We know Christmas is on the way when all the festive supermarket adverts are on the TV. We've seen the infamous John Lewis Christmas advert and now the Sainsbury's Christmas advert - The Greatest Gift is out.
The upbeat mini film features the story of busy dad Dave who comes up with the plan of creating toy replicas of himself to stand in for him at work so that he can spend time with his family over Christmas. It will launch on social media and air for the first time on TV during I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here on ITV at 9.15pm.
As well as Sainsbury’s, which beat John Lewis to be the most popular ad last year with 30m views of its Mog film on YouTube, Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and even Aldi have short-story films this year.
The Sainsbury’s ad, which retains the tagline "Christmas is for Sharing" used in previous years, will have a charitable link. Profits from a range of merchandise, including a gingerbread version of Dave (£1) and an animation kit (£5), will go towards family accommodation at Great Ormond Street hospital for children.
11 things we LOVE about the Sainsbury’s Christmas advert
The train is packed
Yep, you can get on the first train, a train in the middle of the day or the last train and you still won’t have a seat. Add Christmas and rush hour on top of that and you’ll be lucky if you can even get on the train.
The trains are always delayed
Not only do you struggle to get on the train, you then have to wait uncomfortably squashed on the DELAYED train. It’s bad enough during any time of the year but around Christmas time you just want to get home and you can’t because “of a signal failure” or “you’re being held at a red light”.
Public transport cannot deal with the snow
This is probably the understatement of the century.
Trains are usually cancelled or delayed on a usual day let alone when it snows. The Sainsbury’s advert hit public transport on the spot when one snowflake landed on the train and the train stopped and all others were cancelled.
We hope one day trains and buses can run normally whatever the weather.
Queuing for the queue
Christmas shopping can be great if you go first thing in the morning on a week day, but try going on the weekend is hell. During the last few days before Christmas we all end up queueing just to get in the shop, we then have to hope that present our mum wants is still in store and then queue AGAIN.
Shoppers taking forever to pay
OK, don’t get us wrong the old lady in the advert is adorable… Her paying in pennies is not. It’s always when you’re in a rush that the person at the front of the queue decides that they want to buy the whole shop. Not only that they then decide to pay in pennies… Seriously?!
Side note to everyone: Christmas is the best time to get all your pennies changed up. It’s not embarrassing either because we’re all scrapping together all the money we’ve got.
Your boss at the Christmas office parties
Christmas parties are great! Everyone is celebrating, drinking and eating the festive period but it can be annoying when you have a deadline that you haven’t finished. Oh, or your boss is twerking in your face… Cute?
Different cultures in the Sainsbury’s advert
We LOVE that in the Sainsbury’s advert there were lots of different cultures. On the train, at work, in their homes. We appreciate that Sainsbury’s showed off the diversity in Great Britain.
James Cordon singing
We LOVE James Cordon especially his lovely, angelic voice singing The Greatest Gift For Christmas Is Me.
Sainsbury’s and Great Ormond Street
The advert is not only for Christmas but a great cause too; the campaign will raise funds for the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity and all the money raised will go towards providing accommodation for families of children at the hospital.
The Christmas spirit
One of the main things we noticed is that the focus is not on presents but the family spending time together. We also found it cute that when the dad Dave returned home after a stressful day he saw that his children had made a gingerbread man that looked exactly like him.
Family spending time together
Towards the end of the advert we saw the whole family – including the nan - playing the games console. How lovely!
We hope we have a Christmas as special as there’s (minus the stress).
Did you enjoy the Sainsbury's advert?
What was your favourite bit?
Let us know on Facebook or Twitter (@CloserOnline).
From 21st November, Sainsbury's customers can make a 20p donation at the till with all the proceeds going straight to the charity.