The Drink Cart: Holiday Adstravaganza

As Mariah Carey would say, "it's timmmmmeee!" This week we're going deep on the UK's Christmas Bowl Season, Gladiator II marketing, Emily in Paris soap and more.

Dear Drink Carters

Marketers are still coming to grips with the results of last week’s election. I loved this summary from Lee Grunnell, “Millions of people don't care that the US president is a convicted felon. But marketers throughout the land are convinced that consumers want to know about the brand purpose of their toothpaste.”

We are now officially in Christmas season. How can I tell? Well I asked ChatGPT if I could use the term "Adstravaganza" in the title. And while it’s not official word, the bots stroked my ego by saying it was, “a clever play on extravaganza, blending ‘ad’ with the idea of a grand, exciting event. It's the kind of playful portmanteau that could work well in marketing, especially to suggest a lively, ad-centric event or campaign that’s big and memorable.” I’d classify this as an ad-centric event.

Plus, I’ve already had an egg nog and holiday music is playing on repeat in every store. Plus, my algorithmic feed is already chalk full of snow globe charcuterie, Grinchmas afternoon tea tours of London, gingerbread men pizzas, fancy wine bottle aprons and for some reason Martha Stewart Martha on The Mantel and Snoop Dogg Snoop on The Stoop figures to terrify the children with. Walmart actually has a small but mighty Snoop Christmas collection for all those who celebrate. I mean, who doesn’t need a Snoop wine bottle sweater to go with your wine bottle aprons?

I was struck by this observation of Christmas content from Britt Julious’ The Christmas Cache newsletter on the Mariah Careyization of Christmas. “I saw a creator make a video about refreshing Mariah Carey's TikTok page at 11:59 p.m. so they could be the first person to type ‘first’ in the comment section of her annual post-Halloween, November 1st announcement.” So it’s no surprise that the video racked up nearly 100 million views. Buckle up.

Brief Mariah Carey Christmas storytime? A few years ago my wife and I were on a ghost walk pub crawl in Savannah Georgia (If you know, you know). I remember the final destination was a bar with Karaoke. She bravely had signed up, but chickened out once we witnessed how amazingly rich the talent pool was - all ringers! As any good husband would, I volunteered to go up and cancel her turn. Not sure if was the house rules, Savannah rules, or my big dumb face, but that was not allowed, I could only take her turn. I panicked and picked Carey’s All I want for Christmas and proceeded to karaoke the absolute hell out of that pub and my wife’s enduring love. So much so that the organizers sang back up for me (out of pity perhaps). I owned that pub after that. At least in my mind.

So grab yourself a drink from the cart, crank that holiday Mariah loud and proud and slide your way through some heavily Christmas-themed advertising content:

• Christmas Bowl Season, Advent Ads and Gladiator II marketing

• Sexy Hotel Merch, Gross Cottage Cheese Content and Emily In Paris soap

• The science of Gilmore Girls Fall, new M&M’s and a Rare Schwarzenegger Ad

• Plus we’ve got chickpea hats and Brainstorm cocktails to drink.

1. It’s UK Christmas Bowl Season

What is the obsession of holiday ads in the U.K.? A 2015 article from Fast Company, says it is the same as the Super Bowl in the US. “Just move the timeline by about three months and replace the word ‘Christmas’ with ‘Super Bowl,’ and you’ve got an idea of what’s become the U.K.’s biggest annual advertising popularity contest.”

We reached out to special Pound & Grain Strategist and Special Drink Cart Christmas Bowl Correspondent Tom Stevens for his unique perspective to confirm this. “Christmas ads in the UK are like our version of the Super Bowl ads,” says Tom over Slack. “Except there’s that extra little bit of anxiety in how much earlier they seem to come each year, which officially means you need to start thinking about presents.”

The funny thing is, this isn’t some nostalgia driven cultural phenomenon from decades past. It’s actually a relatively new thing. In 2009, adam&eveDDB created their first holiday ad with John Lewis and the John Lewis Effect or Christmas Bowl was born. After that, brands started going epic for the holidays. By 2011’s The Long Wait, it’s hard to not to notice them even across the pond. How many slides and examples of UK Christmas ads have been created by strategists since then? BBH London deputy executive creative director Caroline Pay told Fast Company: “It’s clearly John Lewis’ fault. Making everyone weep into their mince pies.”

I love a good mince pie reference. “I think they’re the best example of how important craft is in storytelling,” says our fearless Drink Cart Christmas Bowl Correspondent Tom. “There’s rarely much differentiation between the messages (and lots of cute kids with animal pals), but if it’s crafted in a way that evokes emotion (likeable characters, relatable stresses, the perfect song) then it gets people talking about it.”

But do they work? The Guardian asks this question, “While the department store’s ads have become a national moment, marking the beginning of the festive shopping binge, there has always been a suspicion that they might not deliver a big sales payback. That concern became more acute after John Lewis suffered three years of losses. While it returned to an annual profit in March, it did not pay staff an annual bonus for the third time in four years.”

Another recommended watch from Tom, is this talk about the 10 things the agency learned along the way. It’s great and he confirms, “The highlight is how they landed on that John Lewis USP (The home of thoughtful giving) and then look for ways to repackage that every year.”

This year, the brand started Bowl Season with a countdown teaser. While already wishing consumers to give knowingly with a specific “gifting message” and a story about a pink jumper. Technically, the only UK ad I’m interested in is for Dishoom’s Festive Naan Roll featuring brie, streaky bacon and Cranberry-Chilli Chutney. As Homer Simpson would say, “Mmm … across the pond streaky bacon.”

As luck would have it, the new spot is out this morning. And if you read all the news it’s a tear jerker. Or not. As the video describes the spot, “Give knowingly 🎁 No matter how late you leave it. #TheGiftingHour.” A bit judgy, no?

Clearly not everyone is impressed, “John Lewis has committed the unforgivable sin of literally setting its Christmas advert inside an actual branch of John Lewis. This is quite frankly unforgivable.” Sounds like somebody needs a Grinch Mimosa. The headline to this review started with, “Disgusting, Isn’t it?” About an ad. Incredible. A quick review on X found, “That’s it, Christmas is ruined. The John Lewis ad is quite comfortably the worst one yet.” I’d love to hear your take in the comments.

“So far my favourite is Waitrose,” Tom shares. “Every member of that stacked cast is a perfect choice, it taps into all those Christmas stresses, and I love that they’ve given us a cliffhanger - it’s a properly entertaining ad.”

He’s properly right (did I do that right, Tom?), solving a Christmas mystery is a clutch holiday campaign angle - it creates a world to play in and help generate a very large amount of content. You have the series of ads, you have character videos, a whole sub-campaign of people trying to figure out the mystery, specific tactical food extension videos and even the in-store team has campaign shirts of who they think did it. Nice work by Vikki Ross tracking all these campaign elements down.

Sainsbury’s goes with the Roald Dahl’s BFG on a mission to create a Christmas menu. Tom gave this one a special shout out, “to Sainsbury’s for giving me the Christmas goosebumps.” I was simply mesmerized by the word use of declaring something “delumptious” - which is quite literally the extreme version of delicious. Which seems a bit over the top.

Boots casts Bridgerton's Adjoa Andoh as Mrs Claus to celebrate the power of beauty via a litany of TikTok stars. The branded gold B boots are a nice touch.

Morrisons does a great musical with oven mitts doing the singing. The cat sequence is pretty funny. But don’t worry there is way more. There are holiday fairy’s for M&S, animated sheep for Barbour, a bunch of gnomes for Asda that features a great ending pun and the A-Team theme song which is kind of amazing, albeit an odd choice - is A-Team a Christmas show? Lidl offers a preachy bit about magic and the importance of giving. Tesco offers its “most emotional” Christmas ad ever with a three minute video set to the vibes of Gorillaz and a world of Gingerbread. Okay the Gingerbread fox was pretty cute. While Aldi brings back Kevin the Carrot this time battling with evil in a Mission Impossible adventure to save the Spirit of Christmas. This is a lot.

2. New Rule: Advent Calendars Can Work

This Advent Calendar campaign for Cadbury is a really nice execution of the classic. I’m not sure how many advent calendar ideas or advent adjacent ideas I’ve pitched or done over the years, but they are always fun. This one using real photos proves it as a New Rule - that they are actually a good idea.

3. Gladiator II Ads to the Maximus

This is just pure fun - almost as much as the Gladiator II popcorn buckets. Paramount teamed up with other brands to turn Piccadilly Circus digital boards into Rome in 211 AD and to stone for the new movie. The Lego headline of “Finally, something you can build in a day” is great.

Meanwhile, Airbnb has also gotten into the Gladiator pit. Somehow they are offering Gladiator training in the actual Colosseum. You can’t stay over night, but you do get to, “Enjoy a spread of victuals like grapes, pomegranates, almonds, and walnuts. You’re a gladiator, not an emperor.” At the same time, the Arc de Triomphe in Paris is pink and green in honour of Wicked? Movie marketing has lost their damn minds and must be spending Kamala Harris money at this point.

4. Even More Hotel Merch Collections

We had to include this collection of hotel inspired merch in the new Sporty & Rich x The Carlyle collection. This is the new trend called “Resort Core” and this video will help you get immersed in it. And if you haven’t seen the 2018 documentary about the famed New York Hotel, it’s time you did.

5. Chief Cottage Cheese Officer

I saw this in my feed even though it was from early in the year, from Australia and about the displeasing idea of cottage cheese. If you ever think you know your audience, you’re probably completely wrong. This is Margaret, the Bulla Family Dairy’s Chief Cottage Cheese Officer.

As Chief Strategy Officer and Partner at Dig Agency Peter Cerny tells it, “Using a 60 year old woman with a love affair of cottage cheese to connect with a Gen Z audience on face value just doesn't add up.“ She’s got 10 videos on Tiktok, all with at least 2.7M views and over 37M views in total. The lesson: Old people are so hot right now.

6. Emily In Paris Hand Soaps For the Holidays Are Here

It’s true, the Emily in Paris x Bath & Body Works limited edition hand soaps have finally dropped. I felt obliged to provide a quick breakdown and blind ranking of the flavours.

• Champagne in Paris: A classic from a Season 4 outfit. “Feel extra France-y and do it the Parisian way with a bottle of bubbly to sip and one to spray.” 18/10.

• Paris Amour: This scent smells like Emily wrote it but it’s a fan favourite scent from the vaults that, “Smells of addictive romance, unforgettable people and that certain je ne sais quoi.” 8/10.

• Lavender Luxe: It’s giving Season 3 vibes and smells like “an escape to the lavender-filled countryside.” 6/10.

• Macaron Cloud: Smells something like “taking in the aroma of freshly-baked macarons and savoring the city.” 8/10

7. Pumpkin Spiced Latte Content Season Is Real

Super fascinating to see this story about how dominant The Gilmore Girls is still in the September and October period. According to the Hollywood Reporter, “From 2021-23, Gilmore Girls was one of the top 10 library shows of the year in total viewing time, according to Nielsen’s year-end streaming roundups. In 2022 and ’23, the series made the top 10 streaming charts for a total of 65 of 104 weeks — and across both years, nearly half of the show’s chart appearances (31 in all) came between the start of September and the end of the calendar year.”

There’s even a handy chart. As Casey Lewis notes, “You’d think TV execs might look at the success of Gilmore Girls and create more programming that’s the television equivalent of a pumpkin spice latte.” Remember when Gary Marshall kept making movies like New Years Eve, Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day. They should just do that but called “Fall” and make it a limited series every year with a bunch of big stars.

8. Additional Holiday Flavours

They’ve done it. They have artificially created a holiday toasted peanut flavour for M&Ms. Cheers to the writer that added both, “Get ready to experience the nostalgic aroma of a Holiday Market all in one bag!” and “Each bite is a merry delight!’ Well done.

9.Ad History: A Rare Schwarzenegger Ad

This was a treat to get in my feed earlier this week and a welcome respite from holiday ads. I’ve probably watched it a dozen times already.

10. Hat of the week: Chickpea Anxiety

I guess earlier this year, The New York Times published an article about what to do with too many chickpeas. Apparently this is the well known fear that you may experience during shopping that you might be out of chick peas, fully knowing you already have many cans at home.

I saw the tote bag going around social this week. To which one clever response was, “Garbanzo Depression”. But the real answer is this hat version. I’m not sure making memes and hats and totes out of your journalisming is what they meant by democracy dies in the darkness but here we are. But this was better than this soup hat. It may be the off-season, but rejoice, we are also dangerously close to scented holiday hat season everyone. You’ve been warned.

Last call: The Drink Cart Brainstorm

You might think all this holiday content I might be tempted into an early holiday cocktail. After all, the major coffee brands have launched an onslaught of drinks that would put you in a sugar coma. But i’m just not ready for that. So this easy to make 3 ingredient cocktail made by Al Sotack that I spied on Punch Drink fits the bill perfectly. It’s winter, but not holiday if you get the nuance.

The 3 Ingredient Brainstorm

• 2 oz Irish Whiskey

• 1/2 oz Dry Vermouth

• 1/2 oz Bénédictine

• Stir with ice, strain into your chilled coup glass. Then express a lemon peel and throw it away.

Now then, let’s get into the spirit with Billy Mack’s shameless Christmas cash in.

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Your Bonus Drink Cart Approved™ agency discussion topics are five super quick clips, ads or random links to chat about.

• I feel like I could do a whole newsletter on the Jacquemus ‘Winter Retreat’ collection. Maybe I still will. At very least a Linkedin deeper look.

• I loved this read about Schostal Originals, the Italian company that’s been making iconic pajamas since 1870 and all the celebrities can’t shut up about them.

• I did not love reading this question, What if Christmas Movies Were Sexy?

• Super interesting read about the convergance of art and sports.

• I can’t stop looking at these vintage Caesar’s Palace photos circa the 1970s.

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Drop me a comment below or tell me how your cocktail turned out or if you scored any Emily in Paris soap.

The Drink Cart is a weekly newsletter of advertising, pop culture, baseball and cocktails from Jackson Murphy.