Boots "Christmas 2013"

Boots win for weirdest song choice this Christmas, with Bronski Beat's "Smalltown Boy", a song whose lyrics address issues like homophobia and bullying, bringing in the festive cheer. No doubting it's a very catchy song, but seems out of tone with the ad and Christmas in general. Created by Mother London, the campaign depicts a young man sneakily giving friends and acquaintances gifts from Boots in light of their own charitable deeds.

Boots made a major misstep in last year's Christmas advert, with numerous complaint of animal cruelty filed due a shot of a dog being blasted with a hair dryer. Obviously clear to avoid controversy this year, the ad is particularly inoffensive. It's not particularly interesting though either. Youtube views have reached 200,000 in the past week, which is a respectable figure. The spot uses the brand’s “It Feels Good” strapline and highlights the retailer has offers on “1000s of Christmas gifts”. Definitely not my favourite of this year's offerings.

IKEA "Kitchen Party"

Looking at the IKEA "Undercover" ad yesterday reminded me of one of my favourite ads from the last few years. "Kitchen Party", created for the UK and Irish markets, was a hugely successful ad, made prominent by the use of Jona Lewie's 1980 hit "You'll Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties", covered by Man Like Me. Man Like Me feature as the advertisements protagonists and quickly spiked in popularity as a result, becoming ASOS.com's house band.

The ad was created by Mother London, a London based creative agency. The campaign won a Gold award at the British Arrows in 2011. IKEA also brought out a feature length music video of the ad that is featured below. The ad is humorous, aspirational and creative. IKEA's products are featured heavily and the Youtube video even allows users to click on a product in the video to be directed to the featured product's information. This ad will definitely be one of my favourites for years to come.