Lidl has a lot of fun with Christmas advert cliches

This new campaign, created by Karmarama, looks to highlight and subvert some of advertising's festive tropes.

The animated spot, called Christmas You Can Believe In, sits within Lidl’s ‘Big On’ creative framework which was launched last year, and opens with a seemingly traditional scene in which the world is ‘hushed and white with snow’. The spot's breathy vocals question whether a young girl and a robin could be about to spark an unlikely friendship before abruptly bringing viewers back to reality by reminding them it’s a Christmas ad from Lidl.

The ad, directed by Joseph Mann through BLINKINK continues in this theme by making playful references to ‘emotional gravy’ and, at one point, in a sly reference to ALDI's Kevin the Carrot, the girl spears a crying carrot with a fork as the vocalist tells us we ‘don’t need cutesy characters when carrots taste this good’ . 

“At the end of a year that hasn’t given us too much to smile about, our Christmas campaign for Lidl makes a little bit of fun at the clichés of Christmas advertising," said Nik Studzinski, Chief Creative Officer at Karmarama. "We don’t want any of your ‘emotional gravy’ thank you very much. Just give us a Christmas we can believe in.”

Reflecting the challenging realities some people face this Christmas, Lidl has also launched the ‘Teaming up to Tackle Hunger’ scheme – a retail first which allows customers to donate essential food items directly to their local community at the till, with the retailer matching every donation made.