, cheer and occasionally face palm
Speaker:through some of this year's Christmas ads.
Speaker:I'm Claire Bailey, the retail champion, and this is the retail reckoning
Speaker:Christmas ads. 2025 deep dive.
Speaker:Yeah. Retail reckoning.
Speaker:Retail reckoning. No space for
Speaker:dusty shelves. Cause Retail
Speaker:Reckon.
Speaker:So we have to start with Kevin the carrot, because he's back and it's his
Speaker:10th anniversary. Can you believe it? And this year, he's
Speaker:proposing to Katie. And there's a collie dog.
Speaker:Kevin's Christmas proposal had been long overdue.
Speaker:A few weeks later, he was on his stag do.
Speaker:Hello, Katie, it's Kelvin. We've lost Kevin.
Speaker:Adorable. Somewhat ridiculous. And is that going to make the
Speaker:kids say, oh, I can't eat cauliflower because it's a dog.
Speaker:Or maybe, like me, I can eat cauliflower because it's a dog,
Speaker:because I remember my dad telling me that I'd only eat carrots if he told
Speaker:me there were goldfish. Anyway, I digress. The teaser
Speaker:episode nods heavily to love, actually, when Kevin holds up cue cards
Speaker:outside Katie's door, reading to me, you are
Speaker:24 carat. And then, merry Christmas.
Speaker:Cue swooning. Now he goes off on his
Speaker:stag do. He ends up in a bit of a pickle. At the North Pole,
Speaker:he gets rescued by a train, which basically is the Polar
Speaker:Express, although obviously they've not called it that, and he arrives
Speaker:late to the wedding. However, there's a bit of a cliffhanger
Speaker:before his arrival and it ends on one of the ads
Speaker:with the carrots, obviously Katie, and I'm presuming Katie's
Speaker:carrot father, and it ends with the statement on this dinner table,
Speaker:will they actually get married or is it too late?
Speaker:Well, I think I've got a better version. I'm really sorry, ad agencies,
Speaker:but this one resonates with me. Will they actually get
Speaker:married or end up on a plate? Because seriously, the last
Speaker:place a carrot who wants to survive should be at
Speaker:Christmas is on a dinner table. Also, if
Speaker:you've missed this, there is a limited edition karat gold
Speaker:engagement ring. Yes, Aldi have literally put
Speaker:a ring out. Marketing genius. Pure madness. Probably a bit of
Speaker:both. I wonder how many people will actually go to Aldi to get one
Speaker:and while they're there, spend some money. That would be a good outcome
Speaker:for an
Speaker:advertisement.
Speaker:Next, we've got Waitrose and it's
Speaker:Keira Knightley and there's a TV version and there's sort of a
Speaker:YouTube version as well, so it's sort of an integrated campaign. It's quite
Speaker:clever. Sussex charmer, please.
Speaker:I'm Kira. I'm Kira. I mean, I'm Phil.
Speaker:Phil.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Nice to meet you, Phil Felt. Yeah. Now,
Speaker:speaking of the cue cards, in the advert that Waitrose have
Speaker:put out, Keira Knightley says, please say you don't have
Speaker:cue cards. And this is a subtle and cheeky nod
Speaker:to love, actually, again, of course, which catapulted her to
Speaker:fame many years ago. Now with the billboard style
Speaker:expression of love from her now husband's
Speaker:best friend. I don't know. I love it. It's playful
Speaker:brand banter through storytelling. Aldi's got the carrot
Speaker:romance. Waitrose has a bit more sophistication and
Speaker:a bit of a wink. It's almost as though the supermarkets are talking to
Speaker:each other through Christmas ads and the billboard cue card style
Speaker:things. It's pretty clever also, because it's quite
Speaker:heartwarming and it does play a lot back
Speaker:to the original storyline of Love, actually. It's the only
Speaker:one that's made me well up a little bit. But then I actually
Speaker:love Love, actually.
Speaker:Moving on, we've got Sainsbury's with the BFG
Speaker:and a Comic Relief involvement.
Speaker:So the BFG ad is a giant
Speaker:sized, heartwarming bucket of goodness. The
Speaker:BFG works with Annie, a store assistant, to stop the
Speaker:greedy giant from ruining Christmas by eating all the food.
Speaker:Annie invites him back for dinner with them and says, there's
Speaker:always room for one more at Christmas because it's Christmas.
Speaker:Even if you're literally a giant, it's very sweet.
Speaker:You haven't got room for an old sage and onions like me.
Speaker:It's Christmas. We'll make room.
Speaker:Come on, then. Want to be ready for anything this Christmas?
Speaker:Ask Sainsbury's. Sainsbury's. Good
Speaker:food for all of us. But what I hadn't realised when I first
Speaker:saw it is that this campaign ties in with Comic Relief.
Speaker:And Sainsbury's are also going to be delivering over 5 million meals to
Speaker:families at risk of food poverty this year. And it's a reminder that
Speaker:Christmas advertising can both be emotional storytelling and
Speaker:add meaningful value. In
Speaker:contrast, you've got Tesco with a
Speaker:very tongue in cheek. That's what makes it Christmas.
Speaker:I'd say it's a bit over the top, but nonetheless relatable. I'm sure
Speaker:it's a bit Little Britain of Christmas ads in that
Speaker:it amplifies some of the anecdotes about everything
Speaker:that can not be so great about hanging out with family at Christmas
Speaker:and writing. Christmas cards for people you barely know. Why are you telling people my
Speaker:personal business? It's Christmas. What do you
Speaker:do? He's touching me. Forgetting one nice family
Speaker:photo. You drew a circle. It could be anything. It's a biscuit.
Speaker:It celebrates funny, awkward and embarrassing family moments that
Speaker:happen when everyone comes together. It's kind of like a miniseries linked
Speaker:by the phrase or the tagline. That's what makes
Speaker:it Christmas. I chuckled, but it hasn't quite got
Speaker:the tug on the heartstrings of many of the others. I'm not
Speaker:sure it's going to necessarily make me want to walk into a Tesco either.
Speaker:Now, John Lewis advert has been
Speaker:heralded as really good, but I find it very
Speaker:confusing what it does. It takes us to the 90s with
Speaker:the song Where Love Lies a son gifts
Speaker:a vinyl record to his dad. The son seems a bit grumpy.
Speaker:Why don't you take my hand? Come away,
Speaker:come out of the boo.
Speaker:But then dad seems to be clearing up wrapping paper from the floor. Did he
Speaker:overlook the record under the tree? Did they miss the
Speaker:moment? I've never quite fathomed the storyline here. The ad's
Speaker:nostalgic and it's got some club culture and so on, and it's set to Alison
Speaker:Limery, but my take is a bit abstract.
Speaker:I mean, compared to prior years. Think about man on
Speaker:the Moon and Hare and Bear. I can still hear in my mind's
Speaker:eye the Hare and Bear song and I can
Speaker:still recall the man on the Moon. But I'm not sure this one's really
Speaker:hitting the heartstrings in the way they did. It's definitely a
Speaker:mood piece over a story. I'm still scratching my head what actually
Speaker:happened there. Is it emotional? Yeah.
Speaker:Is it a cohesive Christmas story? Hmm.
Speaker:Take away the Christmas tree. It's just a son giving his dad a record that
Speaker:reminds him of his past. So that one's not really
Speaker:my winner, despite the fact some people are saying
Speaker:it's amazing. Maybe I'm just not the target market.
Speaker:What did make me smile?
Speaker:What did make me smile, moving slightly off retail
Speaker:into travel was the TUI advert. Elves Gone
Speaker:Rogue.
Speaker:Links to the whole elf on the shelf thing that's come about
Speaker:in recent years. They've gone for full on holiday chaos.
Speaker:Santa's taken the day off, so the elves are hitting the beach. You see them
Speaker:on the flight, you see them having a massage in a Cabana.
Speaker:You see them wind surfing, building sandcastles and
Speaker:just having a lot of fun. It's laugh out loud,
Speaker:it's cheeky, it's kind of irrelevant. But what it does
Speaker:is perfection for a travel brand. It says, whilst you're sat at home in
Speaker:the miserable, dark, cold nights where you know it's more dark than
Speaker:light in the daytime at the moment, it makes you think, oh, look, the sun,
Speaker:the sand, the sea. I wish I was there. And a lot of people are
Speaker:known to book holidays on Boxing Day, so
Speaker:I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't sort of provoke people to
Speaker:think, I don't want to do this again, I want to go away next year.
Speaker:I can't stand all these long dark nights and I want to have something
Speaker:sunny and happy to break up the winter. So I don't
Speaker:know, maybe that's a really genius way. It won't necessarily create immediate
Speaker:sales unless they've got some last minute Christmas deals, but it might
Speaker:provoke people to book for next year.
Speaker:Then I come on to the Pandora ad. I have issues with
Speaker:this for a start. It's really a bit cheesy. It
Speaker:starts with a mum tucking in her son, who's probably what, five or
Speaker:six? God only knows what
Speaker:I'd be without. And saying to him at bedtime, I
Speaker:love you to the moon and back. All words to that effect. It's very sentimental.
Speaker:But then on what is said to be Christmas Eve,
Speaker:the little kid takes a note and goes out to what
Speaker:can only be described as if Disney did high streets to
Speaker:a Pandora store. It's all very candy floss and pink and so
Speaker:on. And he hands over the note. I don't see any evidence of any
Speaker:money. And gets a little gift box. And he comes back
Speaker:with a bracelet for his mum. And it's got a moon hanging on it.
Speaker:It's stylized, it's beautiful, it's emotional, but
Speaker:it's not realistic, is it? I mean, let's face it, you do not let
Speaker:a small child go out to the shops on their own. And no
Speaker:small child can afford this. I mean, where's he got the money
Speaker:from? We all know that it's not the cheapest gift in the world. So the
Speaker:concept's adorable, but it's slightly ridiculous in
Speaker:practice.
Speaker:Again, moving away from traditional retail. I'm looking at EE
Speaker:and they've got this wi fi mayhem thing going on. So they're
Speaker:showing the chaos of family gatherings, people descending,
Speaker:bringing in desserts, taking off the shoes, playing games, doing all
Speaker:sorts of this and that. And then all of a sudden everyone's demanding the WI
Speaker:fi. What's
Speaker:the word? That's what irritates me. I say to
Speaker:myself, really, can't we spend just five minutes
Speaker:offline without sulking? Why did you bother going round and
Speaker:visiting your family if you can't actually sit together and enjoy each other's company?
Speaker:But then a boy's been practicing some sign language and he
Speaker:gets his mum to drive him over to see a friend where he sign languages
Speaker:to the friend and then you see them sitting together at their house.
Speaker:So it's two stories in one. A little bit confusing,
Speaker:possibly a clever tech plug, but I just find it
Speaker:rather rude to the hosts when everyone starts demanding WI fi.
Speaker:It's as though I'm bored now. Get me phone out. Can't be
Speaker:bothered to talk to you. I mean, it might be a reality of life, but
Speaker:it's not exactly the Christmas spirit.
Speaker:Next up, I'm looking at Argos and it kind of does what it says on
Speaker:the tin. It starts with a guy who's not done his Christmas
Speaker:shopping and somebody suggests Argos to him and he says, oh,
Speaker:Argos, that's just toys, isn't it?
Speaker:Look who's on the naughty list.
Speaker:Drive time. We taught
Speaker:you a lesson. And then two
Speaker:rather scary, militant looking toys in the back of the car almost
Speaker:basically hijack him and make him drive to a
Speaker:sort of showroom warehouse to prove to him that Argos
Speaker:has got a lot more showcasing homeware, personal
Speaker:care, tech and so on. It's relatively amusing,
Speaker:but just really straight up, we've got everything you need type
Speaker:ad. It's efficient with a little bit of humour. It's
Speaker:very safe. One that I do like
Speaker:is Boots, or rather Puss in
Speaker:Boots. And they've gone fairy tale.
Speaker:The Snow Queen's Ball. I need gifts. Mirror, mirror,
Speaker:where should I go? So Puss in Boots in Boots
Speaker:needs to buy gifts for the Snow Queen's Ball.
Speaker:It's quite fun. It showcases a spot sort of gift offerings they've
Speaker:got. It's relatively magical and visually
Speaker:rather charming. It doesn't so much reinvent the wheel,
Speaker:but, you know, it's good and it's probably one of
Speaker:the more cutesy fairy
Speaker:tale type adverts that they've got out there this year.
Speaker:And to be fair to Boots, it does showcase some of the gifting products.
Speaker:Next up, Lidl and Asda. They're both quite similar.
Speaker:They're sort of showcasing value with mischief. They're keeping it
Speaker:simple with a little Bit of cheek. Time isn't money
Speaker:anymore, it's just time.
Speaker:And instead of thinking what we want.
Speaker:All the prices this year are frightful.
Speaker:Spending gifts. I've seen a sightful.
Speaker:We're getting quite low on dough. Excuse me. It's a
Speaker:no. It's a no. It's a big on value, small on mischief,
Speaker:little wink for the shoppers, just really what the brands are about.
Speaker:No over complicated plot lines, Solid, festive
Speaker:fun and a smile while you shop. And they are at least
Speaker:showcasing product. Ms.
Speaker:Food have got a couple out, but I like the traffic jam one
Speaker:where Dawn French turns a gridlocked road into a festive
Speaker:feast. I can't wait to see.
Speaker:Oh, how long have we been here? Oh, I know,
Speaker:they're singing, driving home for Christmas. There's chaos on the
Speaker:roads, plus indulgence because they've accessed a load of M and
Speaker:S food and it's sort of the M and S magic light,
Speaker:playful. But what they do is showcase the food
Speaker:and they show us, you know, some of the canapes in that wonderfully well
Speaker:presented and well lit way that M and S are really good at when it
Speaker:comes to their indulgent food advertising all year
Speaker:round. So it is probably
Speaker:another good one. So I think my
Speaker:favorites really Aldi, just for the sheer madness of it,
Speaker:Puss in Boots for the sort of big theatricals.
Speaker:M and S, because they tell the product,
Speaker:really. And yeah, Tui because it's. It's a lot of
Speaker:fun. Just really a lot of fun indeed. To sum
Speaker:up observations and cheeky themes, what are these ads telling us
Speaker:about retail in 2025? First observation
Speaker:is characters still rule. We've got Kevin,
Speaker:Katie and Collie Dog, the BFG and the naughty
Speaker:giant Puss in Boobs because people are remembering
Speaker:faces, even if the faces are on a vegetable. The other one.
Speaker:And this one I think brings home to me a
Speaker:successful advert is that purpose matters. When
Speaker:Sainsbury's and Comic Relief come together, they've got emotional
Speaker:storytelling and real world impact that is
Speaker:sufficient to convince me to maybe even
Speaker:if I wasn't going to already spend with Sainsbury's,
Speaker:because I feel that this advert tells me when you buy your
Speaker:Christmas meals with us, you will get to be
Speaker:able to see the benefit of your spend or your profit going
Speaker:towards something really positive. So it makes it easy for
Speaker:me to do a good thing. And I think also
Speaker:when I come onto Argos, obviously Sainsbury's incorporate
Speaker:Argos and they can bounce off each other there. But Meanwhile, I think
Speaker:nostalgia is a bit tricky unless you hit the absolute right age group,
Speaker:because I don't know that song, man, I'm too old, probably, or I
Speaker:just missed it in my youth. So, John Lewis. Yeah.
Speaker:Abstract, divided audience. I don't think the younger people will know
Speaker:it either. And I feel like John Lewis has got so much to say.
Speaker:They've got the story about how great their after sales service
Speaker:is, how much effort they put into giving
Speaker:good on the shop floor service and curating the sale, not selling what
Speaker:they want to sell just because it makes them more money, but selling, you know,
Speaker:ethically what people need. So if granny comes in
Speaker:and granddaughter or grandson has asked for a particular piece of
Speaker:tech and they don't understand what it's all about, then the
Speaker:person on the shop floor in John Lewis is that person that can guide them,
Speaker:advise them. I'd have done more with storytelling if it was down to me, but
Speaker:then I'm not an advertising agency. Maybe somebody knows something I don't, but
Speaker:that's not going to make me go to John Lewis this year, despite the fact
Speaker:apparently they've got a special edition of that vinyl out. Then you've got human
Speaker:mischief selling. So that mixes, you know the two elves
Speaker:I love, they're so much fun. And Dawn French in
Speaker:the Traffic Jam and then also the little in Asda's, the cheeky but
Speaker:value antics. I think that's all good fun, but the standout
Speaker:for me are the two elves. They're making me think, why
Speaker:am I sat here in this cold, dark, miserable weather when I could be on
Speaker:a beach? And the elves are inspiring me to want to book a holiday. And
Speaker:with the traffic jam because they focus into the food,
Speaker:that makes me think, oh, I might pop down to M S and get
Speaker:a couple of those nice nibbly bits, get some friends over before going
Speaker:out for New Year or something, have some canapes. I mean,
Speaker:I'm quite tempted by the fish and chip bites and so on. So they've
Speaker:done a really good job of integrating the food into the story. And that
Speaker:also is an advert that makes me think I need to pop in and have
Speaker:a look. Whereas I can't say that unless I want to buy
Speaker:Kevin the carrot ring thing, that I have any
Speaker:overwhelming extra desire to go to Aldi
Speaker:because of the advert than any other desire. I had to go to Aldi
Speaker:before Sainsbury's. Yes, they've piqued my interest. Two
Speaker:E&M s. And then back to my point
Speaker:about Argos So Argos is a straight shooter and straight shooters
Speaker:win. It says we have what you need. It's simple and honest.
Speaker:But the point is, Argos is within Sainsbury's, so
Speaker:you can say you've got everything we need, you come and click and collect
Speaker:or whatever, but you're already then in a Sainsbury's. So the
Speaker:two are bouncing off each other and hopefully the footfall
Speaker:between the two will then benefit each more
Speaker:than it would have done. So there's a synergy there. Come to Argos to pick
Speaker:up everything you need, but while you're there, buy your food from Sainsbury's. Come to
Speaker:Sainsbury's to buy your food, but while you're there, you might as well pick up
Speaker:from Argos. It works well anyway. So there you have it. This year, we've got
Speaker:Kevin proposing the bfg, saving dinners, dads unwrapping
Speaker:vinyls, elves on shelves on the beach and a small kid with
Speaker:apparently money and the ability to wander off by
Speaker:himself. Defying all retail logic, we've got a wink of value
Speaker:from Lidl and Asda. So 2025. It's
Speaker:chaotic, clever and a little bit ridiculous. No, pretty good, though.
Speaker:Pretty good. There are a few retailers there that I would go to as a
Speaker:result of their advertising campaign.
Speaker:So there we have it. Happy Christmas. Happy retail. Remember,
Speaker:if you see a carrot on a plate before Boxing Day, it's probably all
Speaker:Aldi's fault. Thank you for listening. I'm Claire
Speaker:Bailey, the retail champion, and this has been a fun, festive
Speaker:edition of Retail Reckoning.
Speaker:Retail Reckoning. No space for
Speaker:dusty shelves.
Speaker:The floor.
