Public prefer Aldi’s carrot to John Lewis’ Snapper – and controversial M&S card-burning scenes
While Tesco is still to show its cards, in the battle of the festive TV ads Aldi’s Kevin And The Christmas Factory has received a better online reaction than John Lewis – and definitely higher than the controversial M&S offering.
The most recent data from social media management and analytics firm Sprout Social revealed that X/Twitter traffic for adverts from Aldi UK, Amazon UK, Asda, John Lewis, Lidl UK, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose showed Kevin – who can be seen below – is the most positively-received Christmas ad so far, with 91% positive sentiment on the platform.
Marketing Beat revealed Sprout Social found that, while M&S and John Lewis adverts garnered more overall engagement, messages and impressions, its sentiment analysis showed they also proved more divisive – and controversial, as shown by the greetings industry’s reaction to the scenes of Sophie Ellis-Bextor turning her kitchen blowtorch from toasting the meringues on a gingerbread house to set fire to the unwritten Christmas cards on the worktop.
While this appeared in the original airings of the commercial, the only version available online currently doesn’t include this scene, only seeing Sophie in the kitchen, which can be seen below – and the ad is no longer on the M&S website.
Some viewers just weren’t keen on John Lewis’ Venus flytrap-themed festive tale of the boy growing the perfect tree that can be seen below, which scored only 68% for positive sentiment, but it was M&S’ chucking out of traditions which really copped the flak for the still posted on social media of foil crowns being burned, that wasn’t even used in the final cut.
The post was removed within a day and there was an apology from the retailer after complaints that the red, green, and silver colours are similar to those of the Palestinian flag even though the 80-second ad was shot in August, over six weeks before the current Israel-Palestine conflict erupted, and moire than 20 other country flags including Mexico, Oman, Hungary, Italy, Algeria, Lebanon, Wales, and Bulgaria, have similar colours.
However, the strength of that negative coverage boosted social media activity for the clothing and home advert which generated 57m impressions, 15,199 messages and 136,025 engagements.
By comparison, John Lewis came in second with 106m impressions, 3,248 messages and 17,928 engagements.
Comparatively, Aldi’s latest addition to its Kevin The Carrot ad franchise generated just 1,652 messages and 2,773 engagements on X/Twitter, with 17m potential views – despite being the most positively received advert of those being tracked.
This year’s Amazon ad of three friends reliving their youth on a snowy hill scored similarly, with 17m impressions and 1,696 messages, but its score of 93% positive sentiment gave it a higher likability ranking than Aldi but across a lower number of messages.
Sainsbury’s tongue-in-cheek approach with 80s pop star Rick Astley bought up the rear with just over one million impressions and only 193 messages and 282 engagements.
While Graham Norton pops up in Waitrose’s seasonal campaign, Lidl has a heartwarming tale of a brave raccoon, and King of Christmas Michael Buble stars in Asda’s advert, Tesco will be the last of the big retailers to release its 2023 festive ad.
It’s entitled Become More Christmas and will debuts on tv this Sunday, 19 November, showing how a trip to the grocer can get people feeling more in the festive mood with every shop.
