Sainsbury’s Christmas advert 2015: Has Mog The Cat just won Christmas for the supermarket?
Oh Mog, have you just won Christmas for Sainsbury's?
It's certainly possible, with a fun, heartwarming ad that will appeal to both the young and the old.
This year's commercial is certainly a bold departure from last year's sombre tone. Once again, tying its campaign to a good cause (on this occasion, Save the Children, which is hoping to improve child literacy across the UK under its Read On, Get On initiative), like many brands this year, Sainsbury's has decided to take a much more light-hearted approach to its festive message.
And with good reason: its 2014 campaign was undoubtedly well made, beautifully shot and captured the attention of the nation.
But it also polarised opinion, with some unhappy at what they deemed a ‘cynical’ use of World War One’s Christmas Day Truce to promote the supermarket’s brand.
‘Mog’s Christmas Calamity’ is much less controversial than its predecessor, and much easier to love as a result. Admittedly, it’s not quite the watercooler moment of last year, but there is no doubt that it's a superb ad, and unlike many of the me-too efforts this year, it's highly memorable.
Using beloved children's author Judith Kerr to write the story, instead Sainsbury's has been smart and stuck with a great piece of storytelling, wisely leaving the tears to John Lewis.
It looks to inject some slapstick fun into the occasionally self-serious Christmas ad genre, and, unlike Mog’s attempts at furniture acrobatics, the ad’s narrative skillfully manages to avoid straying into excessive levels of sugary sentimentality.
But while the approach is very different, the message remains the same: Christmas is for sharing.
It’s a clever message, which has clearly resonated once again online. The ad has already racked up more than 160,000 shares across Facebook and Twitter in its first 12 hours – almost as many as John Lewis’s #ManontheMoon managed in its first 24 hours.
It puts it well on course to beat last year’s ad total of 771,372 shares and possibly even go one better than last year and grab the No.1 Christmas spot.