Work of the Week: 14/11/25
Tesco – That’s What Makes It Christmas
Chosen by Sunna Coleman, Asia reporter
We're all familiar with joyful Christmas stereotypes: heartwarming reunions, the gift of giving, fabulous feasts. But what about the not-so-jolly moments that also hallmark a typical Christmas?
Heated arguments over questionable pictionary doodles. Parents spilling stories you didn't want anyone else to know. And of course, someone accidentally saying something "offensive" around the dinner table. It's small moments like these that make up a series of highly relatable, funny festive ads for Tesco's 'That's What Makes It Christmas' campaign.
A celebration of the chaotic, unscripted and imperfect moments that become some of the most memorable holiday moments.
Waitrose – The Perfect Gift
Chosen by Zhenya Tsenzharyk, UK editor
It says a lot about the state of rom-coms today that my favourite one in recent years is 'The Perfect Gift' from Wonderhood Studios, directed by the rom-com pro, Molly Manners, and produced by Biscuit Filmworks. Incidentally, it's also the agency's Christmas ad for Waitrose; two birds, one stone, etc.
I didn't need to be sold on the premise that food=love but what a delight to see Keira Knightley and Joe Wilkinson's meet-cute over a hunk of Sussex Charmer cheese. (I'll have what they're having!) The four-minute short film hits every beat, just like festive classics should. Think 'Love, Actually' - obviously, 'The Holiday', and my personal favourite, 'About A Boy'. The casting is perfect, the sets are dreamily cosy, and the food abundant and delicious. The film concludes with 'And they ate happily ever after' - may we all do so too this Christmas.
Apple - Visual Identity
Chosen by Laura Swinton, editor-in-chief
What a course correction! Last year, Apple managed to enrage the creative community with their ad that crushed artistic and musical tools in a hydraulic press to demonstrate the capabilities of the iPad. In what may have been a teeeeeensy overreaction, people chose to interpret it as Apple extinguishing the human creative spirit.
A year and a half later and Apple is showing up with a loving representation of craft, care and analogue art. Their new animated mnemonic has been made using real sheet glass cutouts of the Apple logo, shot with colourful moving lighting rigs. There’s also a bespoke score from Finneas O’Connell. As beautiful as the visual identity is, it’s the making of film that has really caught our eye. As marketers increasingly turn to AI for production, a hot topic within the LBB editorial team is how important behind the scenes footage is going to be as a marker of credibility and prestige.
ALDI - Christmas Ad 2025, part 2, Kevin’s stag do has gone pear shaped!
Chosen by Laura Swinton, editor-in-chief
This year’s Kevin the Carrot campaign from ALDI taps into a British Christmas culture staple - the Christmas day special. Beloved of soap operas and sitcoms alike, it’s an episode that airs on December 25th, after Chrstmas dinner, so we’ve got something to watch as we vegetate in a food coma. And more often than not, it features a Christmas day wedding (and, on occasion, a Christmas day divorce, as is the case of Eastender’s 1986 festive episode).
Kevin and Katie look set to join this tradition. So far, this year’s Christmas campaign has unleashed two episodes. A Love Actually-esque story about the early days of their relationship, and this latest outing, which sees a mankini-clad Kevin race home from his stag do (in Lapland, d’accord) - but will he make it back in time for his wedding to Katie? We’re still waiting for that final outing… I hope these crazy kids make it!
What is there to say about ALDI UK’s annual Kevin the Carrot Christmas ad that hasn’t been said before. He never fails to please and, once again, McCann Manchester and the team at Psyop just smash it.
Disney – Best Christmas Ever
Chosen by Abi Lightfoot, Americas reporter
Disney and director Taika Waititi had a tough act to follow after last year’s Emmy-nominated Christmas collaboration, ‘The Boy & The Octopus’. And dare I say, I think they saw the bar and topped it with this year's short film ‘Best Christmas Ever.’
Created by adam&eveDDB, produced by hungryman and animation from Untold Studios, the film centres around a little girl, and the scribbly, primary-coloured drawing that Santa mistakenly assumes is a wish on her wishlist. After she finds him under the tree on Christmas morning they become fast friends, however, as the year goes on there’s one thing that holds her new pal, Doodle, back – he doesn’t have a mouth, because she’d never drawn him one.
So when the next Christmas comes around, a solution comes to the little girl. Last year she got a friend for Christmas, this year, she’ll give him a mouth. Gifting Mr. Potato Head’s moustached mouth to Doodle, his inner chatterbox is unleashed, voiced by Disney Legend John Goodman.
He’s wobbly, scribbly and it’s hard not to love him, I mean, what child didn’t want their drawings to actually appear?
JD Sports - Where Are You Going? Christmas
Chosen by Laura Swinton, editor-in-chief
Christmas advertising that takes the festive formula and chucks it up the chimney. This year, Uncommon and JD Sports reached out to 286 young people around the world and put creative control in their hands. Footage flew in from Naples to Tokyo, Berlin to Paris as they shared a slice of their everyday lives. Director Francis Plummer and editor Anders Mills wove together the phone-shot films to present a generation in all of its raw and real glory. The agency calls it a ‘for us, by us’ approach and it takes the brand right to the heart of its community, on the ground and in the street. At a time of year when brands and agencies can feel the pressure to go for polish and staple Christmas cliches, it’s refreshing to see a team absolutely resist the pull of expectations to do something that really resonates with its audience.
Sting - It Must Be Sting
Chosen by Zara Naseer, EMEA reporter
Christmas ads left right and centre were playing tug of war with my heartstrings this week; yet despite the competition, this was the campaign that won my attention. This ridiculous batch of six-second silliness.
Energy drink brand, Sting, and Leo Thailand have embodied the weird and wonderful humour of Thai advertising that we love over at LBB. Bite-sized films show supercharged people from all walks of life completing tasks – from packing groceries, to farming rice, to retrieving a coconut from a coconut tree – in record time. ‘It must be Sting’.
For some reason, we seem to love watching people do things at breakneck speed. We also, apparently, have fried our attention spans to the point where micro-executions like these are exactly what’s needed to beat the scroll. Sting and Leo Thailand have simply tapped into those primal truths.
Mando – Don’t Mask It. Mando It. Stop bacteria that causes B.O.
Chosen by Tará McKerr, Americas reporter
I cannot tell you how much pleasure I got from watching this. Thanks to SOUTH Music, the listening experience is a total earworm, the song, a certified foot-tapper, and the lyrics, properly funny.
I’ll admit to not knowing about this brand prior to watching the ad – that being said, I’m not exactly the target market – but Mando is now tattooed across my memory. The visuals are dramatic, relying heavily on the absurd, with plenty of slapstick along the way. It feels wholesome, not
EE – Hosting & Guesting
Chosen by Tará McKerr, Americas reporter
This year’s Christmas ads are really pulling out the bangers. Soundtracked to Black Box’s ‘Ride on Time’, the ad captures the whirlwind chaos that is Christmas and everything that comes with it. The many miles journeyed to be with loved ones, the way time seems to quite literally melt away into something unrecognisable, and doing the most to put a smile on the face of someone you care about. I’m a sucker for a heart tugger, and true to EE form, the spot finishes with one, so no complaints here
KFC – Stranger Things
Chosen by Laura Swinton, editor-in-chief
It’s an end of an era as the Stranger Things gang prepares to roll their last 12-sided dice. As the Netflix behemoth enters its final season, KFC and Mother London have headed into the upside-down together. As tie-ins go, it’s a deft little partnership - piggybacking one of the world’s biggest pop culture phenomenon (no, we’re not talking about Lily Allen’s post-break album about her relationship with David Harbour) but also reinforcing the deliciously occult-y ‘believe’ brand positioning of KFC’s current marketing strategy in the UK and Ireland. Director Nick Roney does a brilliant job of bringing the Duffer Brothers’ world to life with a hot and spicy KFC twist. Tasty, and just the thing to get you in the mood to settle into your dojo for a Stranger Things binge.
