The Naughty & Nice List: The best and worst holiday marketing campaigns of all time
The holidays are a major shopping season and with that comes plenty of holiday campaigns, some hit the right note, while others fall flat… or worse.
Let’s take a look at the best and worst holiday marketing campaigns of all time according to me, right now.
Best
John Lewis - Buster the Boxer
John Lewis is a department store in the UK and I feel like they often nail their holiday campaigns and one of the reasons I think this is so, is because they really give you the feels. Being able to make you feel an emotion, from joy to nostalgia, and everything in between, can be a great tool in marketing.
This one was a no-brainer. I feel like I had to include this because it was one of the first John Lewis ads that I remember seeing. I also feel like it’s one of, if not THE most, loved campaigns from them. This ad features a father putting together a trampoline on Christmas eve for his young daughter, all while their family dog, “Buster the Boxer,” carefully watches. As the little girl sleeps and mom and dad cuddle up cozy inside, Buster watches as neighbourhood critters, like foxes and hedgehogs, play on the trampoline. On Christmas morning, the little girl begins to run outside, while Buster dashes out, hops on onto the trampoline, and begins jumping excitedly, as the girl watches in shock. The words, “Gifts everyone will love,” pops up. Like others, I enjoy this ad because it’s cute, it’s fun, and it does a good job of highlighting that message that John Lewis has gifts everyone will love, even the furry members of your family. Even though this ad is from nearly 10 years ago, people constantly revisit it, which helps illustrate how fond people are of it.
It was hard to only pick one ad from John Lewis, so I need to leave you with a few more of my favourites, you can check them out here and here.
KFC - A Recipe for Seduction
Listen, I know this is a silly one, but that’s part of the reason I’m including it on my list! So many people love watching those cheesy holiday rom-coms on Lifetime or Hallmark and it becomes part of their yearly celebrations. In December of 2020, KFC released a mini holiday romance, produced by Lifetime, featuring Mario Lopez as a heartthrob Colonel Sanders. If you haven’t heard of this before, you, like many others at the time, are probably thinking, “Is this real?” And yep, it’s very real. I love this because it shows that KFC doesn’t take themselves too seriously, it’s festive, it’s silly, and it’s fun. It’s thinking that’s outside the box (or bucket? 😉). At the time, KFC also partnered with UberEats on special promos for the movie, which adds another layer to the campaign and helps promote the food.
Coca-Cola - Holiday Caravan
Like John Lewis, I feel like Coca-Cola usually knocks it out of the park with their marketing and they have so many iconic and memorable campaigns, today I’m focusing on the Holiday Caravan. Coke’s Holiday Caravan which happens across various countries, is a holiday truck that travels across the country spreading holiday cheer. People can visit the caravan stops to grab a free can of Coca-Cola, to see Santa, and more! I love this because it’s an experience, it’s fun, and it brings the community together during the holiday season and what’s better than that? It’s community and togetherness what the holidays are really about?
Worst
Bloomingdales - “Spike your best friends eggnog”
This is one of those ads where you wonder, who was in the boardroom or whose eyes were on this? Was there not one woman who had a hand in approving this?
In 2015, department store Bloomingdales featured an ad in their holiday catalogue that featured a woman and a man. In the ad, the woman is smiling and facing away from the man, while the man beside her looks over at her. In between them are the words “Spike your best friend’s eggnog when they’re not looking.”
Needless to say, the ad received a lot criticism for making light of and encouraging spiking drinks and in turn sexual assault.
What more can we say about this? It’s completely gross and inappropriate and I’m still surprised (and yet, as a woman, somehow not surprised) that it was approved.
Coca-Cola - Holidays are coming
I know I said that Coca-Cola usually knocks it out of the park, but they don’t nail it all the time. This year, they released the “Holidays are Coming” ad which was created with “Real Magic AI” and, so far, it’s not going over well. In fact, I even saw many comments saying things like “I’ve never wanted a Pepsi so badly in my entire life.” When your campaign makes consumers want to turn to your competitor, that’s not a good sign!
So why is it bad? The backlash is because of Coca-Cola’s use of AI.
I think this is multi-layered. Coca-Cola is a major business and they can afford to hire real artists and designers, especially at a time when so many people are afraid of losing their jobs to AI or are struggling financially. Another reason could be that people are simply over AI, either because they view things like this as “AI slop,” because they dislike the environmental impact of AI, or for some other reason.
In any case, this campaign could be one of their worst from the last little while or may turn out to be forgettable. Either way, it’s not good. It’s a good thing they’ve also continued other more successful campaigns like the Holiday Caravan…
Honourable Mention
Maybelline - Maybe This Christmas
This holiday season, Maybelline is sharing their microdrama “Maybe This Christmas” on TikTok. Like KFC’s A Recipe for Seduction, this drama is a short holiday film reminiscent of those holiday rom-coms. Like I mentioned above, I love this because it’s silly, fun, and doesn’t take things too seriously. Maybelline has been releasing the episodes in several parts (5 so far), which I think is great because it keeps users returning to their page to catch each part, to rewatch their content, etc. They also play with the Maybelline tagline “Maybe it’s Maybelline,” in a playful way that also hammers the tagline into your brain.
Which holiday campaigns would top your naughty and nice list?!