The Drink Cart: Brace For Holiday Impact
The only ad newsletter ready to send you mistletoe and a flask for enduring another season of heartwarming holiday commercials.
Dear marketing fans and everyone who’s been watching holiday ads since before Coca-Cola sold Santa’s soul to AI.
The World Series is over. Halloween was last week. Are you prepared for the tidal wave and onslaught of Christmas-themed ads that are going to clog your feeds, blast your TV shows with breaks because you cheaped out on Netflix or Prime and turn your cups festive. This week was “John Lewis Day”. And the Christmas ads are dropping fast.
I’m not buying this. Let me grinch it out. So your teenage son gives (well almost didn’t) old dad a 90s club vinyl, and he immediately dissociates into rave flashbacks on Christmas morning.
Nothing says “present with your family” like mentally escaping to a sweaty nightclub the second you open a gift. The son’s been ignoring everyone with headphones on all day, and the big emotional solution is both of them retreating further into music? If you’re having club flashbacks instead of talking to your actual teenager standing right there, you don’t need a vinyl. you need help.
I’m probably too jaded and do see the myriad of comments like this, “An advert which celebrates dads & teenage boys. Quietly radical stuff from John Lewis.” It is radical in the sense that it’s back to reality. Even the whole “if you can’t find the words, find the gift” is very “buy stuff, it will fix everything” coded capitalism. And how can you not be romantic about Capitalism. I guess New York will find out. (While we’re here if you haven’t seen the New York Post cover, it’s pretty funny).
Meanwhile you ready for two giant carrots doing the Love Actually thing? And worse it’s only part 1? God help us.
Of course. Aldi isn’t the only one. It’s Christmas in the UK. And they are all dropping, cause it’s the first week of November. And nothing says holidays like Roald Dahl and the BFG. On the up side he does say things like “puddlenuts”, so it’s got that going for it. Kind of “Delumptious” if you think about it.
And then there is Coke. Who like the Los Angeles Dodgers are going back-to-back with AI driven holiday slop magic. The only thing I wonder about is why all these cute animals are so excited about Coca Cola? Wait? Are we the animals? Who’s driving the truck then?
The behind the scenes is the funniest AI-made faux podcast behind the scenes. “It really feels like this work is you know actively shaping how storytelling is evolving. It shows Coca-Cola really re-imagining the creative workflow.”
It is impressive that they had over 70,000 video clips to work with and it has leaped ahead of last year’s by making the wheels turn on the trucks more believably. I still don’t know if this prompts anyone to feel much of anything. Is the holidays when you you brag about the fact that 50 people worked on the ad in 2024 but this year only 20 humans had to. I guess that is why other brands like Nike are hiring for the role of Generative AI Design Expert.
I noted one Youtube comment that the ad, “feels like a Facebook mum post.” And the reaction is much the same as it was last year, “Imagine getting half the world addicted to your syrupy drink and still being too cheap to keep paying for real ad campaigns.”
The canapes they are pushing in this Marks and Spencer ad are absolutely wild. Happy holidays, please enjoy your Pork and mushroom pate. No thank you.
Lastly, and if you watched the playoffs at all in Canada you were inundated with Seth Rogen Skip ads. But we can’t hide from the Rogen. He’s now gearing up to slam us all the way to Christmas Day staring as the Roots Holiday Concierge! They even have an old school Holiday Hotline at 1-855-ANY-THNG (269-8464).
Have Yourself a Merry Little Seth-mas:
Drink Cart Approved™ agency discussion topics
There is never enough long form ad journalism on the Pizza Wars
I missed this before Game 7 but well played Dominoes Canada.
They’ve done it. They’ve innovated the hell out of dairy and combined butter and kewpie mayo to make “Butternaise”.
Why would you ever want a food tub full of your favourite food. AI is so weird sometimes.
Dark Chocolate Vibes
The ad works so well because it targets the actual enemy, not competing chocolate bars, but the unbearable people who turned eating chocolate into a TED Talk from 9 years ago.
Finger Lickn’ Good Vibrations
Hilarious. A completely fake KFC x Beach Boys ad that never was. But should have been. Speaking of KFC. This use of the KFC Bucket in an AI video is a real trip.
Was anything cooler than the Quik Bunny in the 80s?
Remember this guy? Incredible 80’s style mascot.
The shameless exploitation of 40-year old nostalgia marches on.
Hey McFly! Do you ever wonder what kind of a person wears 40th anniversary Back to the Future crocs? I do like one commenter who simply said, “GREAT CROC!!” Also as of reading this, all the big sizes are sold out. These are $79 bucks?
The Exciting Thud of Corporate Sponsorship
When you rename and rebuild a music venue and name it RBC Amphitheatre. “Hey Jimmy, want to go to the RBC Amphitheatre and see The Pixies.” You can hear the collective lack of enthusiasm when they reveal the bank branding name.
It’s worth the watch. You can actually hear the reaction sarcasm, “Yassss more corporate naming of our city woohooooooo banks ruulleeeeee.” It’s true, everyone loves banks almost as much as telcos.
Last call: The Drink Cart’s Santa Stole Christmas
Santa’s not making toys in the North Pole anymore. He’s probably making AI slop for Coca-Cola’s content calendar in the slop mines. Those heartwarming holiday posts flooding your feed? That’s Santa at 3 AM, prompting MidJourney for the 47th iteration of “polar bear family gathered around glowing Coke bottles, cozy vibes, cinematic lighting.” The elves? They are strapped to an AI feedbag. Replaced by ChatGPT churning out caption variations of “Share a Coke this holiday season.”
He’s gone from checking his list twice to A/B testing subject lines. From flying reindeer to managing engagement rates. The workshop’s now a WeWork, and Rudolf’s red nose is just another brand asset optimized for TikTok.
So here’s a drink for the man who traded his sleigh for a content calendar, his magic for metrics and Christmas spirit for quarterly targets. Wow that took a very dark turn. For someone who has already clocked 4 Hallmark holiday movies this season, these Christmas ads did not increase my heart by 2 sizes. Not even a little bit.
Here’s my take on it:
2 oz vanilla vodka
Top with full sugar Coke.
Orange peel twist
Serve over ice.
Don’t worry everyone. It’s holiday meat tree season too. I’m shocked M&S didn’t have this in that canapé truck. Do not wait for it.
The Drink Cart is your weekly fuel for pop culture brains and ad junkies. A cocktail of ad insights and hot takes that feel like you’re hanging at your favourite dive bar after launching your latest campaign.
That Seth Rogen Roots ad worked on me. I’m now influenced to buy one of his fun sweaters. Conveniently located under “Seth’s Picks” on their website.