It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

….in the media!

Every year I ask my students to evaluate the top Christmas Ads of the festive season. It’s a great way to engage with the concept of creativity (and often intertextuality) and the skill of evaluation. These activities are always important to me because it’s opportunity to remind the students that they play an important role in this text-audience relationship, and in this activity that relationship is at the forefront. The students are usually disappointed when they find out what the top ads are, and the lesson that sticks is: evaluation is relative.

Because we’re all up in arms over what tech can or will be able to do – I added a twist to get them to consider the validity of System 1’s “Top list”, and how they arrived at their rankings.

Overall, this is an application activity. The analysis is not scaffolded, and there is an assumption that students can comprehend the ads and identify their central idea(s). It’s an opportunity to see where students are with their analysis and evaluation skills, apply those skills to a real world context, and ENGAGE!

Feel free to copy/paste the activity below, or make a copy this Google Doc.

---

• What’s a “good” ad in the year 2022?
• What does it mean to be “creative” or “original?
• What makes an ad “effective”?
• How do ads tap into the moment of their time, yet speak to timeless aspects of our humanity?
• What do I like, and why?

Discuss: What makes an effective, creative Christmas Advert in the year 2022?  Consider content, but also style.  

Watch these ads.  As you watch them, take note of the ways in which the ads engage with the concept of Christmas, the structure and stylistic choices they make, and their effects.

1. Lego: ‘Holiday Film 2022’ 
2. Cadbury: ‘Secret Santa’ 
3. Asda: ‘Buddy The Elf’ 
4. Lidl: ‘The Story Of Lidl Bear’ 
5. Tesco: ‘The Christmas Party’
6. Aldi: ‘#KevinTheCarrot Aldi Christmas Ad 2022’ 
7. M&S: ‘Gifts That Give’ 
8. Amazon: ‘Joy Is Made’ 
9. The National Lottery: ‘A Christmas Love Story’ 
10. Barbour: ‘One Of A Kind-Ness’ 
11. Disney: ‘The Gift’ 
12. Boots: ‘#JoyForAll’ 

Rank the ads, holistically considering which ones are most effective.

Rank	Ad	Reasons
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Which is YOUR favorite ad?  Why?  Comment on content, but also style (and features).

After listening to everyone share their favorite ad, what factors are playing a role in what someone chooses as their favorite?

Examine the ranked ads from the System1 group, a company who measures peoples’ “live” emotional response to ads and then uses this data to report ratings and rankings of ads.  

• How do your rankings match with theirs?  What might account for some of the differences in your rankings?

• The facial recognition technology evaluates the ads effectiveness by “reading” emotions and gauging brand recognition.  What other factors or aspects of the ad might we consider when evaluating an ad’s effectiveness?

Photo by Işıl Agc