Festive fails to avoid in your Christmas TV advertising

Now that the Halloween marketing campaigns have been put to bed, the hectic Christmas TV advertising schedule will soon be upon us!

The Christmas period is traditionally the busiest time of year for TV advertising – with lots of brands (big and small) competing with their creative campaigns and media budgets.

You might think it’s too late to get a TV ad made and on air before Christmas, but that’s not necessarily the case if you act quickly and scale your production accordingly (more on that later).

But did you know that every year advertisers get caught out by some of these festive fails?

Here’s the most common things to avoid in your Christmas advertising:

1 – Questioning Santa’s existence

Avoid anything that implies that Father Christmas doesn’t exist (and we all know he does anyway… right?!). This is more common sense than a strict rule. And it’s especially true for advertising that is directly targeting or could be seen by kids.

Don’t just take my word for it though – the controversy from this old Littlewoods TV ad still lingers like the ghost of Christmas past…

… hundreds of viewer complaints led to the ASA having to get involved and to make a judgement on the issue.

You can read more about the controversy here.

More recently PayPal also scored the same own-goal, and had to re-schedule their TV advertising to the post 9pm watershed to avoid upsetting kids.

So, some simple advice – don’t be a bah-humbug and ruin the magic for the kids!

2 – Violent snowball fights

Planning a festive scene in your ad with a traditional snowball fight?

If you are thinking of including a snowball fight, you might want to reconsider. It’s quite possible that this would see your TV ad getting an ‘ex-kids’ rating, or getting moved to the more expensive post 9pm watershed slot (which can really impact on the media plan and increase your overall spend).

Definitely don’t show anything too violent, like snowballs to the face – and if you are planning on a scene like this, make sure you get your script or storyboard into Clearcast (the TV ad regulators) as soon as possible, so that they can give their view on the proposed visuals.

3 – Dangerous open fireplaces

This one is pretty obvious, but it could still catch you out so it’s worth flagging:

Avoid any decorations that hang near or over fireplaces, such as stockings and tinsel.

This is very likely to get your ad rejected. You can even be caught out with bought in stock footage of fireplaces, which can often be heavily dressed with Christmassy decorations and garlands. Also be sensible and make sure fires have fireguards and are away from pets and small children.

 4 – Denigrating Christmas carols

Again – this isn’t a hard and fast rule: more common-sense.

TV ads that link religious carols with consumerism or poor humour can be problematic and cause offense.

And ads for certain products like alcohol and gambling that include carols are definitely going to be a big no-no.

As ever, context is everything, and it may well be fine depending on the treatment. If in doubt, allow plenty of time for script pre-clearance.

So there we have it - I hope these common festive fails have given you some food for thought!

Christmas is traditionally the busiest time of year for TV advertising. And I’m sure you’ve already got your Christmas TV ad produced and booked by now, but if not, do get in touch ASAP.

Even now, we could still help get your brand or business on air for Christmas with a simple and effective TV ad. It just requires a can-do attitude, some efficient and realistic production planning, and working production schedules back from the early Christmas TV copy deadlines.

Don’t have a big budget and need to keep it simple? No problem! Check out this article I wrote recently and follow these simple production hacks, and you can get your brand on TV with minimum fuss and added value.

So, get in touch ASAP with our TV production team at Logic+Magic.