The Weekly Roundup: 8th November 2013

The weekly roundup brings you our selection of the biggest and baddest adland breaking news from the last 7 days. You’re welcome.

The week at a glance:

Christmas has arrived! “But it’s only November 8th?” we whisper to December 25th, who has his fingers in his ears and is singing “LALALA” at the top of his voice.

Welcome to the world, John Lewis ad. Born at 9am this morning, the much-hyped spot features a Bear, a Hare, a tear-inducing storyline and Lily Allen’s vocal chords. Across the High St, Christmas landed with a sparkly, lingerie-clad whallop in the form of M&S’s festive ad released earlier this week. Rosie H-W + her lips, and David Gandy + his pecs prance around a fairytale and warm the cockles of our hearts. Oh, and the dog needs a name. Check out Debenhams’ big Crimbo campaign too.

We’re all tinseled out already.

In other news, the newspapers are up to something with The Independent’s redesign and The Guardian winning ‘content’, and Lego make us want to be a father (oddly).

The Bear & The Hare

John Lewis’ PR team are currently high-fiving in a boardroom somewhere. They’ve gone and done it again: achieved the most talked-about ad of the season. The spot is a beautifully animated cartoon of cute woodlandy creatures skipping about to a Keane cover. The tumultuous hibernation-ridden relationship between Bear and Hare is the focal point, and festive cheer eventually prevails (hoorah!). Yet again, there’s lovely insight: the magic of a first Christmas. However, unlike previous attempts, the ad fails to appeal to all. The storybook theme (and indeed the accompanying downloadable storybook) pitch the campaign at young families, slightly alienating those of us not in that life stage. Have a look here.

Magic and Sparkle from M&S

RKCR/Y&R have created something wonderful: a magical foray into ‘Sparkly Land’ where we can drool at supermodels and coo over little yappy dogs. It’s all very British and lovely which is exactly the plan, although compared to the innocence of The Bear & The Hare it lazily relies on techniques such as glamour, glitz and good looks. Perhaps a little ‘done’, the ad still makes us want to glug mulled wine in true festive spirit. Watch it here.

…..and give a dog a name

Aforementioned yappy dog needs a name folks! M&S encourage consumer interaction by running a simple, yet apparently very engaging dog-naming competition. Except they’ve limited your choices to two: Magic or Sparkle. Both a little cringe-inducing: www.magicorsparkle.com

Debenhams make your wishes come true

Going head-to-head with M&S, Debenhams also displayed a slight sense of seasonal unoriginality, by focusing their Christmas campaign around ‘wishes’: Watch it here. They supplemented the ad with an online destination, this time encouraging people to ‘make a wish’ and win a £300 giftcard: www.wishesmadefabulous.com/

Bring Us a Son!

Lego (well, Dutch agency We Are Pi really) tug at our heartstrings in their new ad spot ‘Let’s Build’. It perfectly highlights the Father-Son relationship (as far as we understand it!) and is beautifully shot. The kid deserves an Oscar for ‘cheek-squishing cuteness’ too. Watch it here.

The Independent Redesign

It’s happened again, the 5th time in 5 years. This time they embrace their ‘classic, with a twist’ mantra quite literally – choosing a traditional typeface and turning it on its side. They’re hoping the revamp will help them stand out on…er….newspaper stands. What do you think?

and finally… The Guardian create content and smash it out the park

The Guardian have always excelled in digital media. And their recent ‘NSA files: Decoded’ piece of wonder-journalism proves that the internet was surely invented for the sole purpose of letting them create incredible content for our unworthy eyes. If you’ve got 5 minutes, take a look for yourself: http://ow.ly/qCknj

If you think we’ve missed anything world-changing that should be covered, let us know and we’ll put it in next week’s round-up! Email: hello@toworkorplay.com

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